St. Francis Mural Project

 

The finish line is in sight.  I'm hoping to install the mural in the next 2-3 weeks, God willing.  This project has been about a year in the making, and although I am ready to be finished, it is bittersweet to know that it will soon be over.  I won't know what to do with myself.  Believe it or not, I'm excited to get back to painting...only on a much smaller scale.

St. Francis Mural Project

Here's the latest progress on the mural.  I started washing in the color for the figures in the first row this week.  It's exciting to see how far I've come, but also overwhelming to see how much work is left.  The beginning of a painting always goes fast because you're using a big brush and blocking-in large areas...detail work on the other hand requires much more time.

 Here are some reference photos I took for the figures.  I hired a theater tech student at JD to operate the stage lights to create a theatrical mood.  I think they turned out beautifully.

St. Francis Mural Project

Check out the story Intermountain Catholic did on the mural.  I think it goes to print today. 

St. Francis Mural Project

 Here is another, slightly better pic of the sky in progress.  It looks much darker than it really is.

My assistant, Hali, leaves for Portland today to begin her first year of college.  Can you believe such a talented artist is going into nursing?  Oh well, at least she won't have to starve.  Thanks for all your hard work Hali, you will be missed!  Best of luck in Portland!

St. Francis Mural Project

I realized last week that I wasn't crazy about the color of the sky before...too purple.  I decided to tweak my photo reference by making the sky lighter and the colors warmer  So basically I re-painted the whole sky.  Here are some in-progress pics from last week...the sky is really starting to come alive. 

 

 Row 4 in progress

 Here I am getting in a few minutes of painting between classes.  If only there were more hours in a day.

Miss Molly.

St. Francis Mural Project

 This week was our first contract week of the school year, which meant faculty meetings, syllabi, orientations, lesson plans, order supplies, books, powerpoints, department meetings, seating charts, roster changes, handbook changes, asprin...oh, and I did a little painting this week too.

 Lately I've been focused mostly on the painting the sky.  To make clouds look convincing it is helpful to use thin layers of paint called glazes that are built up to create an illusion of transparency and make the clouds look more cloud-y. 

Paint cups.

 Molly takes laziness to another level.

I took my AP Art History class on a field trip to the UMFA today.  They're such good little art analyzers.  School starts next week which means I will probably not get much sleep between painting and teaching.  Oh well, I work better when I'm a little sleep deprived.  

St. Francis Mural Project

The usual spot where we set up the mural is still is use, so we were forced to find an alternative venue, the gym.  My apologies for the bright yellow floor and florescent lighting.

I started painting in the sky this week.  It is challenging to get all the subtle nuances of color and value in the clouds, also, the edges of the clouds must be very soft (blurry) so that they recede into the distance.  There's still a lot of work to be done.  More pics to come next week.

St. Francis Mural Project

We assembled the mural yesterday to shoot new pics.  Unfortunately, the cafeteria where we normally shoot, was in use.  We found a space large enough for the mural in the great hall at JD, but the light was not very good.  Another issue was that I had to get really high above the mural to fit it all into frame, hence the cherry picker.  At 30' up in the air, this thing wobbles...A LOT.  Long story short, the pics of the art did not turn out well...very dark and blurry.  I will post new pics hopefully on Monday.

St Francis Mural Project

Father Dave and Julie stopped by the studio last week, here we are chatting about the mural.  I like these pics because of our gestures.  I don't recall exactly what we were talking about, but it looks very serious.  Thanks to Pat Bayer, the Coordinator of Special Rites at JDCHS, for taking these great photos!

Here's another shot from last week minus the cropped figures.  I've made a lot of progress on the path over the last couple days, will post new pics soon.

St. Francis Mural Project

 Working on color.  I lost a few days of painting this week due to my ailing back, but now I am back on the right path.

Working on this large scale has forced me to make some changes to my painting process.  I've realized that what looks good up close will not necessarily translate as such from a distance and vice versa.  Sometimes it feels as though I'm painting an abstract work because up close all the forms (people, path, clouds, etc) dissolve into patterns of flat shapes and colors.  It is only when you take a step back that all the shapes and colors merge together to create a picture.  This is a wholly different experience from being hunched over an easel with my face inches from the canvas.

The first few strokes of color in a painting can be frustrating because color can play tricks on you.  Color is relative, meaning it will change depending on which color it is placed next to.  For example, the brown color of the path looks very orange because of the neutral greys it interacts with.  I'll quote one of my painting heroes, Josef Albers, "In visual perception a color is almost never seen as it really is - as it physically is. This fact makes color the most relative medium in art."

Someone got a new haircut.

This is the paint I use, it's Liquitex soft-body acrylic.  It's pretty awesome (and expensive) stuff.

St. Francis Mural Project

The under painting is just about finished! I assembled the mural on the cafeteria floor at JD because it was the biggest space I could find.  I shot these photos from the 2nd floor hallway that overlooks cafeteria.  Unfortunately, a lot of distortion occurred because I was taking pic from a weird angle, which resulted in the cropping of figures.  Although the picture quality isn't great, you can still get an idea of what the mural will look like.  Color next week!

St. Francis Mural Project

 Touching up second row.  I'm quite happy with the way things are going so far, but it's important for me not to get too attached as I will eventually cover everything up with color.  So why even do a black and white under painting you ask?  I believe value (the lightness or darkness of a color) is more important than color.  Although one notices color first in a painting, it is the subtle shifts in value that creates sculpturesque form.  As long as the values in a painting are correct it almost doesn't matter what color it is because it will still read as a 3D object.

 Molly approves.

The sections that I'm not working on are stacked on floor to save precious wall space.

 Blocking-in 3rd row.  I found that working on the floor at this stage saves a lot of time. 

 I will admit, for a second I felt like Pollock.

Once sections are blocked-in on floor, they are taped to wall for more detail.

 I was kicked out of the studio Friday afternoon by the maintenance crew.  They will be waxing floors until Wednesday:(

3rd row complete!  Painting objects at a distance can be tricky.  The edges of the objects must be softer so that they recede into the distance.  Also, values and colors will get lighter as objects recede.  This phenomenon is called atmospheric perspective. 

St. Francis Mural Project

 This pic was taken from my studio at home.  One great thing about parachute cloth is that it is very portable, just roll it up and off you go.

I'm not completely finished the under painting for second row, but impatience got the best of me and I hung it up anyway just to see how it looks.  It's very exciting to see it all come together.  The next row is the sky, finally!

St. Francis Mural Project

Progress is going well on second row.