Category: Murals

Rocky Hill Antiques Mural, Chapter 4

A few weeks ago, Pastor Alex preached about complaining. It is a sin. Really? Really. The opposite of complaining is gratitude.

So, instead of telling you how difficult it is to paint this mural on Rocky Hill Antiques, I will give you a short list of things I am thankful for as I work in what are possibly the most difficult and uncomfortable circumstances yet for mural painting.

1. earplugs!

2. shade

3. accurate projection

4. Funny songs by Kathryn, who has a song for everything. When we were projecting she was singing “I’m An Indian Outlaw”, and then she moved on to “Stairway to Heaven”.

5. Ice water

6. Being able to spike a brush from 10 feet up a ladder into a bucket of water on the ground below.

When my drawing students work on a person or an animal, I usually suggest that they tackle the face first.

I usually work just from the primary colors. The yellow is the only one here that fits that description, because these are from previous mixing sessions. The tan has the mysterious name of #1 on its lid. The brown is actually burnt umber, from when I did sepia tone insets into previous murals.

Who knew that this reproduction of a painting from a bronze sculpture had so many colors? Wow, this looks rough. It is rough.

When the people working at Rocky Hill Antiques left for the day, I put the ladder away and worked on the ground. It was a relief to be able to step back and see my work and to be able to reach all my supplies.

This is how we left our Indian Outlaw when I moved to ground level.

It is photographing darker and not as yellow as real life. When the blue paint arrives, I will mix a lighter batch and redo all the blue. Maybe.

Rocky Hill Mural, Chapter 3

Wow, nothing like a little commute down the hill to remind me why it is REALLY GOOD to work at home. Roadwork delay, long line of traffic with slowpokes (40-ish) until the passing lanes (up to 60+), finally see clear to pass at another passing lane, and the slowpoke pulls into the left (passing) lane to block anyone from going around!

When I arrived at Rocky Hill Antiques, there wasn’t quite enough shade yet. I knew it would take about 1/2 hour to set up, so I really did arrive at the right time.

The tape was flapping in the wind. I wonder why it wouldn’t stick. . . isn’t blue masking tape was supposed to be the best?

It was hot, dusty, noisy, windy, and I was wondering why I thought it is fun to paint murals.

After fighting the tape a bit, I pulled out an old very sticky roll of normal masking tape. It was so sticky that it was hard to pull off without tearing. I remembered that the superiority of the blue tape is that it doesn’t remove the surface on the wall. I looked at the crummy old paint on the crummy old bricks and the crummy cracking mortar, and decided old masking tape was just what the situation calls for. I retaped off a little area and decided i’d just do a little paint mixing.

That’s when I remembered why I think it is fun to paint murals. The main color in this old Rocky Hill Farming packing box label is BLUE. I love blue! I mixed it up and got the right color, I thought. Then I decided it needed to be ever so slightly lighter, because this acrylic paint dries DARKER. Can you believe that? It really does dry darker!

It really looks dark here. I painted until I ran out of blue, then went into Rocky Hill Antiques to ask if they have the internet so I could look up the number of the paint company. No internet! I’ll order it tomorrow – it comes from NovaColor in Culver City, which is LA, so it won’t take long to arrive.

Then I started messing around with the colored base of the statue. That will be fun – lots of interesting colors to mix in that thing. I think it is supposed to be a painting of a bronze statue.

Exeter California murals Exeter murals mural Rocky Hill Antiques

Rocky Hill Mural, Chapter 2

We projected and traced on a Sunday night.

On Monday during the daylight, I went back to see our work, and to determine when the wall is in enough shade for me to paint.

That is barely visible!! No worries, it shows better in person. See the cracks climbing in the bricks? Kathryn, one of the friends who helped me trace, has a song for every subject. She said, “Look – there’s a Stairway To Heaven.”

This is all the shade there is at 1 p.m. I left to work on something else and give the sun more time to move. When I’ve painted in full sun, I get hot and dizzy. Dizzy is bad on a ladder. The sun makes the paint on my palette and on my brushes dry faster than I can get them on the wall. It’s miserable, both for me and for the mural.

Okay, 2 p.m. has enough shade. Rocky Hill Antiques is open from 10-5 every single day of the week. This mural will entail a lot of driving if I can only fit in 3 hours of painting a day. So be it.

I bought one of those chalked up string things and snapped a line, which I then taped. The blue of the chalk is beautiful! And I love the blue tape on the yellow wall. (Written like a true color junkie. . .)

Wow. 1-1/2 hours to do this? And the tape isn’t sticking very well. I hope it is there when I return in 2 days! If not, I hope the chalk line is still visible.

Extra facts:

1. Should have been lifting weights in preparation for this mural – that extension ladder is heavy and unwieldy.

2. Someone named Kimberly stopped by and said, “I hope they get that done soon.” I said, ” ‘They’ is me.” She went all excited and pleased-to-meet-you and oh-wow on me. I said, “Kimberly, I’m no one. Just stop by any time to say hi and see how it is going.”

3. Why do people think that artists are Some One? She was certainly driving a better car than mine! (Maybe it wasn’t paid for. . .)

4. There was a SNAIL attached to the top of the wall. Why???

5. It was windy and a mini tornado went swirling right along the wall.

6. It is very very trafficky along Spruce. This mural will be a noisy situation.

7. Rocky Hill Antiques is a busy store.

8. My elementary school principal was there because he sells antiques. He asked where my talent was back at Ivanhoe Elementary. I told him that Tom Stroben taught me to draw in 6th grade. That pleased him and it pleases me that I don’t think he is scary any more. (Mr. Marusich looks like Mr. Fredrickson in the movie Up.)

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Projecting a New Mural

Sunday evening I went down to Exeter with my neighbor and friend, Steve who is one of the owners of Rocky Hill Antiques.

This is a great big wonderful antique store, open 7 days a week, in an old packing house with 40 vendors. Very good place to shop. (This mural could get to be an expensive venture if I don’t focus on painting and stay out of the store!)

This will not be an official Exeter Mural since it is outside of the designated mural district, so we skipped several steps such as painting the maquette, plastering the wall, getting all the appropriate approvals.

My friends Jacquelyn, Kathryn and Louise showed up to learn, help and provide moral support.

First, Steve and I established the borders of the mural, centered on this wall. The Captain Obvious sign about Parking is going to disappear, even though it is not in the way.

Louise is figuring out how to get the projection to be vertical. There is a ton of distortion if the overhead projector isn’t centered on the wall. The plan was to do the left side first, and then the right side, because my transparency was bigger than the projector screen.

JKL were tremendously helpful. I felt a little bit like Tom Sawyer, getting everyone else to do my work. However, I did have to keep replacing worn out magic markers.

The lettering has me a teensy bit worried. I don’t know how professional sign painters get everything so perfectly lined up!

The bugs were going crazy on the projector screen, but we didn’t trace them. It is tricky to not be in your own way while tracing, but we were flexible. I only faked tracing on the back of Louise’s leg – kept the cap on my marker. 😎

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Another Mural in the Works?

I might have another mural coming. Possibly possible. Right now it is in the conversation stage. I’ve taken photos, looked through the customer’s photos, and figured out a way to show them how a mural might possibly look.

All my artwork begins with conversations. But, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I’ll be quiet now and let the photos speak. It is possible.

I hope a painting isn’t a disappointment after the brilliance and perfection of seeing photos there!

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Sequoia Mural Complete

Doesn’t that sound like a terse newspaper heading?

The Sequoia tree mural of a section of the Parker Group on one of my ridgey garage doors is now completed. Maybe. I signed it, but when I live with a piece of art, little corrections ask to be made. So, is it finished?

I spent 18 hours painting this in about 7 different sessions, the longest of which was 4 hours. Of course, I might keep fiddling with it, so there may be more.

If a customer wanted this exact mural on this exact surface and this exact size and I didn’t have to drive more than 1 mile to paint it (definitely rounding up because I drove no where to paint this), I’d charge $700.

I knew you were dying to ask, but there is this weirdness about art prices. . . the old “If you have to ask, you probably can’t afford it.”

No worries. The truth is what is spoken and written here and no one has any reason for embarrassment when he doesn’t know something. This California artist who paints Sequoia trees just wants to help you.

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Tiny Change

When I am painting a mural, every time I look at it I see things to fix, change or improve. When I live by the mural, this can add up to a lot of looking, fixing, changing and improving.

The change I made was that the sunshine behind the big trees was so light that it looked like snow. I changed the color from Brightly Lit Dirt to Less Brightly Lit Dirt. Hmmm, do you think that is a real paint color? It is in my studio, and shouldn’t be confused with the color Trail Dirt, which I ran out of or perhaps used as a base for Medium Redwood.

Can you tell the difference? Not sure I can either, but we’d certainly know if the light was too bright behind the tree. We are all fairly skilled at noticing what is wrong in the midst of lots of rightness. Think about a perfectly vacuumed floor with an orange peel on it. You’d certainly notice the orange peel before the vacuum tracks! So, that too bright paint was sort of like an orange peel.

Never mind. I might be a little low on sleep or something.

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You May Slow Your Horse Down Now

For awhile, I’ve been advising you to view my Sequoia mural from the back of a fast horse, preferably at a distance. I’m beginning to think that it might be okay to slow your horse down now, but distance is still an advantage for best viewing.

Getting better with each session. This is the result of 15 hours up and down a ladder. You’d think I’d be quite fit by now. Have another think. . .

The ridges aren’t quite as visible in this photo.

I have a few decisions to make about this project. . . add a human? Will she be the right height? Will the ridges and my inexperience painting humans make her look like a freak? What shall I do in the hard to figure out spaces behind the big trees? How will I put light on the ground behind the trees without it looking as if there is snow? How will I be sure that the traces of snow at the bases of the trees do look like snow? Does there even need to be snow?

That’s sort of overwhelming. I think I’ll just turn away from the mural and see the view behind me.

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More Sequoia Mural on a Ridgey Garage Door

This is the current level of the mural. More accurately, this is the current version that I have to share with you. Perhaps you live in my neighborhood and have driven by between the writing and the posting of this post. Then you, my neighbor, will know that the progress is even more progressive. That will be our little secret, okay Neighbors? 😎 And, you will know that the ridges show up much more distinctly in these photos than in person. Still best viewed from the back of a fast horse at a distance.