This is how Mooney Grove looked on the morning of Day #6. There was a lot of work ahead, so I have divided that day into 2 blog posts – one today, one for Monday.
First I spent some time studying the Sequoia mural to find all the things that weren’t quite good enough. While I was thinking, I peeled the old paint off my palette.
There are many things that are bothering me about these areas, including the close oranges not being bright enough on the first mural.
Below are some of the fixes.
Several folks have said, “I hope that shrub in front of the Sequoias gets removed”. I think it is pretty, especially when the light hits the new reddish growth, which matches the Sequoia trees.
Look – Flat Stanley paid a visit to the mural! (It’s a thing that school kids do that I don’t really understand.) I appreciated the laugh, and they appreciated the tape.
The orange grove now has a hidden item.
The Big Trees now have a hidden item.
To be continued on Monday. . .
I thought I might be able to finish it that day.
Then I thought I couldn’t.
Then I thought maybe I could.
Then I didn’t think it would be possible.
Got it covered, but it needs better detail, some corrections, the usual adjustments.
Nice new awnings over the entry door on the left and the office door on the right.
Clearly, I like this particular view.
For once in my muralizing life, I wasn’t paralyzed by indecision. This felt easy to begin.
There is no pattern to how I move around this wall – just a little here, a little there, maybe I can do this, if I do that it might help me see the proportions more correctly, up the ladder, down the ladder, step back, try this color. No matter what part I work on, the wall is getting covered.
Then I decided to get a bit more systematic, and work left to right.
Then I didn’t want to work from the ladder any more, so I hunkered down in the mud to work on the bases of the trees.
Not bad for a day’s work, eh? What makes this so pleasant and makes all this roaming around the wall in a random method possible is the fact that the wall is north-facing, and I never have to worry about protecting my palette or brush from the direct sun.
Better.
Best.
Oh-oh, this is going to be S L O W. 
Some friends stopped by, and I decided to be like Tom Sawyer. If someone had let me paint on a public wall in a park when I was 8, I would have been paralyzed with doubt, but maybe have just gone for it anyway. I told Justin that it didn’t matter what he did, just make some marks to see what it felt like, and I’d paint over anything that turned out weird.
There are poppies, fiddleneck, and mustard. You might have to see them in person to fully appreciate them.
Next, I will finish the details above the grove – a barn, some non-grove-like trees, a couple of wind machines. Then, I’ll move to the panel on the far right.
This is how they look in the afternoon light. I’ll wait until they are completely dry, then photograph them, because they are too big for the scanner.
Lupine comes in many colors, so I just mixed up a shade of bluish purple that looked good with the painting. The photo lupine color was too pink and it wasn’t believable to me.
This is the stage where I detail it to the nth degree, the style of painting that plein air painters usually don’t bother with. (They might be too tired of swatting bugs by them.)
Oh my, I really like this one! (Yep, I am allowed to like my own work.)
All-righty-then, gotta have a California Quail.