(2024) Oil on Unstretched Canvas | 54x85 inches - SOLD - In Collection of Dio Sumagaysay

Dreamers is my first oil painting as well as my very first ever started in-studio painting started way back in 2016 and finally completed in 2024. This was the first painting I ever spent a lot of time on after taking a ten year hiatus from my earlier paintings I made in my early 20s. I started this one on a large piece of wood I found behind a Les Schwab and put it on my skateboard and hauled it all the way back to my apartment so I could paint on it. After starting the basic of it in acrylic even though I had no idea what I was doing I eventually had to move out of my apartment and painted over it and threw the wood away. I then tried to repaint it on another piece of masonite I found but also threw it away. It wasn’t until I moved to Boise, Idaho to take a break from Portland and have a fresh start did I finally restart it on canvas. Without distractions, I now had time to really put the time into it and figure it out. In the middle of this, I had the idea for my first completed painting; “St. Alice of Portland”. I worked on that one for a year, essentially really learning how to paint, on my own time and completed that one first instead, and it immediately sold to a collector. The same collector who bought Dreamers.
It wasn’t until 2023 when I had my first legit art studio in Portland, Oregon did I have the space, time and money to start experimenting and learning how to paint with oils which I completely fell in love with. It was after I finished my third acrylic painting; “Moments”, did I think back on this piece, my first painting rolled up in the corner of the studio, and how I could finally finish it how I always wanted to in oils! I am so happy with the results and was just completely in the flow state the entire time painting this. It took me about eight months of work to complete. It was so much fun! I finally felt like I found what I truly want to do forever. To paint in oils!

This painting like all my paintings is full of allegories and symbolism, including homage to some of my favorite things like, Lord of The Rings and Alice In Wonderland. This piece represents a world within a world and a place where dreams are created. A moment of questioning wether reality is real or just a dream. Are we dreaming our reality? Are we really asleep right now? I wanted to paint a piece that captured a magical dreamy daydream mood that questions this reality. I wanted the piece to have a lot of rich depth and detail and I was able to accomplish all of this and more by using oil paint. I always knew in painting a grandiose dreamy fantasy-like painting that this would only be possible with oils.

““Dreamers” by Chris Bigalke is fiercely magical!” - Beautiful Bizarre Magazine