Category: Murals

Remember overhead projectors? That is the device we hope to use to project the image on the wall. I spent 4-1/2 hours tracing the model painting of the mural onto a roll of tissue paper (the kind called “flimsy” by architects). Today I found back-up bulbs for the projector, bought a couple of boxes of magic markers, and had my tracing converted to a series of 10 transparencies. The projection takes place after dark with lots of people manning Magic Markers. The process ensures that the mural will match the model painting that has been approved. The model painting is called a “maquette”, which actually means a 3 dimensional model, but we don’t have an adequate word for a 2 dimensional model. The Mural Team requires an accurate to-scale painting before giving the go-ahead to an artist, and the artist is supposed to follow that maquette to a tee!   On my previous murals, I simply drew a small to-scale sketch and then marked off the centers of the painting surface and began drawing with my paintbrush. I thought 80″ x 80″ was huge, and then the Seatrain (20′ x 8′) was stunning, and then I began the one on 6 4’x8′ panels and could hardly grasp the grandeur of it all. (Silly girl, Trix are for kids!) That one on panels was difficult because the design process hadn’t been fully solved before attempting the panels. The Mural Team of Exeter has much experience (2 dozen or so murals since 1996) and knows that the design process has to be completed and adhered to in order to have any sort of control over their outdoor gallery. I fully agree with this because I was the President of the Mural Team when we put these rules into place!! 😎

Look at this!!! Holy Guacamole!   

LJ and I arrived in Mooney Grove (thought it was Mooney’s Grove but learned differently today) to find the mural leaning inside the case. This first photo was taken before we got there and shows a bit of how the case looked Before Mural.  

 

Shaun and I began to put it in place, a more complicated and delicate operation than I had imagined.   

 

This is not a photo of me hugging the mural. It is me banging my head on the last piece when I realized it was THE WRONG SIZE and it WOULD NOT FIT in the case. But I’m not one to panic. . .   Nope, not me. Shaun had a saw, and this time he did the measuring, not me, not the curator, not LJ. Shaun knows how to measure and he knows how to cut.   

 

“Bummer” – Did I hear someone say “Bummer”? I am a Glass-Half-Full kind of woman, and I say “No Problem!” Why? Because now the Tulare County Historical Society has a wonderful new painting to auction for its fundraiser! Okay, so it is a bit of an odd size, but don’t ask me what size it is, because I obviously cannot operate a tape measure!

 

  

 

And here it is, all together in one piece. (Sort of.)

 

 

 

 

In case you think I was just standing around snapping photos, nope! I hefted the panels to the man on the right for loading in the truck.

 

 

And there it goes. . .

 I wasn’t worried to see it loaded into the back of a truck – I was relieved that it is no longer my responsibility! You must admit my track record as a keeper of a mural is a little weak – letting it do a faceplant doesn’t really constitute good stewardship.  So, it will get installed, and then I will do some touch-up while it is firmly and permanently in place! 

Okay, so the too blue water was bugging me on the mural. This a.m. I studied and stared at photos of rivers trying to discern what was lacking in my river. It needed more colors and more ripples and textures. Every river looks different depending on the depth of the water and the time of day, so I had to go for generalities. However, this little session of river study did cause me to mix up paint and fiddle around again. Here are the results:

 

 Better, I think. And isn’t the rock on the right cool? Until you stand and stare at a rock (with your brains boiling), you just never realize the different colors and textures involved! Rocks are truly fascinating items!

 

And just in case you are interested, the river is NOT this blue in the real thing. Also, I only went 3.25 hours over my estimate! Not too bad. . . never mind about all the time spent searching for photos, because I didn’t know to include that in the bid. This was the hardest project I have ever attempted and completed for 3 reasons: Acrylic is not “my” medium; it is HUGE; there were no photos to explain perspective and proportion and color and season and light. But LJ and I are an amazing team – wow, congratulations, LJ!! Could not have done this without your incredibly able assistance!

 Another morning looking for photos, another redesign on panel #6 with LJ, more toning down of the river, but no brushes or palettes dropped today. I boiled my brains out standing outside observing lichen on rocks – that was fun! (the fact that it is outside my door, not the boiling brains part). Tomorrow I hope to finish the shrubs behind the foreground rocks, the trees on the yellowish hills, and the far right bottom corner. You know what goes there?? Ooh, that will definitely signal The End. Phew! 

The mural I am working on is a result of a friendship with a wonderful woman whom I shall refer to as LJ. It is her idea, her planning and her persuasive powers that landed me this job.   I love the way LJ and I work together. It is the strangest thing – she is a writer and yet she helps me paint (she helped me with the mural on my workshop doors and several other paintings). I am an artist and I have helped her write – go figure!

Because I am such a specific artist (if I can’t see it, I can’t draw it), the design is the hardest part of this painting. The difficulty here is that it is not supposed to contain identifiable landmarks, but instead is to be nonspecific and generic while still looking like Tulare County! LJ says it is like writing fiction based on fact, with the names changed to protect the innocent.  She comes over regularly to help me with the design. (THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU, DEAREST LJ!) Yesterday we made some very convincing mountains that are definitely the Sierra Nevada without actually being the Sierra Nevada (How’s that for Double-speak? I could run for public office!) and redesigned the last 2 panels yet again.

No, we didn’t redesign them to be confusing – they are out of order because I was hefting them around in order to – never mind. They are just out of order because that’s how the day ended!