Guess what?? We projected the mural tonight and it is ready to paint!!! Had to, because it is going to rain on Thursday and Friday. Look! There were some tall young men who were very very helpful – Jarson, Joshua (I think that was Mr. Blue Shirt’s name!) and Jared, who is one of my drawing students. That is Mickey securing the ladder with his foot.
Betsy can draw well – she has been helping me on this project from Day One and got the entire event organized at the last moment today! 
These guys look like clowns, but Bill is the president of the Mural Team who changed his schedule to get ready this evening on a moments notice, and Larry? he pushed the scaffolding along real well!
These are the official Mineral King Consultants who made sure everything looked accurate. Good thing they were here and noticed that everything was getting smaller and lower instead of larger and higher! (that projection method has some weak points.) 
The maquette (model painting) was a great help to correct for projector distortion and verifying accuracy. 
And this is the final panel of the 10 required to cover the entire wall. Unfortunately, there is about 5 feet of wall remaining on the left side, so tomorrow I will be looking through photographs to decide how to fill that space! All that planning and still a bit of a gap – flexible schedule, flexible design!
Marking time
I think this is what it was called in marching band when we just stood in the same place moving our feet up and down but going nowhere! That’s not exactly what I am doing now, but the anticipation is building as I await Thursday night. If it doesn’t rain, we will project the mural outline onto the wall. Meanwhile, I am painting, of course! This will need to be rephotographed when it is dry and not so shiny, so it isn’t on the website for sale yet. However, it is for sale!
Sawtooth II – oil – 11″x14″ – $154
Diversion
Today I took a day off from my normal Sunday routine and went to Mineral King. Big surprise, that destination, hunh? Anyway, it was very very beautiful. You can see for yourself in these pictures. Besides, I needed to see it in person once more before beginning to paint!
These funny little machines were a great method of transportation over a road that was intermittently snow and bare pavement (we need more snow!!!)
This is Sawtooth, which will appear from a different angle in the mural but remains recognizable. 
And Farewell Gap is the most photographed site in Mineral King. This is the view from the bridge. The little machines vapor-locked because it was so warm up there today, so I skied over to the cabin while we waited for them to cool down. I had to find an extra pair of sunglasses for our friend. His shades are somewhere down around Redwood Canyon – if you find them next summer, please let me know!
Projection
First published in January 2009
Remember overhead projectors? That is the device we hope to use to project the image on the wall. I spent 4-1/2 hours tracing the model painting of the mural onto a roll of tissue paper (the kind called “flimsy” by architects). Today I found back-up bulbs for the projector, bought a couple of boxes of magic markers, and had my tracing converted to a series of 10 transparencies. 
The projection takes place after dark with lots of people manning Magic Markers. The process ensures that the mural will match the model painting that has been approved. The model painting is called a “maquette”, which actually means a 3 dimensional model, but we don’t have an adequate word for a 2 dimensional model. The Mural Team requires an accurate to-scale painting before giving the go-ahead to an artist, and the artist is supposed to follow that maquette to a tee!
On my previous murals, I simply drew a small to-scale sketch and then marked off the centers of the painting surface and began drawing with my paintbrush. I thought 80″ x 80″ was huge.
Next, the Seatrain (20′ x 8′) was stunningly massive.
Finally I began the one on 6 4’x8′ panels and could hardly grasp the grandeur of it all. (Silly girl, Trix are for kids!) That one on panels was difficult because the design process hadn’t been fully solved before attempting the panels.
The Mural Team of Exeter has much experience (2 dozen or so murals since 1996) and knows that the design process has to be completed and adhered to in order to have any sort of control over their outdoor gallery. (I fully agree with this because I was the President of the Mural Team when we put these rules into place.)
Giant Project Revealed
First published in January 2009
- What? the next mural in Exeter
- Where? the 100 north block of E street, on the west side, facing south . Yes, that is correct – it overlooks the parking lot of the Exeter Sun.
- When? We are hoping to project the image on the wall on the evenings of Thursday and Friday, February 5 and 6
- Biggest what: (no surprise here) – Mineral King, of course! 😎
- Size: The wall is 105′ x 15″; the mural will be 103′ x 12′ *
- Who? me! I get to paint it after planning for months and months and months. . .
Print this out, cut out the pictures, tape them together in this order, imagine the longest sepia part scooted to the left, and there is the next mural!!
- Update: The wall turned out to be 110′ long, and the mural ran the entire length
Honeymoon Cabin II
I have drawn this cabin in graphite multiple times, and it remains interesting to me! It is a cute little place, right on the stream, with a great view of Vandever in the background. (That is the peak on the right/west side of Farewell Gap that my studly husband climbs almost every summer while I sit on the porch with the 2way radio and my knitting!). Now I have painted the cabin twice, and probably will continue painting it from various photos taken at different times in the seasons and times of the day. Eventually I hope to paint it standing on location.
sold
P.S. Now it is 2024, and this is the first post I ever put up on my blog. I’ve painted this cabin more times than I can remember, blogged 5 days a week since April 2008, and am about to delete all my old posts because no one cares and they are slowing down my website.