Category: Murals

What an incredibly clear and beautiful day! Truly fantastic – February is my favorite month. Too bad it doesn’t have 31 days, and August only 28.  It was not a day of tremendous progress. Betsy helped me figure out that I am slowing myself down by using the photographs to do the first layer of mountain tops. I should be using the photos of the maquettes (model paintings) because they are much simpler than the photos of the mountains.  All the decisions about how many patches of snow have already been made. Duh. I’m the one who made those decisions and already figured out how difficult it is to paint directly from the photos. (Is this fuzzy thinking a result of bashing my head on one of the tail ends of the scaffolding boards on Saturday??)You may not be able to tell, but I removed the halo from Banjo Guy.Because of camera distortion, it appears as if I am over halfway down the wall on the mountain tops. I can assure you that I am not halfway yet – you can see a bit of a seam just beyond where I stopped today – that is half! (see? cameras DO lie!!) 

Today I did not paint in Exeter because it was raining. I also did not paint in my studio because it was too dark to see! However, my friend and ‘puter guru Barbara took these wonderful photos on Sunday.This was Ashley’s other paint-by-number accomplishment. See the little guy with the banjo? It got a little silly the night we were projecting on the wall!Barbara’s camera has a wider angle lens than mine – here you can see most of the mural, but it still doesn’t show the far right with the MK Store and P.O. This thing is So Very Big. Yes, I know I keep saying that! 

This was quite a productive day as you can see by all the photos. (And I could see Sawtooth from It while I was painting Sawtooth!) First, after retrieving my wagon, mixing my paints and moving It, I have to climb It.  My niece documented the ascent so that Neighbor Bob can see how it is done. (see those built-in ladders?) Now, for the day’s work: Ashley helped block in color using a paint-by-number system. I mixed three shades of brown, assigned each a number and then wrote the numbers on the wall on some of the lower parts. She was great – even mixed more color herself when she ran out!  You can see that I finished Empire, Sawtooth and all the way through the top of Mineral Peak. Ashley did the bottom part of another “postcard” but it photographed weird. This Tom Sawyer way of getting more work done is great!

Today I learned that the reason you shouldn’t paint in the rain is because every drop of rain that hits your paint will show! Good thing I plan on repainting the sky.  Michael insisted that I look into getting a lift to work on the sky, and perhaps the entire mural.  I told him I was having so much fun climbing the scaffolding that I hated to give it up. He offered to build me a jungle gym in the yard. . .  So my Exeter/cabin friends (see? Mineral King-Exeter connection!) Jay and Keith gathered the information for me and a lift is scheduled for the week after next. Thanks, you two! 😎 Meanwhile, the scaffolding is good for the upper mountains. They have enough detail that I only have to move It (from now on I will refer to the scaffolding as It) once during a day’s work. What got finished today looks miniscule compared to the entire project, but I think it is about 10′ x 3′, which is a mighty large painting for someone who is accustomed to painting 10″ x 8″! These are the somewhat improvised mountains – mostly accurate, but slightly stretched to fill the unexpected 9′ that was left over when we ran out of mural on Projection Night. Tomorrow rain is expected, but if I paint, It will be scooted back so you can see the day’s work without It covering Sawtooth.  

It was rainy this a.m. but I decided it was just bluffing so I went down the hill to paint. The sky has been waking me up in the middle of the night, so I just HAD to start on it today!This stretch is the first length of the scaffolding. I must have climbed up and down about 20 – 30 times today (been eating bananas hoping the monkey effect will kick in!). It is a bugger to move – Curtis from a couple of doors down helped me out quite a bit today. And there was that one time when the wheel went between the curb and the board – it caused an emergency phone call to Rising Sun Construction. William came with a shovel and leveled out the rest of the boards, minus the end which will have to be dealt with tomorrow.  I bet you are wondering what that little blur is on the bottom left corner. It is the signatures of those who helped with the projection:I worked all a.m. and still didn’t cover half the sky. This was with a giant brush, bought this morning just for the sky. “Giant” is a relative term – nothing is “giant” compared with this wall! Here are the final photos for the day:The blue doesn’t quite match real sky, although it does match the model painting. It may get adjusted on the second coat. See how the curbing drops at the front end? Curtis and I moved the scaffolding as far forward as possible, but I couldn’t reach the top even on my tip-toes and leaning out (don’t tell my mom I did this!) The climbing is getting easier, but I’m thinking a lift or cherry-picker might be necessary to get the sky to blend all the way across. It is a little tough to match when it takes so long to move the scaffolding from patch to patch. More will be revealed.   And it only rained a little – no big deal!        

Notice the railings on the top level! I can now begin on the sky without wondering if I will go splat! on the ground or get hung up between the scaffolding and the wall.  THANK YOU to Rising Sun Construction!! Michael leveled boards along the wall in the planting bed (actually it seems to be more of a cat box than a planting bed. . .) so that the scaffolding can be rolled along as I work the sky. THANKS, Dear Husband!  He also brought my little red wagon so that I can haul my supplies into The Downtown Gallery for storage at the end of each day. THANK YOU Cousin Chris!  Here is the day’s progress. Doesn’t look like a whole lot yet, but it is way way way larger than any canvas I have ever painted. (I’m talking about just this scene being larger, not even thinking of the entire wall because it might cause a tic under my left eye to think about the whole thing.) Next: draw the missing info on the 9 empty feet on the left, begin the sky, and then decide if I finalize the old store/post office now or leave it for another time! A couple of more thanks: THANKS to Trudy S for the coffee and cookie! THANKS to Curtis and to Larry and Dora for the facilities! THANKS to Sharon for stopping by with her mom!  

The scaffolding is really really high and can’t get moved closer to the wall yet,  and we have to figure out how to fill the blank 9 feet on the left end. See what I mean?  So when you can’t do a thing the way you had planned, you make a new plan! (Well, I do, anyway!) So today I practiced moving the scaffolding, climbed up and down a few times (but not to the top – there’s nothing to hold onto up there so I have to ease into this!), and tinkered around with some ideas for that space. Then I decided to do a little painting to get the feel of the plastered surface.  This is really big in real life, but not so big compared to the wall. People stopped by the whole time to say hi, offer the use of their adjacent businesses for breaks or storing stuff, offer encouragement and ask questions. Sometimes they would say “That is the biggest mural yet!” I’d have to tell them not to say that outloud or I might get scared. Right now I am just amped up!!  See how small today’s work is in comparison with the wall??It was really hot working there today! Really really hot! Now that’s incentive to get ‘er dun before summer comes!