Hello Good Friends!
I did it! A whole week of painting!
Recently I was honored to be asked to come up with a mural concept for our local WIC Program (Women, Infants, and Children) that's part of The Resource Connection, an Amador and Calaveras based nonprofit organization providing services and programs in three areas: children and families, nutrition, and prevention and intervention. They have their offices in Sutter Creek, where i live.
So I sat down with the director, and we narrowed down some ideas and concepts, looked at examples at other agencies, and discussed my unique artistic style. Then I designed and painted a model of what it would look like. We definitely wanted the mural to represent the mother-child love and connection, as it's the core of the work they do. The model, which you'll see in the final set of photos, originally took into account a reception window, where it was going to be painted. It ended up being changed to a different location and so I just adapted what I painted based on the original model, but didn't need to create a new one. Once the model was approved, we scheduled a full week of painting.
And last week was go time!
Never having done a public mural before (my previous ones were personal, with no timeline), I wasn't exactly sure how the pacing of it all would go. So I really got to it on day one and made sure to accomplish a lot, just to be sure. Here you can see the original green wall. And the second photo was what I had accomplished by lunch time! In the afternoon I started adding layers and shading to several areas, and the third photo was what I had painted by the end of the day.
After that I slowed down my pace and for the remaining days focused on the details. I started working on the mother's and infant's faces and little by little those came into focus. I'm not usually a figurative painter, and my style is definitely more abstract, but I leaned into the challenge, making sure I got them just right. I also started working on details of the tree, the sun, and the hills. I didn't take as many photos on days two and three, but here are the results by the end of day three.
As I worked, I managed to keep my creative space pretty organized, and didn't slosh paint anywhere it wasn't supposed to be. Which at home when I paint, is definitely not the case. So I stretched myself in several ways with this project, lol. Once the challenge of painting the faces was done, I moved onto my favorite part, the butterflies! I really enjoyed getting lost in the details of each one on day four. Time disappeared and I was in full mindfulness mode. Very relaxing and fun.
By day five it was time to finish up all the final details and clean up my space. I had known at the end of day four that I didn't feel the top of the tree and the sun were done. They both needed something more. It's how I paint, and how my week went. Even though I had painted a model, and the overall end results were pretty set, how I got there was less set in stone. I trusted my intuitive voice to guide me during this whole week. Making choices on colors and shapes and lines all based on trusting that the my inner self will get me to where I need to go.
It wasn't without some angst though, there's the inner intuition, but then there's also the inner critic (one is heart driven, the other in our head). Knowing the difference between these two voices is one I've been learning to distinguish for a while now. I think I'm getting much better, but when taking on a something new like this, the inner critic is for sure going to be a bit scared for me and want to control the whole thing. And they definitely tried to go to battle with me several times, but I felt proud of myself for recognizing it when it was happening, and instead could shift back over pretty quickly to the much more positive experience of trusting my inner knowing. So on day five ~ heeding my intuition and gut feeling ~ I added some orange to the tree, to the sun, and even to the mother's and infant's faces to tie everything together.
And here's the final mural! You can see the model at the bottom of the photo for comparison. It was a lot of work, my body wasn't quite used to so much painting all at once! But I'm quite happy with how it turned out, and again, so honored to have been entrusted with this amazing project.
One very happy artist!
"Life as I know it is changing. What used to be normal is becoming a memory,
and what I used to dream about is becoming my reality."
PS: So perhaps you've heard of the term "easter eggs" and not the colorful spring holiday ones either. They're messages, images, or features hidden in movies video games, or other electronic mediums. I decided to add one to the mural. Bonus points if you recognize these creatures and what movie they're from!
Never miss a post!
Did you know you can subscribe to my blog?
I promised when I set up this new artistic life of mine that I wouldn't flood your inboxes. But if you'd like, you can receive the latest blog post ~ every Monday ~ directly to your inbox. This is separate from my Newsletter, which goes out only once a month.
Click below to subscribe to the blog.
Upcoming events!
Find out about all my events HERE.
Brilliant!! I'm so jazzed for you....it's absolutely gorgeous. xo mel
Those look like the dust bunny/soot sprites (?) from My Neighbor Totoro :) (this is Bronwyn, not signed in)