Neighborhood Beautification Project, Part 4

Day Three was a little bit cold in the shade, but cold is better than hot, especially when it comes to painting a mural. Direct sun dries out the palette and the brush, even while it is trying to do its job on a wall. 

I had a mental list of what the mural needed. The lower half wasn’t detailed.

But first, why is that rock floating in the water? That is unacceptable.
Better.
But wait – why is this middle part unfinished? The lower 1/3 will have to wait.

Finally, I began working on my day’s assignment of detailing the lower 1/3. Then, I rediscovered that the oak tree was too high to reach. Fortunately, Trail Guy stopped by to see if I needed anything, so I requested the stepping stool from my studio.

Trail Guy brought the stepping stool so I could reach the oak tree.
Then I walked home for lunch. (Is it still called lunch when it is 2 p.m.?) The air and the light were so perfect that I stopped for a photo at a neighbor’s place.
The bottom third got detailed, after I stopped finding unfinished parts all over.

It got colder in the shade, and suddenly I felt ready to go home. Because there is no deadline, no commute, and no check waiting at the end, I can return to this mural any time I have a better idea.

The light was a little low and a little flat for a good final photo. The morning light is better, but it casts too many shadows. So, the next overcast day, I’ll return in the morning for a more accurate picture.

Mural completed, building dressed up, Three Rivers neighborhood beautification project finished.

Merry Christmas, Alta Acres!

This is my final post of 2019. I’ll be back on January 6, 2020. Happy New Year, Blog Readers!

Neighborhood Beautification Project, Part 3

Because Day 1 of the neighborhood beautification project was packed so full of mural goodness, I split it into 2 posts. So Part 3 is actually only Day 2.

I started the day’s work with both adding and subtracting detail on the upper hills. I’m not fully satisfied yet but it can wait until the mid and lower parts are further along.
Because I am not working on scaffolding or ladders, it is easy to keep backing up and looking at it the way the public will be viewing it most of the time.
White water, a first layer that will need more detailing, and an oak tree on the left which will need more branches and leaves.
The pencil drawing is serving as my guide for most of the placements, textures, and darks and lights (“values” in ArtSpeak). It was a made-up scene in 2001, using many different photos, none of which I can find now.
This is the way it looked at the end of the day.
If you drive past or run fast by it, it looks finished. It’s not.

Here is a list of thoughts about painting this mural:

  • I am quite happy about this mural. It’s been on my list to do for several years while I waited for an idea, an opportunity, and the right attitude.
  • One more day ought to do the trick.
  • I hid something in this mural.
  • Two voices were warring in my head over all the other noises: one said, “What do you think you are doing, you faker?” and the other said, “Keep painting, chickie-babe, you’ll figure it out”.
  • Why are kids so noisy? They are continually crying and yelling. (There is a day care nearby.)
  • The equipment inside this building runs all day long, sounding like a dishwasher or washing machine.
  • The noisiest vehicles in the neighborhood are the ones that drive back and forth, all day.
  • Whole lotta barking dogs around here.
  • People are very encouraging and complimentary.
  • I didn’t post on Instagram or put the mural on the blog while I was working on it, because it is a gift for my neighborhood, not a publicity feat. (I don’t ever do the Facebook*.) It has been fun to just quietly do the thing and let people discover it on their own.

*”The Facebook” is said the same way I say “liberry”, “prolly”, “Mr. Google”, and “Remorial Building”. I’m not as dumb as I sound, in case you were worried. Thank you for your concern.

Neighborhood Beautification Project, Part 2

The last post of this blog showed the beginnings of a mural on the neighborhood water treatment plant doors. I put some blue in the sky and knew there was only one direction – forward.

The sky was a good warm-up; it provided a chance to see how the doors accepted paint.

Time to stand back and decide if things are progressing well.

Such a clear day! It helped to look at Alta Peak in person instead of just on a photograph.

Alta Peak is pretty important to the Alta Acres subdivision. I decided it needed more detail.
Here is more detail.
Looks good from a distance. (That pesky gray spot has reappeared in the camera lens.)
Finished with the step-stool, it is a pleasure to work while standing on the ground.

It is time to figure out where all the other pieces and parts belong.

This is the mural at the end of Day One. On Tuesday, I’ll show you the next steps of the process to create a Christmas present for my neighborhood.

Neighborhood Beautification Project

For about 12 years, I was on our neighborhood water board. Volunteers are how things work when you live in a rural unincorporated town. I got on the board as the recording secretary because I can type fast and spell, but ended up helping to make decisions about things that I knew almost nothing about, standing in the middle of the street watching water leak away and having no idea what to do about it, taking phone calls from people who were mad about their water bills or wondered why there was no water AGAIN, reading water meters, attending way too many meetings, driving around the neighborhood knocking on doors to hand out Boil Water Notices, calculating distances between wells and the road, measuring tanks and figuring out the volume of water, helping to tear down the old treatment plant, writing articles for the newsletter that no one read, putting locks on the meters of people who wouldn’t pay their water bill, removing the locks when they decided to pay.

It was hard. I learned a lot and made friends with the other board members, 2 benefits from the experience.

Two years ago I resigned. Meanwhile, I would walk past the treatment plant and think about how nice it would be to have a mural on the doors.

This building NEEDS a mural. 

Now that I have recovered from being water boarded, I want to give the gift of a mural to the current water board members and the entire neighborhood.

It took two years to decide what to paint. I used a card I drew back in 2001 of a made-up river scene, complete with Alta Peak and Moro Rock. This meant guessing the colors, and stretching things a bit.

Oops. It is actually 9 feet high, and the step stool is not high enough.
My blue ladder has a fold -down tray. It matches the masking tape, which marks the center of the doors and masks the lock and doorknob.
More blue. No backing out now.

 

To Be continued. . .

First Saturday Three Rivers

A bunch of years ago some people in Three Rivers decided to try something new – First Saturday. Anyone who wanted to participate could do something special on that day, and the combined efforts of the participants would bring visitors to town.

Artists opened their studios. Artists came from other places and found businesses to show their work. Artists gathered at the Arts Center to show their work.

I did this a few times but not often. Lots of other things were happening on those first Saturdays kept me out of it, and there were other reasons, most of them boring.

Nikki, weaver extraordinaire, has participated almost continually and urged me to join. So, I will tomorrow, at her urging, along with a few others. Being available to the buying public is an important element of the business of art. (Duh.)

It might rain. It rained the last time I participated, and even as the “featured artist” with the appropriate theme of Wildflowers, attendance was very very low. (Friends stepped in for me so I could attend my uncle’s memorial service that very day, but the visitors didn’t know that would be the case.) I’ll be there this year, rain or no rain – no uncles left.

The way it works is that you go to the Three Rivers History Museum and get a map. Then you visit the places that sound interesting to you.

Maybe I’ll see you on Saturday. The hours are 11-5. 

(Only this little studio will be open, not the painting workshop.)

Friday Fun

Trail Guy went to Mineral King last week. This is how it looks at this time of year.

Farewell Gap with the Crowley Cabin from the bridge at the end of the Mineral King Road. November is bleak and colorless, waiting for snow.

That hardly qualifies as “Friday Fun”. What does? How about Pippin in the leaves!

Look hard. Might need to enlarge the photo to see Pippin, camouflaged in the leaves. Very very camouflaged.
Can you see him now?
Pippin!
Pippin didn’t want to share with Tucker.

See you tomorrow at the Three Rivers Memorial Building for the annual Holiday Bazaar, 9-4!

Indoor Mural, Day One

It is possible that painting inside a little chapel at St. Anthony’s Retreat is the most pleasant mural painting experience I’ve ever had.

  • It is 1.3 miles from home.
  • The room where I paint is quiet.
  • The lighting and the temperature are steady (it is indoors!)
  • Occasionally someone stops by to see how it is going and to offer a helpful suggestion or compliment.
  • THEY PROVIDE LUNCH!! (always very good food).
  • The quiet makes it possible to listen to a wonderful 3-book series on Audible by my good friend Shannon VanBergen, called the “Glock Grannies“. I read the books, but it is so much fun to hear them read to me by a professional.

This is a scene cobbled together from several photos of Three Rivers as it shines in the spring. Look at how much I got done in one focused day of painting!

The faint little sketch and some of the photos are taped up, and the tallest ladder is in position on a drop cloth.
Sky, spaces for clouds, and the shapes of the hills. 2 ladders side-by-side is a helpful method.
Clouds. The light is rather low in the room, so I couldn’t tell if I was covering the wall very well.
Gabriel brought some high-powered lights and suddenly I could see that the sky had been too dark, and the clouds needed more work.
Those lights produce a lot of heat, so next time I will bring my clamp-lights. Because the wall surface has glossy paint and the mural paints are mostly transparent, I started putting an undercoating down before adding detail.
I use the blank wall beneath to clean off my brushes between colors; this helps give a sense of what will go where and puts that first coat of paint on the wall.
I got a phone call and needed to write down a number. (No, don’t call the number, please!) I started the tree, and worked a bit more on the clouds.
The end of the day.

When I paint murals, there is a lot of noise in my head. Listening to Shannon’s books occupied the part of my brain that keeps yammering at me that I have no idea what I am doing, and that this is too hard for me. So, on this day of painting, the noisy and negative part of my inner dialogue didn’t have a chance. I just listened and painted, and it was lovely.

Spring Walk in Three Rivers

About a week ago on a chilly afternoon with brilliant sunshine and puffy white clouds, Trail Guy and I went for a walk. Nothing much to say – just enjoy spring in Three Rivers with me.

Trail Half-Day

Yesterday I promised to show you the hike my walking buddy T and I took one morning instead of our usual ground-pounding fast walk. (This qualifies as a hike because we carried food and water.) We drove about 10 minutes into Sequoia National Park, a little ways past the entrance station in order to walk to Shepherd Saddle.

This was our view when we started around 8:30. Sure felt casual compared to our normal meeting time of 6:00.
We were expecting rain and wanted to test our new parkas, but Sycamore Creek was the only water we saw besides some puddles and a few water troughs for the stock.
Now here is a peculiar sight. Have you ever seen a horse with a perm?
The clouds obstructed most views of the mountains except for a tiny piece poking out.
The manzanita were almost the only flowers we saw.
The clouds were beautiful looking down the canyon.
And here we are, at the gate on Shepherd’s Saddle. We are on National Park land; the other side is a mystery as to ownership.
T gave me a tangerine, and it was so pretty I photographed it before peeling it. We left the emergency M&Ms unopened – please be impressed.
Going home was much quicker. Duh. It was all downhill.
Sycamore Creek already?
We wondered if it had more water flowing on the way back down, but didn’t pursue the question.

Okay, Central California artist, get to your easel and start painting.

Memorial service for The Cowboy
Bert Raymond Weldon, May 21, 1956 — January 8, 2019
CELEBRATION OF LIFE AND RECEPTION Friday, March 15, 2019, 11:00 a.m. CrossCity Christian Church, 2777 E. Nees Avenue, Fresno, California 93720