Finished Oak Tree Mural

Here are the better photos of the finished Oak Tree Mural, which I am renaming in my mind as Three Birds.

Oak Tree Mural, Day Five

Day Five was a looking and thinking day, figuring out the final finessing of the Oak Tree Mural at St. Anthony’s Retreat in Three Rivers.

This is the chapel from the outside. It is one of the most visible buildings when one views St. Anthony’s from other places in Three Rivers.
It was a clear day out the window near the mural.
More outside views, because I am thinking, procrastinating, and letting ideas percolate.
Out the window there’s a woodpecker, probably an Acorn Woodpecker, which is the most common around here.

Get to work, Central California Artist because you have a mural to finish.

This is how it looked when I arrived in the morning. Finish the leaves, fix the awkward spots, add the fun things, a simple list.
Why do we humans always organize things, make things parallel, line things up? This clump of leaves needs to be messed up.
Better.

Hey, what is that up there in the corner of the sunshine?

Not what, but who?

That was so fun I’ll add another, this time a Scrub Jay.

All-righty-then, gotta have a California Quail.

And I hid something in this mural, but you might need to see it in person to find it.

And that’s all I’m gonna say about that.

Tomorrow I’ll take a photo of the completed project. It doesn’t photograph well in the afternoon light.

Oak Tree Mural, Day Four

Life’s full of surprises. I went to paint on Day Four and found the parking lot full of cars. Hmmm, I wonder if something is happening in my painting area.

Yeppers. Good thing I’m only one mile from St. Anthony’s Retreat Center in Three Rivers, because I went back home and did other things that day.

Day Four finally arrived, and here is a series of progressive shots of the oak tree mural.

Here is a list of thoughts and decisions throughout the day:

  1. That’s the wrong color of green on those first leaves – better fix that.
  2. Extension ladder? Nah, I can do this.
  3. Will I ever finish these twigs and does it matter of they’ll be covered with leaves? 
  4. Maybe I can finish in 5 days.
  5. A group of guys came into the chapel to set up for the weekend, and it took hours, nay, HOURS, to get their sound system working. They stopped and prayed for wisdom, and right after that a guy said, “This cable isn’t plugged in here!” 
  6. The sound system made a terrible surprising and deafening noise, as sound systems do; I yelled from around the corner, “You aren’t allowed to do that when I am on the top of a ladder!” 
  7. Maybe I can finish it on Day Five. Maybe it will be quiet in there. 
  8. Even if I finish on Day Five, I’ll have to return to photograph it in the morning because the afternoon light coming through that window erases the entire left edge. 
  9. Maybe I can time Day Six of photography to be there for lunch.
  10. I love lunch at St. Anthony’s.

Oak Tree Mural, Day Three

On Day Three of painting the oak tree mural at St. Anthony’s Retreat Center in Three Rivers, I showed up and stared at the mural for awhile.

Which ladder? Keep spreading around the corner? Go as high as possible with the taller ladder? Ask for the extension ladder? Stand on the floor and add leaves from the bottom up?

I decided to keep building up, adding to, and detailing the branches to the left of and over the door as high as the taller ladder would allow. 

Because I was doing the same thing I did on Day Two, it didn’t seem as if I was making any progress. Lots of ladder climbing, and then later, a decision to change the color of green for the leaves. 

I thought this would be a 3 day project and now I know it will be 5-6 days. 

That’s fine. St. Anthony’s Retreat is one of the best places I have ever worked: 1 mile from home, all the staff are friends, perfect conditions, quiet, WiFi, and LUNCH!! (coffee too).

At the end of Day Three, visible progress has been made. Incremental, but still visible. In order to make a believable tree, much staring, evaluating and thinking is required.

You can see how much fuller it is above the door compared to the first photo in this post. You can also see that an extension ladder will be necessary. 

Weird. Afternoon sunlight has erased some of the left side branches in this photo.

Oak Tree Mural, Day Two

Oak Tree Mural at St. Anthony’s Retreat in Three Rivers, Day Two.

After studying my photos on the laptop, I saw things to correct from Day One. Why didn’t they show up in person?? 

Most of Day Two was spent on bulking up Day One’s branches and adding twigs. I also put in some trial leaves at the bottom and learned they should be larger, which I fixed and liked. And, I turned the corner.

Painting an Oak Tree Mural

Behind that door is the mural that I painted in October.

Can you catch a glimpse of it?

This is the map to guide me through putting a tree on the wall surrounding the door.

Dark brown, dark gray, light brown, and light gray are probably the only colors needed in the tree. (I’m stalling because putting the first lines down feel Very Important Don’t Mess This Up.)

Now I am committed to continuing.Life’s short – eat dessert first.

Here’s what’s left:

  1. Finish blocking out the tree, including around to the wall on the right side.
  2. Detail all the branches from about the door top upward.
  3. Decide if there are enough branches, and add more if needed.
  4. Add leaves.
  5. Look it over carefully before declaring it finished.

Neighborhood Beautification Project, Part 4

Day Three was a little bit cold in the shade, but cold is better than hot, especially when it comes to painting a mural. Direct sun dries out the palette and the brush, even while it is trying to do its job on a wall. 

I had a mental list of what the mural needed. The lower half wasn’t detailed.

But first, why is that rock floating in the water? That is unacceptable.
Better.
But wait – why is this middle part unfinished? The lower 1/3 will have to wait.

Finally, I began working on my day’s assignment of detailing the lower 1/3. Then, I rediscovered that the oak tree was too high to reach. Fortunately, Trail Guy stopped by to see if I needed anything, so I requested the stepping stool from my studio.

Trail Guy brought the stepping stool so I could reach the oak tree.
Then I walked home for lunch. (Is it still called lunch when it is 2 p.m.?) The air and the light were so perfect that I stopped for a photo at a neighbor’s place.
The bottom third got detailed, after I stopped finding unfinished parts all over.

It got colder in the shade, and suddenly I felt ready to go home. Because there is no deadline, no commute, and no check waiting at the end, I can return to this mural any time I have a better idea.

The light was a little low and a little flat for a good final photo. The morning light is better, but it casts too many shadows. So, the next overcast day, I’ll return in the morning for a more accurate picture.

Mural completed, building dressed up, Three Rivers neighborhood beautification project finished.

Merry Christmas, Alta Acres!

This is my final post of 2019. I’ll be back on January 6, 2020. Happy New Year, Blog Readers!

Neighborhood Beautification Project, Part 3

Because Day 1 of the neighborhood beautification project was packed so full of mural goodness, I split it into 2 posts. So Part 3 is actually only Day 2.

I started the day’s work with both adding and subtracting detail on the upper hills. I’m not fully satisfied yet but it can wait until the mid and lower parts are further along.
Because I am not working on scaffolding or ladders, it is easy to keep backing up and looking at it the way the public will be viewing it most of the time.
White water, a first layer that will need more detailing, and an oak tree on the left which will need more branches and leaves.
The pencil drawing is serving as my guide for most of the placements, textures, and darks and lights (“values” in ArtSpeak). It was a made-up scene in 2001, using many different photos, none of which I can find now.
This is the way it looked at the end of the day.
If you drive past or run fast by it, it looks finished. It’s not.

Here is a list of thoughts about painting this mural:

  • I am quite happy about this mural. It’s been on my list to do for several years while I waited for an idea, an opportunity, and the right attitude.
  • One more day ought to do the trick.
  • I hid something in this mural.
  • Two voices were warring in my head over all the other noises: one said, “What do you think you are doing, you faker?” and the other said, “Keep painting, chickie-babe, you’ll figure it out”.
  • Why are kids so noisy? They are continually crying and yelling. (There is a day care nearby.)
  • The equipment inside this building runs all day long, sounding like a dishwasher or washing machine.
  • The noisiest vehicles in the neighborhood are the ones that drive back and forth, all day.
  • Whole lotta barking dogs around here.
  • People are very encouraging and complimentary.
  • I didn’t post on Instagram or put the mural on the blog while I was working on it, because it is a gift for my neighborhood, not a publicity feat. (I don’t ever do the Facebook*.) It has been fun to just quietly do the thing and let people discover it on their own.

*”The Facebook” is said the same way I say “liberry”, “prolly”, “Mr. Google”, and “Remorial Building”. I’m not as dumb as I sound, in case you were worried. Thank you for your concern.

Neighborhood Beautification Project, Part 2

The last post of this blog showed the beginnings of a mural on the neighborhood water treatment plant doors. I put some blue in the sky and knew there was only one direction – forward.

The sky was a good warm-up; it provided a chance to see how the doors accepted paint.

Time to stand back and decide if things are progressing well.

Such a clear day! It helped to look at Alta Peak in person instead of just on a photograph.

Alta Peak is pretty important to the Alta Acres subdivision. I decided it needed more detail.
Here is more detail.
Looks good from a distance. (That pesky gray spot has reappeared in the camera lens.)
Finished with the step-stool, it is a pleasure to work while standing on the ground.

It is time to figure out where all the other pieces and parts belong.

This is the mural at the end of Day One. On Tuesday, I’ll show you the next steps of the process to create a Christmas present for my neighborhood.

Neighborhood Beautification Project

For about 12 years, I was on our neighborhood water board. Volunteers are how things work when you live in a rural unincorporated town. I got on the board as the recording secretary because I can type fast and spell, but ended up helping to make decisions about things that I knew almost nothing about, standing in the middle of the street watching water leak away and having no idea what to do about it, taking phone calls from people who were mad about their water bills or wondered why there was no water AGAIN, reading water meters, attending way too many meetings, driving around the neighborhood knocking on doors to hand out Boil Water Notices, calculating distances between wells and the road, measuring tanks and figuring out the volume of water, helping to tear down the old treatment plant, writing articles for the newsletter that no one read, putting locks on the meters of people who wouldn’t pay their water bill, removing the locks when they decided to pay.

It was hard. I learned a lot and made friends with the other board members, 2 benefits from the experience.

Two years ago I resigned. Meanwhile, I would walk past the treatment plant and think about how nice it would be to have a mural on the doors.

This building NEEDS a mural. 

Now that I have recovered from being water boarded, I want to give the gift of a mural to the current water board members and the entire neighborhood.

It took two years to decide what to paint. I used a card I drew back in 2001 of a made-up river scene, complete with Alta Peak and Moro Rock. This meant guessing the colors, and stretching things a bit.

Oops. It is actually 9 feet high, and the step stool is not high enough.
My blue ladder has a fold -down tray. It matches the masking tape, which marks the center of the doors and masks the lock and doorknob.
More blue. No backing out now.

 

To Be continued. . .