KINGPIN : the lincoln hotel project

very large black velvet painting commissioned by the lincoln hotel

kingpin : dogs playing poker : inviting you to his table in the biddeford catacombs

36in x 48in oil on black velvet
fall 2022
gil corral

the lincoln hotel is a boutique hotel in downtown biddeford, maine. a renovated industrial mill - the hotel holds batson river brew pub as it’s inhouse restaurant. the painting is a nod to the history of the old mill, the catacombs that run under the mill, and the batson river brewing love of our canine companions.

boy from michigan via biddeford

gil corral - painting john grant on black velvet, summer 2020. photo by lauryn sophia

last spring. spring of 2020, we had a really wonderful series of phone calls and texts with artist/musician john grant. we talked about black velvet paintings of course, and also growing up the midwest (coco’s formative years were in iowa and indiana), growing up an outsider, growing up going to state fairs and other common experiences we shared. within all of that he shared his vision for the album he was working on and the album cover art that he just knew gil would be the one who could do it with the quality he desired. the result of all of this is not only four pieces of super beautiful, rich, FULL of feeling velvets on one super incredible musical oeuvre d’art, but a warm friendship to boot.

the album releases june 25! can’t wait to get our hands of a physical copy. check out some of what john and his record label did with the images and packaging and all of it, i won’t even try to describe - truly a picture/black velvet painting is worth a thousand words….!

oh and last august, when the lauryn sophia of decor maine magazine was here at the hogfarm taking photos for the upcoming article, gil was working on the finishing touches of john - you can see it in the article - and i’ll add more behind the scene peeks here:

at gil’s easel - in biddeford maine, right before sending them to reykjavik iceland

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gil corral - painting john grant on black velvet, summer 2020. photo by lauryn sophia

finally . fotos

one of my all time favorite pieces by Gil Corral - which is saying a lot .

El Paso : The Pass . The Pass from Here to There. it is very very large and extremely glossy - with incredible details revealing themselves during time spent with it. it has proven almost impossible to photograph - that is until Michael Wilson came for a studio visit and towards the end of our session he asked if there was any work we struggled to document. 🏽why, yes, and how!

.we were introduced via the beautiful folks at Black Owned Maine - thank you, Rose and crew - it was such a fruitful and lovely session - could not be more THRILLED with this and all of the photos from his visit.

please read on this piece and the other work from this show in the artists statement here.