More to Come

Maybe I should be a bit taller…. One of the hazards of working outdoors is miscommunication! Someone took the scaffolding away too soon. And I am a little short. Nevertheless the job will be done and done on time. There is quite a process to installing a mural. Once the mural is painted the work is far from done. Depending on what materials are used to support the image installation can be a costly and lengthy process. In this case it is relatively inexpensive. The fabric on which I painted the mural molds easily to uneven surfaces, such as stucco. Using regular gel medium gloss we put a coat on the wall while another team of two put a layer of regular gel medium matt on the mural panel. We had indicated on the wall the shape of the piece to be installed before applying the gel. The edges are the most important. Water is the enemy and must be excluded. As the gel dries quite quickly the least time separating the coming together of the two gel coats the better. Time is of the essence. That is one of the reasons the pieces cannot be larger that arm width span. Yes. I cut up my mural. A traumatic experience yet necessary to the process. My husband happened on me as I was doing the cutting and he found it very disturbing. He asked if I knew what I was doing and I did not comfort him by replying truthfully, “No.” In any case half the mural is up. It will not take long to install the other three segments. An isolation coat and two coats of UVL varnish and the deed will be done. The unveiling is on Friday, July 1^st at Riverdale House in Edmonton. Hope to see you there! (Thank you to Allan Shute for the photo!)

Organised Mess

Little bits of tissue paper strewn about the surface. Does this look like play? My work is play. The title of this piece is ‘Play’. ‘Play’ is the twenty-third in the series called ‘Eve’. There is another on the way too, ‘Wonder’. I got inspired the other day and wrote the poem for that one. I have not started the tissue paper though. Both are due to be finished by June 24^th. When does play become work? Does it have to be either/or? Why not both/and? They are both four letter words! It all depends on the day. Most of the time things flow smoothly. It has to do with planning and having set goals for the day mapped out. Other times reflection stalls the progress or so it seems. Today is a reflection day. I have spent most of my studio time gazing at the canvas and wondering what to do next. I took a few things off the shelf and packed a box. Then I went back to gazing. In the end I picked up a brush and applied some colour. Yes, that works. Let us continue to organise the chaos. Who knows what might emerge.

KofC Mural

From one to the next. I so enjoy getting together with people who wish to put their history down in visual form. We always begin with an initial meeting, bantering ideas around, usually key people making the suggestions. Inevitably as the discussion becomes more and more animated an idea forms in my head about how I might translate these ideas into images. This time one member of the discussion group had a specific image in mind but no one was able to find an example for me. It came down to four main areas of contribution all of which overlap one into the other, the four areas matching the four levels in the echelon of the Knights of Columbus. Back home I flipped through some magazines trying to locate the fugitive symbol and decided that I would go ahead with another idea, combining multiple photos into four major triangles centring on the bilingual logos of the group. It was busy. I took the sketch to the meeting that evening and watched as disinterested faces suddenly lit up with pride and accomplishment. Many had forgotten what had been done. A few had no idea that their organization had been responsible for many significant projects within the community. It is such a good feeling to open a door into excitement and enthusiasm. Several suggestions were made for small changes within the collage of images. Once the drawing had been transferred to the watercolour paper I considered the possibilities of quieting the clutter. Deciding to go with one colour for the background I  crafted a value study of the activities. This week I take the colour sketch before the group. I wonder what they will say about that. 

Last Leg

O.K. I know I promised myself to do all the under painting before I started finishing any section. I kept coming back to the bricks. Layer after layer of colour left a glowing background to the principal subjects in this area: the people. People are always the principal subjects. I enjoy painting portraits. The challenge of creating a colour version from a black and white photograph has interested me not from the point of view of perfection, as every skin tone is individual and unique. Whatever I managed to create out of my experience and the hours of observation over the years has one base necessity: it has to be believable. Usually rendering black and white into colour means the person in the image has long since deceased. It is unlikely that anyone remains with a photo perfect memory of his or her particular skin tones. If I were ever challenged on the subject I think I would hand my contester a paintbrush and suggest that he or she try to do better. It is not that I think I have done a perfect job. No. It is believable. I was well into the portraits when I stepped back and realized something else. My under painting was complete after all. There was nothing left to do but finish each section as I wished bringing the people and the history to life. Resurrection. Love it!