Tee hee, heard that phrase yesterday and decided to borrow it! Today I painted like a maniac, and now every one of the six panels has paint on it. Some of the earlier – HOLY GUACAMOLE, WHAT IS THIS???
This creature just sauntered past my window. Looks like a giant, scruffy, Perkins-and-Zeke-eating cannibalistic feline! Guess I’ll have to tell you about “cooking” on the mural some other time!
Wow, this was a learning experience once again! A day in the studio, a day of appointments and errands, a morning of errands, and poof. I looked at the mural and worked on my book. (More on that subject will be revealed in the fullness of time.) I looked at the mural and returned some phone calls. I looked at the mural and worked on an oil painting. I looked at the mural and just sat there with Zeke. I looked at the mural and thought. Good grief, what is going on here?? Finally, I made a decision to detail the rocks, because what I REALLY wanted to do was go into the studio and draw. Once I got started, I realized the light was getting a little low. Nope, this would not become another excuse, so I pressed on. Then I realized that I was missing music! My neighbor needed her boom box back, so I very guiltily carried it back over. This leaves me with an AM radio that buzzes and fuzzes. Is music that important of a motivator or is lack of it just another excuse? But here is an improvement: I set it all up again, this time in a stable position where the 2 current panels are actually touching. Why it took me so long to figure this out causes me to wonder if I am slightly simple or mentally impaired. Never mind, here, just look at the mural:
It only appears as if the panel on the left doesn’t match the ones on the right because it is sitting behind the 2 that are on the right. You can also sort of see my sketch and a few of my zillions of reference photos on the floor.
If you are a woman born in the late 50s or early 60s, you might remember Liddle Kiddles. Very cute little dolls, maybe 3″ high, with goofy names, these toys appealed to girls like me who weren’t really into dolls. My favorite was a little cowgirl named Calamity Jiddle. Today, I am Calamity Jiddle. I was walking back to the house for something and I heard a terrible noise. I kept walking. (Brings to mind the time I was driving to work and heard a terrible noise so I turned up the stereo and kept driving. I wrecked the tire, but not the rim.) After girding the loins of my courage, I resolutely walked back to the workshop. My mural, panels #3 and #4, were on the floor. So was the ladder and the supporting screens and all the paint bowls and palette. I picked it all up, piece by piece, and the panels are okay. I set it all back up, but a little differently. (One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. I have a tendency to ignore bad things, but I am not insane. Yet.) There are no photos. It was too ugly. There is no chocolate in the house, I don’t drink, and I am too paint splattered to go to the yarn store. I might just go lie down. Perhaps the fetal position with my thumb in my mouth. Maybe even under the bed. When I have gathered myself together again, I will have to buy another ladder. (no photos of that either – it too is ugly).
Today we did another redesign. This thing is evolving, changing daily, teaching me new lessons daily, challenging me, confounding me even! Brings to mind my Mom saying “Confound it!” This wasn’t a good thing, but now I am finding the definition to mean surprise or confuse, act against expectations, even can mean to defeat. And, the final usage is considered “dated” – to express anger or annoyance! Here are today’s lessons: 1. Wear Teva sandals when you paint. This is so that you can go outside and hose off your feet when you drop the palette on them. 2. Those little sponge “brushes” have a life span of about 8 minutes. 3. New brushes are FANTASTIC to use! 4. When you wipe a wet paintbrush on your clothing, the paint soaks through to your skin.
1. Did you know that sometimes the bristles of brushes come out in big chunks? yep. 2. Did you know that if you bang on a paint lid with a hammer to loosen it, sometimes it breaks? sure enough. 3. Did you know that even when you have done all the preliminary sketches, drawn your plan to scale and had it approved, that a better idea (or six) will emerge? 4. Did you know that it is very very very challenging to paint a scene for which no photograph exists? oh yeah. Definitely challenging. 5. How about this: you probably know that acrylic paints dry very fast. But did you know that when they are too dry to blend, and dry to the touch, and for all intents and purposes just plain dry that those giant clothespin-type clamps will not only stick, but REMOVE the paint??? I hate that.
You can see that panel #1 is finished (maybe) and leaning back behind #2. Panel #2 now has a small lake or pond and some rocks. Panel #3 is beginning to take shape. More will continue to be revealed!
A bit more about the mural: it will be on 6 panels, and they will be mounted to a wall inside a case. The point is to be a backdrop to a display about how the mountains affect life here in Tulare County. So, I soldier on. . .
One more thing: look at the panel in the door on the far wall here:
Blank canvases everywhere I look! How will I ever get my real work done if I keep decorating my work space? The answer is it’s all practice; it’s all good!
The saga continues. . .
Okay, here is something so you won’t have to learn the hard way. When you keep your palette on top of a ladder like this,
don’t move the ladder!!
Bummer. That was a waste of paint and time. Might have to sand the floor when i am finished with this job. Should have figured that into the bid!
Here is the real reason I didn’t take my paints to the Land of No Electricity, the reason I wanted to try a “real” vacation: it is because I had my first mural commission awaiting my return! Yeppers, after my practice-for-free murals, someone is actually PAYING ME MONEY to paint a mural!! This means that I had to have a swamp cooler installed in my painting space, and wow, what a wonderful invention! Yesterday, after a fair amount of necessary tasks procrastination, postponement and excuses, I began the mural. (Deanne, the shelves on the left contain a large roll of craft paper and lots of Michael’s stuff; the shelves on the right contain my notecards, envelopes, and packaging materials, along with a box of styrofoam cups and another of old accounting paperwork. Also, no hoops will be shot during this painting project!)
As with all of life, more will be revealed in the fullness of time. Stay tuned!
Today I finished the job of flowering up S’s dining room. It surprised me to spend another 8 hours on it today. . . don’t know why I was surprised, because there are 26′ of morning glories! There is also the inevitable dinking around at the end that I have learned (the hard way) is Very Important. So often I am operating in the Get-er-dun mode; this means I sign it, pack it up and go! Then, I look at it later and say “Oh. Oooops!” (I confess that sometimes I have been known to say something worse than ooops.)
This time, S was home all afternoon, and we had such a good time hanging around together. She enjoyed watching the final part of the process. I think she was also glad that I was the one up and down the ladder rather than her!
This was a great learning experience, and I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to create a little more beauty in S’s life. Her home is so very beautiful that I had to adopt a mantra – Thou Shalt Not Covet – and repeat it from time to time.
