Mural Refresh Day 2

The weather continued to be cool, which allowed me to keep moving ahead on the water tank mural at the Tulare County fire station in Three Rivers.

On Day 1, I noticed goatheads because they came right through the bottom of my apparently worn-out Crocs.

On Day 2, I took a big sheet of cardboard to put beneath me on the ground. Good thing, because I sat and knelt to work on the flowers.

First, the right side before the sun got too intense.

You can see the tremendous degree of fading here, particularly in the poppies.
Poppies first.
I really like the color combination of poppies against the strong periwinkle blue, which has to be painted over with green.
Lots of time on the cardboard, working green around lupine and poppies. Although the lupine are almost still a good color, they needed another layer of paint.
Time to move to the left side, which was still shady.
I was on a schedule, so I just slammed out some green. The details will have to wait until another time. You can see that the lupine are almost the right color in their faded state.

On Day 3, I hope to finish detailing the flowers and grasses on the left side, and then spend time adding detail to the ridges of hills. The lake might be just fine as is. 

Refresh

in 2009 I painted a mural on the water tank at the South Fork fire station. This is Tulare County Station 14 in Three Rivers.

I mixed the colors using red, yellow and blue, plus white. About 2 years ago, the mural company stopped recommending that particular yellow for outdoor use. 

See why?

The yellow faded, turning everything that used to be green into varying shades of blue.
Oops, I think this green is too dark.
This is lighter, but I’ll have to try more areas first to know how things need to be.
Couldn’t resist trying that brilliant spring green. It really emphasizes the fadedness. (I know that isn’t a word, but I can’t think of the right one.)
I just started slapping various greens on in a somewhat random fashion so that I could compare the darknesses.
Now there is more to work with, so I can start making adjustments.
The blue ridge behind the farthest green needs to be a bit darker, but first I’ll finish the greens.

There – see the darker blue now? Colors are supposed to fade as they recede into the distance. That is part of what helps us know what we are seeing.

Now the sun is too high to continue.

When the sun shines directly on a mural, the paint dries too quickly on my palette and in my brushes and I can’t do my best work. So, this shall be continued. The grasses and flowers will take quite a bit of time, and the lake might need another coat. Then I’ll probably start drawing with my paintbrush, making up ridiculously detailed areas because that is the most fun part to me.

 

Finished and Finished

The green looks a bit uneven because it is wet. Those tiny white letters were challenging, nay, CHALLENGING!

The two sided A-frame mural (sign? what is this thing?) needed a few touch-ups.

 

In case you are wondering, yes, I can name all the flowers. They are all foothill flowers, not in my wildflower book Wildflowers of Mineral King: Common Names.

 

Other than getting the quail as close to reality as possible, this side was just lots of scribbling in brownish yellows and yellowish browns. 

Now what am I going to work on??

Side Two

I  was concentrating so intently on this side that I forgot to take photos until this stage. All that remains is studying it for awhile to see what needs to be refined.

Unacceptable Ugliness

While walking in my Three Rivers neighborhood one morning, I saw this bit of ugliness and got an idea. The neighbor, who has graciously allowed the water board to put this booster pump on his property, agreed with my idea.

What is this ugly thing in my neighborhood? Entirely unacceptable. However, it is fixable with the help of a very capable neighbor.
The very capable neighbor built and delivered this.

Side one.

It is fun to use all these colors. 

Side two and the final touch-up are ahead.

Refreshing a Sequoia Mural

In 2018 I refreshed a mural in Exeter because the greens had all faded to a blue or bluish gray or even lavender. As I was ordering the paints, the paint company said of the yellow, “We no longer recommend that yellow for outdoor use”.

That explains a lot of fading – the yellow was not lightfast, contrary to its rating. Green is made of blue and yellow, so when the yellow fades, only the blue remains.

My own Sequoia mural at home, painted in 2014, was very faded. It didn’t look awful to the average bear standing at the bottom of our driveway because the values (the darks and lights) were still believable. I like green to actually look green, so it was time to mix new green paints using the truly lightfast new yellow.

When I painted this originally, my neighbor Bob loved to check my progress daily and actually told me to slow down. I miss Bob. One of these ladders used to belong to him. 

I stood on the extension ladder and used Bob’s ladder as a platform while I first touched up the blue sky.

Then I started the greens. Pretty strong difference, eh?

This next photo looks awful, but murals aren’t meant to be viewed this closely. I am showing you so you can see the new green on top against the old green on the bottom.

Just the green and the sky has been refreshed, but it looked so good I decided the trees are fine as is.

Wild Goose Chase

Canada geese were everywhere in Mooney Grove Park while painting the murals on the Tulare County Museum. E V E R Y W H E R E.

Nope, not chasing the same wild goose and photographing him over and over. The man who knows the most about the park estimates there are about 300 Canada geese there, and there will be more since this is the season for nesting and mating.

Canada geese EVERYWHERE.

If you can’t beat ’em. . .

Tomorrow we will begin our tour of this wonderful park.

Mooney Museum Mural, Day 7B

Really it is Day 6B, but there was that careless numbering incident. Let’s not dwell on that. Instead, have a look at the finishing touches for Day 6, my final day on the mural on the Tulare County Museum in Mooney Grove Park, Visalia, California, the county seat of Tulare County, where I was born.

Shut up, Central California Artist, and just show us some pictures.

I painted the inner rim to match the wall color so it would be lighter in there. This scrub jay landed atop the circle. Obnoxious birds, but such a pretty color.

That’s not a real bird!

Okay, it didn’t land. It got painted on.

I signed it in two places. Never had to figure out how to do this before, because this is the first 4 part mural I’ve painted.

Here is the final look. I finished earlier than usual, so the light wasn’t that great for photography.

I’ll miss working here. The people are great, the museum is interesting, and the grounds are beautiful.

Tomorrow I will show you one more interesting thing about these murals. 

Thanks for following my mural project!

Mooney Museum Mural, Day 7A

Not really. It wasn’t Day 7; it was Day 6, but I seem to have trouble counting accurately on occasion. (You may have noticed that the mural saga jumped from Day #3 to Day #5.)

My goal on Day 7 (6) was to finish basket #2, along with some finishing touches to all the other murals.

This is the basket design I chose for the second circle.

This time I painted the inside rim in addition to the circle itself. I learned from the other one that there was no point to making it look as if it was in shadow, because it truly is in shadow, due to the rim.Next, I drew on some guidelines. This was easier than the first time. That’s how practice is supposed to work.

Here is a photo to help you see where basket #2 will go.
The paint colors were already mixed, so I was able to dive in.But wait, what is this??Sometimes I like to just have a little fun.

Allll-righty-then! Tomorrow I’ll show you the finishing touches. Stay tuned. 

Mooney Museum Mural, Day 6B

The first thing I did on Day #6 (after admiring the view, thinking, peeling the old paint off my palette) was to realize that in order to move ahead on the first basket in the circle, it needed a base coat of paint so it could dry so I could draw on it so I could paint the design.

That was an action packed sentence. It was an action-packed day.

Yokuts were known for their baskets, and this museum is known for them too.

I went inside to mix an appropriate and believable main basket color.

Got it – let’s go!

Oh boy. That is one rough surface.

Next, I drew on the guidelines with blue chalk. (They don’t show much in this photo.)

After the base coat of basket color was on, and the lines were drawn, I did all the things I showed you on Day 6A.

Then, it was time to stop for lunch. It is hard to stop, but I’ve found that if I don’t stop for at least 15 minutes, I get confused, indecisive, and a little bit stupid after about 6 hours of painting.Okay, that’s a long enough break, Central California Artist. Get back to work.

I mixed up a very dark brown and a lighter reddish brown to duplicate the other colors in the basket. Then I just dove in.

On mural painting Day #7, I’ll tighten up the triangles and try to put in a hint of basket coils. A paintbrush is NOT a pencil and acrylic paints are NOT oils. Instead of looking like a basket as I had hoped, it is simply a depiction of a Yokuts basket design.

AND, I hope to mix up a color like the original wall color to paint the inner part of the circle.

The end of Day 6. Stay tuned.

(And if you know my Sandy Eggo sister, wish her a happy birthday today. She doesn’t read my blog, so no need for me to say anything to her here.)