Monday was a short afternoon because the snowy sequoia oil painting needed more time, longer than just the morning. It has a deadline; this mural doesn’t.
If you scroll back up to the first photo, you can see that the trees are better.
I had to write that so I felt better about a short painting session – there is improvement and progress.
First, I photographed the mural to stall while I decided where to begin.
Sky. Sky is a good starting place. Three men brought me a 6′ ladder (how many men does it take to deliver a ladder? Apparently, three!) This made it easier to work on the 8′ ladder, so the 6′ could act as a platform for my things. I also decided to go over the archway with the sky. I can always paint over it if it ends up not looking right. That fact always gives me confidence to dive in when I am unsure.
The background needed something. The original reference photo is sort of misty, foggy, or maybe smoky looking. Smoke is not welcome around here. I’m altering things enough from the photo that I don’t think duplicating the photo’s murky background will work. Enlarging murkiness results in large puzzling areas. Or maybe it doesn’t, but as the Art Empress of Realville, it goes against my grain to put nonspecific patches of unrealistic color in realistic paintings. 
I ran out of daylight.Maybe I’ll come up with a new plan tomorrow.
These two areas needed work. The entire mural needed work, but I chose these areas to begin the day’s painting session.
So, I worked on them.
Suddenly it was cold and getting dark. A few days ago, Trail Guy stopped by and asked if I needed anything. I said, “Faster paintbrushes”. I must be having fun, because time flies while I paint this.
What a beautiful place to work!
On Day One, it was hot out. I wore shorts and painted in the shade. On Day Three, I wrapped it up early because of the icy wind that was whipping around, flapping the drop cloth, making my hand shake from the shivers. Weather Whiplash.
Who is Bob? Some people say, “. . . and Bob’s your uncle” to mean that something has been accomplished.
I don’t know who this Bob is, but today Kurt the Mailman stopped by to see the mural. Why does Kurt the Mailman care? He is a fabulous photographer and gave me a disk of his photos a number of years ago, along with his permission and blessing to use any for painting references. This mural is from one of Kurt the Mailman’s photographs! (I’m using quite a bit of artistic license, along with other photos for different details).
Trail Guy stopped by to check on my progress and suggested that I place my bucket under the drip to see how much is coming off that pipe in 24 hours. Well, 20 hours, because I have been working about 4 hours a day. It started sort of hot again in the sun yesterday and by the end of the session, I put my ragged flannel paint rag on. (It’s an old shirt, one that belongs in a rag bag except that I need it.)
I wonder if puffy white clouds would look good on this wall. Those unpainted spaces could become clouds.
More will be revealed as more is covered.
This wall is at the Santa Teresita Youth Center at St. Anthony’s Retreat in Three Rivers. Instead of showing you what I plan to paint, I will simply show you each day’s progress.
My plan is to paint 3 afternoons a week – afternoons because I have to wait for shade to reach the wall, and 3 because I have standing appointments on 2 of the 5 week days. I could work on Saturdays too, but there might be gatherings at “STYC” (that’s how I’ll abbreviate it in future posts) and I try to not work on weekends unless the customer has a deadline (or I am fighting weather deadlines).
Let’s roll!
Thing One: the A-frame is now in place. I stopped driving by the pump like some weird stalker, and just waited. Eventually, a neighbor left a nice message on the phone saying how good the sign looked, and was it my work?
So, I walked that direction the next morning.
Hey! What’s that??
The dry season is to the front.
Spring is to the rear. I wonder, will it get rotated next year?
The A-frame is in place.
Thing Two: I mailed the Coat of Arms on a Monday and was told the expected arrival was Thursday. It was received on Tuesday!
Now what’s next??
At the end of Day 3 on the South Fork fire station in Three Rivers, I left thinking “oh, them barren heels.”
Excuse me??
When I was a kid, a couple of Mom’s Alabama cousins stopped by to visit us on their first trip to California. One of them kept saying, “Them barren heels!” Translation: compared to the hills of Alabama, our hills looked bare to her.
On Day 4, I fixed them barren heels.
Let’s have a little review:
Next, I’ll need to stop by in the afternoon light to take a better photo of the mural.
Thank you for following along as I turned the faded tank mural back into one that makes drivers on South Fork Road smile.