On Day Eleven, I arrived when the sun was bright on the wall. It was difficult painting. The worst part is that my brush dries when I step back to view my work or contemplate my next move. If I toss the brush in the water bucket, then it is too drippy to use again and takes awhile to shake out. If I don’t toss it in the bucket, it goes solid. (So get another brush! But if I did that each time I stepped back, it would take me an hour at the end of a painting session to wash them all.)

Everything has trade-offs. The good side of bright sun on the wall is that it makes for better photos.

A list of work remaining: too much blue sky needs branches, more ferns at the bottom, background behind the tree to the right of the arch, more white fir trees in the foreground (the little bluish tree to the right of the far left tree), one of those medium trees gets too narrow too fast at the top, and I could keep going, but it is time to paint.

Plenty of detailing remains undone; I could work on perfecting things for days. Instead, I need to return to custom artwork with tight deadlines. St. Anthony’s Retreat is very flexible and have no deadline in mind for the mural.

This is the end of Day Eleven. I will spend some time studying the mural and then do my best to finish it in one more day of painting. “One more day”, not because anyone is pressuring me, but because I think the end is that close.

That probably means two more days. I want to keep drawing with my paintbrushes.