'Catalpa' 60"x48"

I have always loved these overlooked trees. Rarely have a I ever seen this tree on the "right side of the tracks". Usually it is the tree that springs up in the poorest neighborhoods (some of which are becoming more desirable). I have seen it growing right up through the middle, and out the window of a row-house in southeast Washington, DC and in slag piles in Oakland, CA.
Unfortunately, I often see their naturally, characteristic conical crowns, truncated for overhead power lines. Their beautiful blooms, huge leaves, and the long bean pods (seen in the painting), have always drawn my attention.

The New "finished"

So this is where they had us take the mural. I still think it looks good I just liked it better more simple and sleek. Leaving it the old "finished" also would have saved them several thousand dollars.

Bunk Room

These are pictures of the "finished" bunk room mural. Except that the homeowners "like it so much" that they want to add a lot more detail. There was nothing the designer or I could say to convince them that it really is done. I think usually the lower the detail contrast, the better - for a residential mural. I think in a residence the exposure is protracted enough that for the discovery process to continue, you need to not be able to see all the details without really looking. In fact, some of the best murals become more of just a pattern and most viewers don't really notice them right away. Well they probably notice there is a mural but not really what the mural is of.

Vemont still.

I will be sleeping in my own bed tonight (and for at least the next 2 nights! whoo-hoo!) here a few shots of the room after we got up the stars.




And some images of a bathroom there where we added some circles.




And a image of a typical Vermont residence. This is not the guest house we are staying in.

Vermont

So I am here in Vermont again. I am hopping to get this Telescope silo finished up this time. There was a lot of repair since they had us do the plaster stripes prior to finishing the trim. In addition we are putting the same plaster on some removable panels on the ceilings of the connection area between the house and the silo. Then we are putting stars in random coin sized stars on the walls and ceilings. These are a few images prior to the gold stars. I think we will be done with the stars by tomorrow so I will put some final images up then. The colors in these images are really washed out, the fire-engine red isolating shaft will still look a little out of place till the gold stars are in. I think you can tell from the image it is a highly polished automotive finish.


Also included are images of the inside of the observatory up where (the telescope is) dome. I painted this on a previous trip. I hope these aren't too dark to see anything. It is a kind of random pattern of simplified celestial objects airbrushed in automotive metallics in about 12 different colors.

originall layout

So here is what the original layout looked like. As you can see it was pretty much completely planned out before I started to put paint on the wall. Not included is the background pattern nor the colors, though we did work those out on full scale samples as well. All together well over 3 weeks worth of prep, for a mural that took three days to paint, and was up for a little less than a month before being painted over (what they usually do to showcase houses when they are done with the showcase).

Additional Images

These are for Molly, but I am going to pretend others are interested as well.

Interesting Internet Find

I recently found some published photos of a mural I did as a promotion at a Showcase house in San Francisco. I have shown a couple of you already, and haven't posted it because of the interesting details in the attributions at the end of the photo set. But they are really good images and I really love how the mural turned out so the photo set is here. I don't really understand how this kind of thing usually works but thought i had worked out something specific with the designers. Obviously, I misunderstood. I would love to hear what you think of it, especially those who haven't seen any pictures of it before. i think it is one of my favorite kids rooms i have done so far. If anyone wants to see some additional snapshots without any furniture (just the mural) let me know and I can post some of those.

Mural

Pictures of a kids' bunk-room I have been working on in Park City. It is kind of based on a mural I did a couple of years ago in North Carolina. The beds are made of tree trunks and the "ladders" are stumps of limbs. Emmaline came up to help one day.

The Last Two

I was able to finish 2 last works before the opening:


Serenade 18" x 24"


The other is a little different than anything I have been doing. I quite liked the result. Its a couple of beautiful pine trees in Sugar House Park, that I have admired for years.

Stalwarts 36" x 48"

The opening seemed to go quite well. There were a lot of people there this time, that was fun.
It was great to see some old family and friends that I hadn't seen in a while. I found out some of them actually read this stuff periodically too. Maybe they will even start making some comment periodically too.
I think I sold a few pieces. Since the buyers get to try them out in their homes or where-ever for a little while, and bring them back if they don't feel they work as well as they thought, I am not counting anything as sold until I actually have the money for it.