Three Rivers mural

Are All Wall Paintings Murals?

Nope. Some are designs, created for museum displays, by exhibit designers. The Three Rivers History Museum hired a museum designer, an exhibit designer, whatever the title is, to create a Native American exhibit, and they (or is it the Tulare County Historical Society? Or the Mineral King Preservation Society? I should pay more attention!) to execute these designs.

Every new job I take on has an entirely new set of challenges. How does one take this little PDF and turn it into a wall design? These exhibit designers may not have completely thought through the execution phase of the display. However, maybe they do know how to do such a job and just didn’t tell the museum. Maybe it involves equipment and technology that I don’t own.

No problem. I figured it out.

The designer sent it with a ?”=1′-0″ grid over the top.

I turned it to black and white, isolated each group, and printed it. (These samples don’t show the whole designs—just wanted to give you an idea.)

Next, I got some giant kraft paper (looks like brown butcher paper on a great big roll, and if you have ever received a wrapped gift from me, you know what I’m talking about) and laid it out on my drafting table. This was quite a big jump from my normal 11×14″ pencil drawings.

And then, I started measuring and drawing.

It took an entire day.

What next? I had to figure out how to get the patterns on the wall. I’ll show you next week, after our monthly Learned List.

Painting in Church, Again, Chapter Two

Yesterday’s “Painting in Church” post ended with Music Man turning on the stage lights for me. He also said it was as if I had read his mind in how the mural extension should look, and he had a suggestion for extending the ridges that was altogether excellent.

I felt a little bit stuck. Maybe a few branches extending to the left of the door are in order.

This is hard. I don’t know what I am doing.

That’s it for Day One. I was getting sloppy and stupid, a dangerous state, particularly when combined with having slept poorly the night before, skipping lunch and being a little bit lazy.

I really thought I could do the left side in one morning and the right side in a second morning?

Fall down laughing.

Tune in tomorrow. . .

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Mural, Day Twelve

The last time I worked on the mural was about 2 weeks ago. Trail Guy stopped by and took this photo. This mural is one of the least social I’ve painted, other than the ones at my house. Now you have proof that I worked on it.

I thought I would be able to finish the mural yesterday. Instead, I held back a little, with the intention of spending time today really studying it, making the little improvements that make me proud to put my name on the mural. I am more motivated to finish things than to perfect them, so this is a matter of professional discipline.

It has been a few weeks since I was at the mural and there are quite a few leaves on the ground. Doesn’t matter – just an observation. This photo was taken with a phone rather than a camera.

I wonder why the camera’s pictures are more dull than the phone.

I stood there a bit, studying the mural, trying to remember what I had planned to do next.

That’s right – too much empty sky.

Over the archway too – too empty.

Better.

This is how it looked at the end of the painting session yesterday. I will study this photo and make some notes to take with me today.

mural sequoia mural Three Rivers mural

Mural, Day Four

There was a storm, it got cold, we had a fire, and Pippin came inside!

The storm stopped the fires and cleared the air. The real blue sky makes my painted blue sky appear pale.

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!

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Mural, Day Three

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.

The pipe is annoying, so I decided to get that area finished first.

Pipe area is still not quite finished, but I am done with the annoyance of it for now.

By the end of the shivery painting session, I had scooted across to the big tree on the right. At the end of the day, I prefer to work standing or kneeling on the ground instead of on the ladder.

From a distance with a building blocking off the undone parts, you could get the false idea that the mural is finished.

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).

Sequoia sequoia mural Three Rivers mural

Mural, Day Two

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.

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Mural, Day One

This is on the grounds of STYC – seems really fancy for Three Rivers, but in a good way, something in which to have a bit of architectural pride. (There are some other nice buildings in town, but they are not public.)

The wall had enough shade to begin around 1 p.m.; it was sort of hot in the sun on November 2!

The light is fading quickly so I left the mural at the stage where it is best viewed from the back of a fast horse (while wearing sunglasses at midnight).

Three Rivers mural

New Mural Begins Today

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!

mural Three Rivers mural

Two Job Conclusions

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??