Projecting a New Mural

Sunday evening I went down to Exeter with my neighbor and friend, Steve who is one of the owners of Rocky Hill Antiques.

This is a great big wonderful antique store, open 7 days a week, in an old packing house with 40 vendors. Very good place to shop. (This mural could get to be an expensive venture if I don’t focus on painting and stay out of the store!)

This will not be an official Exeter Mural since it is outside of the designated mural district, so we skipped several steps such as painting the maquette, plastering the wall, getting all the appropriate approvals.

My friends Jacquelyn, Kathryn and Louise showed up to learn, help and provide moral support.

First, Steve and I established the borders of the mural, centered on this wall. The Captain Obvious sign about Parking is going to disappear, even though it is not in the way.

Louise is figuring out how to get the projection to be vertical. There is a ton of distortion if the overhead projector isn’t centered on the wall. The plan was to do the left side first, and then the right side, because my transparency was bigger than the projector screen.

JKL were tremendously helpful. I felt a little bit like Tom Sawyer, getting everyone else to do my work. However, I did have to keep replacing worn out magic markers.

The lettering has me a teensy bit worried. I don’t know how professional sign painters get everything so perfectly lined up!

The bugs were going crazy on the projector screen, but we didn’t trace them. It is tricky to not be in your own way while tracing, but we were flexible. I only faked tracing on the back of Louise’s leg – kept the cap on my marker. 😎

Sequoia Mural Completed

(Happy Birthday, Younger Sister!)

Here is Three Rivers’ latest mural on the building that is to soon house Sequoia Outdoor Sports. Right now I am thinking YIPPEE SKIPPEE! I usually really like my murals when I see the photos at the end of the day. If not, I go back and paint some more. If I can’t find anything else to do, then I decide that the mural is finished.

As of 5 p.m. on Thursday, March 15, 2012, this Sequoia mural is completed.

I know, close the car door. Better yet, move the car! (Is it immature to like your car even when it is a ’96 Accord with many miles, scratches and a few rattles?)

On Monday, I will show you the oil painting from which this Sequoia mural was painted. Sort of. It inspired this mural. I will study the photos of it over the (hopefully rainy) weekend and decide if anything can be improved. It isn’t as if I can get into my Accord and leave the scene – Nope, I live in this town. and I want this to be the best possible. (Don’t worry, I felt the same about the Exeter murals even though I’ve never lived there.)

Five Items On A California Artist’s Brain

  1. Thank a Veteran today. (Thank you Bob J. and Happy Birthday, I can’t believe you will be 80!)
  2. Thank you, Laurie, for pointing out the booboo in the link under See My Work. Now, if you click on Exeter Murals, it takes you to a YouTube video about Exeter, including a talking chin. (weird view of me, good story of Exeter)
  3. Remember the show in Visalia today and tomorrow. See the entry on November 8 for the details.
  4. These paintings might be dry enough to bring to the show. If they are, they will be more detailed than in this photo.
  5. R.I.P. Bugsy, 1994-2011. I’m sorry for the time I folded you up in your bed like a taco and poured you into your kennel (but you had tried to take my hand off on a previous attempt.) I won’t miss your yipping, but you were awfully cute when you came over to my house to find your missing people. And your ears flapped in the most adorable way when you ran!

Third and Final Day

Isn’t that amazing??? I am amazed, stunned, and sort of relieved because it is so hot on that wall in the mornings.

This morning when I arrived at the wall, this was facing me:

Looked like a long day of crawling around on the ground. Bye-bye, little Lift friend. No more getting high for me on this job!

Mural painting involves relationships. Thank you, Betsy, for the step-ladder. Thank you, Larry & Dora for the loan of the ladder. Thank you Sylvia for that fantastic Dr Pepper, my first in 2 years, tasted like heaven. This little heart rock is for you:

It’s not perfect, but they never are in nature. Always fun to discover – hope you have fun finding it on this wall!

And thank you to Paula for the visit while I waited for the shade to cover the wall. (Found your home page – it will be a very thorough website when it is completed and just as lovely as your store!)

And thank you to Rocky Hill Ice Cream for being there while I waited for shade.

And this is for Rachelle:

I know, I know, just show us the finished painting!

The end.

Second Day

First, some observations about mural painting. This is a long one – might want to grab a snack first.

  1. Technology is very helpful. Today I studied some photos on my laptop, enlarged them vastly to really see what the lines in the juniper were actually doing. Cappella Coffee House is next door to the mural and has wi-fi, which enabled me to email some photos to another artist who needed to borrow them. And, my cell phone sort of works so I can take calls while painting (not as dangerous as taking calls while driving.) Plus, of course, my digital camera records all sorts of things to share with you all. Wow, all this from a self-proclaimed techno-avoider. . . !
  2. There will be discomfort while painting a mural. It could be heat, cold, bugs or wind.
  3. There will be deadlines – lift rental, hot weather on the way,  or an upcoming event. The pressure can either motivate an artist or freak her out.
  4. There will be hassles – the lift might not work or the scaffolding might not roll or the cell phone company might be having a bad day.
  5. There will be lots and lots of interaction with people – the mural team will offer encouragement and help, other artists will stop by to see how things are progressing, tour groups will come by, individuals will greet the artist as they pass to and from their cars and places of business, there will be occasional folks just touring the murals who have lots of questions. These are great marketing and public relations opportunities for Exeter, the mural project and my art business!
  6. I will spill paint on the ground, the lift and my clothing. Can’t be helped. Paint wants to be distributed – it is its nature.

Today it seemed like a good idea to take the lift to the very tippy-top of its capabilities. That’s 19′ in the air. It was fun! Now look at the rooftops, Rocky Hill and the rest:

Look at my shadow DOWN on the roof of the building I am painting!

And here is what got completed today after I finished goofing off with the equipment:

See how well it carries over from the other mural?

2-3 days left, that’s all! To be continued. . .

First day on the extension

The beginning, except it was in bright sunlight. (This photo is from yesterday afternoon.)

It was a beautiful day and the mountain view from the lift was just grand!

I saw Rocky Hill over the top of the Mineral King Publishing building,

I looked down on the big Mineral King mural.

This lift goes up 19′. I am much higher than necessary here, but probably not quite at the top.

See how high? The foreground of this photo is the roof of the building on which I am supposed to be painting instead of messing around with the lift.

Okay, the viewing tour is over. LOOK LOOK LOOK how much got finished today!!!

The third tour group of the day was from Australia!!

Mural Extension

Remember this mural? It is called Men + Mules + Water = Power and is in downtown Exeter. (Despite its descriptive and clever name, I think of it as Franklin Lake.)

Today I will begin wrapping it around the corner onto the blank wall. Funny how we know what I mean when I say “blank” because it actually has a door, a window, a mailbox, a light fixture, multiple signs and a green stripe.

Mural Celebration!

It was hot, reallly really hot.

If it hadn’t been my mural, I doubt I would have braved the heat, but these folks were hardier than that!

Mickey gave a thorough history on the Mt. Whitney Power Co. and the dams in Mineral King. I hadn’t settled in yet and was hanging out in the back with my friend from the Three Rivers Post Office, so I had this nice view of the group.

When Mickey passed the mike to me, I asked the crowd if I could photograph them for the blog. I love doing that – it always makes people smile. Besides, who would have the courage to say “NO DON”T DO THAT”?

I told a few things about how the mural idea happened, a few facts about the dam at Franklin Lake, and a few stories about painting the mural. I said a pile of “Thank Yous” to the wonderful folks who helped make this mural happen. We ate some REALLY good food (that tri-tip from Exeter Meats was so tender it was easy to eat with a plastic fork!!). We even square-danced a bit – it was much cooler standing up away from the tables after dark, and Paul Pfeninger is a terrific caller! I got to catch up with lots of friends (including Ron Hughart, famous local author) and made a new friend, Matthew, who is also a painter. Despite the heat, it was a lovely evening!

Hidden Objects

Men + Mules + Water + Power has multiple hidden objects. Here is the list:

  1. pick-axe
  2. fish
  3. 2 heart-shaped rocks
  4. 1904
  5. a real rock
  6. a real mule-shoe
  7. 6 varieties of wildflowers – Sierra Columbine, Indian Paintbrush, phlox, Hoope’s Sneezeweed, Golden-beard Penstemmon, Wild Blue Flax.

Here is a little piece of the mural for you to study and identify a few of the objects:hidden.jpg

Day Sixteen On The Mural

This is the week I will finish, even if I have to get up at 5 a.m. for 6 days in a row. Momentum, momentum, momentum. Stay outta the way, I have a job to do!! That is not to say that you can’t stop by and say hello or ask a few questions. It just means I probably won’t stop painting while I visit with you, and please don’t take offense. The weather guessers are saying 108 degrees by Wednesday, but they also said 106 last week and it didn’t happen. If I stay in the shade and have cold water, I can do this. (I think I can I think I can I thank I can. . .) This is how the wall looked around 6:35 a.m. today:

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This is how the wall looked at 2 p.m. today:

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Tomorrow I will finish this old dam photo inset. The weird blurry little people have been enlarged (the better to see them!), and I’m hoping the original photo will still be taped to the wall when I arrive tomorrow. Oops. . . it might be on the ground nearby by then, but it is in a plastic holder so I’m not (very) worried.

Here is what remains:

 

  1. old dam photo inset
  2. little cabin inset
  3. dam (as it appears today)
  4. growies, ground and rocks below dam
  5. entire strip of wall beneath mural to the ground. This is the way to make it appear as if a visitor is at Franklin Lake instead of at a mural of Franklin Lake (as long as one stays to the left). I can’t figure out a graceful way to end that lower strip, so it has to go the distance. Maybe. More will be revealed.
  6. Flowers by the trail. My plan is to do this in oil paint so they will be pertinear perfect!
  7. Hidden objects! (there is one already, but I’m not telling yet unless you visit me)