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  Page Two. After hundreds of sketches, and most of the fall to the side, I have chosen the layout and the direction I want to go.
  Page One
  Page 2
  Page Three
  Page 4
ZOOMIFY PAGE AND SEE MURAL CLOSE UP
PLEASE NOTE ONLY THE SIX INNER PANELS ARE SCHEDULED TO BE COMPLETE BY THIS SUMMER. WE NEED FUNDING FOR THE OUTER WALLS.
ZOOMIFY PAGE AND SEE MURAL CLOSE UP/April 4,2011
April 18,2001 see explanation

This project funded by an Original Works Grant made possible by SEMAC , The Owatonna Arts Center and GardenStudio. Further information of an unveiling will be posted this Spring (2011) and you are invited! Please come back to find out time and date.

This is the second part of the mural construction where I am actually painting on the panels. If you are interested in the preliminaries, go to the first page . If you have any questions, please write Lynette, and I will post your question and my answer.  

Have a look at other mural projects.

PAGE 2

September 15,2010 (back to beginning of mural process)

So the panels are here, primed, some layout on them. I decided to start on the ceiling and work down. The directions from Ken, everything works out from the center of the ceiling. That is a perfect guide and I can take care on those sides of the panels, and remember where which goes what.
the ceiling from floor

So far, I am all ready paying for my “just get started” approach, as I miss calculated the light source and there are areas that will be shaded that are not, and some that are shaded that are. I also have to work in reverse so the panels will work together to form a mural. So now, I have all panels marked with which side they go on and where the light source is coming from with yellow dots.

There are sixteen panels. Each one being approximately 4’ x 5’, each of them seem to want to be a painting by itself. I want to give them that, each and every one, but they have to work together. Don't we all.

laid out on sleeping poarch
The sleeping porch is the only place, aside from the photo studio downstairs, where I can lay out the panels and see how they will play together. Unfortunately,the porch is just screened in and the storm last night rendered a panic attack on my part. The rain was indeed blowing in but only hit the floor and left a 3” margin around the panels that were laid out.
close call for rain
It will also work with the theme of the mural. I want it to be about inspiration and dreaming that is conducive to having many different ideas and vignettes going on. The challenge here, is the old rule, “focal point” or “point of interest”. Where is that going to be? How is that going to work? I comfort myself knowing the most famous painted ceiling of all time, the Sistine Chapel, has a point of interest in every section, and therefore none. Okay, I am clear. Apologies to all my minimalist friends, I can’t help myself.

If you had told me twenty years ago that I would be depending on a computer to layout perspective on a mural, to be laying out and planning colors, shapes and all, I would have not believed you. I remember my neighbor bringing over a Mac from the school he and his wife worked at. Just to let me play with if for the summer. Just to explore. I dinked with it and ignored it. Went back to my brother typewriter for correspondence. Life has changed.

Tinker
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studio
October 21, 2010 More pictures!
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The most important goal in the last few weeks has been to get the panels and their main perspective laid out so they will all have a fit with each other. I have a big sleeping porch that has served will to do this and all furniture and exercise equipment has had to go to the side. All the windows are screens and I will not be able to close it for colder season, so it is imperative to get it all in before the snow flies. We can only hope I have a few more days. Here are the pieces laid out:
layout, October 20
The north side of the room that goes above the window:
North side
The south side of the room:
South side
West end. They are all matching up pretty good. I have to be so careful not to bump or ding the panels, and they are heavy. The porch is not big enough for me to get to the other end to shoot the east end. At this point, you have to take my word for it that they all fit. I need to limit how much I move these around as they are fragile too.
west end
Thank goodness the weather has been good and I have been able to get this far. Soon, they will all be going inside and in the hallway waiting for more detail.
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November 8. It seems the more I get done on this project, the bigger it gets. I have to keep moving the panels around and sometimes I have to rest a day or two because of my back. Hopefully this stage will be done soon so I can concentrate on one panel at a time. It will have an interesting sky.
November 8
December 13. Working on it.
December13

A long overdue update, but the changes are just as many. The bigger the mess, the more I wonder what I am doing, but there is a method to the madness. You can see a better view at mural3.

There has been a lot of changes to all the panels, mostly the tree is growing. It will soon be embracing the whole room. I have to focus on the main issues to each panel. In black and white, the subtleties will not be so. It is going to look very busy for a while, then as I subdue with colors, hopefully it will have some good and more understanding areas.

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April 18

I have been painting for almost 40 years, and never did I think a project could get so complicated. Everything from color to size element, to if I should have my self there. I will try to address all.

I have come to the part where I refine some of the details on the under painting before I add color. Soon, the color will be applied fast and furiously. The hard part about painting like this, is when you are painting with an idea to let the stream of consciousness flow, you might want to allow for some fickleness which can be a drag when you have something come up mid stream. Changing it is like moving the weight bearing walls while building a house. But we do make changes. have a look

May 18
Just before this point, I lost a lot of sleep on weather to finish this in oil or acrylic. Decided on acrylic because oil takes so long to dry and I just don't have that kind of time any more. We will be having an unveiling in July and it needs to be installed too.

I always like to work with blue for the next color. It is on the other side of the color wheel and counteracts the warmth of the gold and browns. That will give me a good calculation of what the detail colors make.
have a look

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Sunday, May 29, 2011

This sort of painting style requires a little organization ahead of time. All problems should be solved before hand so I can concentrate on color alone. There are other reasons, you always want the paint to be thin with glazes as the pigment texture will define the work almost as much as a line or shape. So when I want to make changes, I sand down to the primer, and re-prime, then make a change. I end up doing that a lot in my work, no matter how hard I try. I just do, and this project is no different.

Item #1 The Swan. I liked the swan, it represented the children’s books, ballets and all of my childhood that it reminds me of. However, it has no awe that I had wanted to bring into the scene. In the first place I wanted to put Pegasus, because he is often in my work for one book or another project. Everybody loves him, and I don’t know a child who sees a winged horse who doesn't’t know him or want to know him. I just didn't’t know how to fit him in! I wanted to save him for the walls because on the ceiling all I could think of was him flying over, the wing span larger than the room, and anyone looking up would be looking up at the bottom side of a horse. (you know what I mean, this is a family place) So how long does it take to realize that he does not have to be actual size! For me it took a year and a half. So below if you run your mouse over the picture, you will see the change in the southeast corner.

goose
You can also see this in Zoom
Item#2. The water sprinkler. Another issue we have is code and water sprinklers. Yes, there is going to be one, and even with Les’s map meticulously measured and plotted, I had the plan turned around. It has happened several times as having the mural down on the floor in front of me, I have to remember it is the opposite up on the ceiling. So today as I was looking over what needed to be done, I realized the water sprinkler is going to be cutting right on one of the faeries. Drat. So we are loosing him. Below is mouse-over and you can also see him here
faerie gone
you can also see this in Zoom
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