These three topics are rattling around in my skull. ONE It rained and hailed rather ferociously while I was painting that indoor oak tree at my church; two days later I took this photo. Check out the first daffodils in bloom, in spite of the recent heavy cold storm. TWO The elephant was buried in […]
Indoor Oak Tree Finished
The fourth and final day’s plan was to complete leaves and add birds. So, that’s what I did, very systematically, working from right to left. Yes, that’s backward, but I chose that direction because it involved less couch moving. After studying real oak trees for awhile, I thought I could be more realistic about the […]
Day Three of Growing an Indoor Tree
I shoved the couch to the right, covered it with the tarp, and tackled the remaining branches. I forgot to take photos for a few hours, after shoving the couch back to the far left side. The next goal was to show depth where the new branches overlapped. This keeps the tree from looking like […]
The Indoor Oak Tree Grows
As I work on the tree, it feels as if I am making no progress. I finally figured out why: it is because I am painting the same stuff over and over and over. Branch, twig, twig, twig, branch, twig, twig, twig, twig… It also looks insignificant when seen with the entire wall, so the […]
Other Indoor Oak Trees
I’ve painted oak trees inside three other places. The first one was 3 stories high in someone’s living room. This was the first time such an idea was put forth to me, and it opened a new chapter in my muralizing life. The second one was painted in an empty house as the owners were […]
Growing an Indoor Oak Tree
My church* hired a new pastor, and things are rockin’ and rollin’ (not literally). Many changes are taking place, for which I am grateful, excited to be part of, and will tell you about the ones that are relevant to this blog. This room is called the “multipurpose room”. For quite a few years, it […]
Library Mural, Day Thirteen, FINISHED!
The mural looked like this when I arrived in Ivanhoe (photo from the end of the previous painting day—I arrived early enough that the light wasn’t yet on the mural.) After talking to an old friend who remembered more details than I, I added a hint of a door on the porch of the old […]
Quickity Painting Session
This stack of ten canvases was staring at me accusingly. So rude. The only way I could get them to shut up was to start working on them. I spread out the smallest canvases with their photos, mixed up a pile of sky color to cover eight of the beginning backgrounds, along with a nondescript […]
Library Mural, Day Twelve
Last week I did not work on the mural for reasons that are irrelevant to my public life, as shared here with my tens of readers. The week before last, actually, since I show you on Mondays what I did on Fridays. Never mind. This is how it looked last; it’s kind of hard to […]
Finally Painting Sequoias Again
After a couple of weeks of messing around, I finally planted my feet in front of the easels to complete these three Sequoia paintings. First, I dabbled on this one day, and then said, “Never mind, I’d rather [walk] [pull weeds] [go to the library] [anything else]”. I girded my loins, and returned to the […]