Holy cow. 10 hours on Day #3, and still not finished! This thing is growing. (Thing? this painting in church!)

When people stop by, I ask them for their honest opinions. Because we are all co-religionists (a weird word my Dad used to say just to get a laugh), we are fairly straight-forward with one another. Or maybe that is because there is a level of trust that goes with sharing faith, and it brings honesty.

ANYWAY, as I was saying, I ask people for their opinions and I receive help!

One Steve pointed out the white board that is in front of the baptistry was a distraction (a baptistry is a bathtub thing for dunking people, kind of a focal point in a Baptist church in spite of having a river across the street. . . weird, but no one asked my opinion). I hadn’t noticed it at all. . . too busy painting.

Steve #1 was entirely correct. So, I painted the board.

Another Steve called with an idea for the right side of the mural. It was a puzzle to me, so, like yesterday, I prayed. I got an idea, and then Steve #2 called me because he had the same idea. Of course he did! 😎

The idea: a downed log lying in the meadow.

My friend Emily stopped by. I did sort of a Tom Sawyer thing and got her to help me paint. She is working on her master’s degree kinesiology, but was willing to stoop, literally, because it was floor level, to manual labor.

She helped me resize the boulders, which were visually diminishing the Sequoia tree. They looked good, but I guess they were just practice boulders.

Left side, see green board? Smaller boulders and more grass.

Right side – downed tree, trees on the ridge and behind the meadow, detail at the back of the meadow, lots of grass, the beginnings of the trees that will border the right edge.

One more day. I’m giving this thing one more day. Whoa – 4 days of painting in church! When I started, I expected it to be 2 days, because the request was just for a couple of Sequoia trees. We thought it through and realized that would look staged and like a couple of decals, so it need a little background. But, one thing led to another and another and another. . . one more day only! Do you hear me, Mural??