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 see things accurately in the late afternoon sun and shadow.
When I got to the library on Friday, it looked like this:
Wait, what is missing?? The mulberry trees were pruned, and THE REDWOOD LOG IS GONE, ALONG WITH THE STUMP! Whoops. That was a monument. Sure made nice chips on the ground and So Much Easier to see and work on the mural!!
There is a saying out there that when you have a difficult job facing you, i.e.,“a frog”, you should “eat the frog first”. So, I did: Ladder Man.
After I painted Ladder Man (this was the 2nd or 3rd attempt), Intern correctly and objectively pointed out that he was too small. (Thank goodness for Intern.) So, I kept Ladder Man the same size but moved him farther away in the orchard, conveniently placed behind the Twin Buttes inset so that the wonky ladder wasn’t visible.
Intern worked on orange blossoms for 3+ hours. (Thank goodness for Intern.) Then I dripped some paint on the bright orange on the label, tried to wipe it off, and then Intern turned it into a star, to be fixed later. I hope we remember all the Fix-it-Laters. . .
While Intern worked on the zillions of tiny white dots masquerading as distant orange blossoms, along with gray-ish green dots in the shadows, I tackled the next frog on the menu—painting the old Ivanhoe School Auditorium on that very rough wall surface, minus a T-square and a triangle, which I would be using if I was drawing it in pencil, or perhaps even when painting if the wall had been plastered.
I worked from left to right, across the inset, just as I would do if drawing in pencil. Yes, I was drawing with my paintbrush!
Time to stand back and admire all the progress, with the sunshine and clear treeless and logless view.
Then I decided to label the Auditorium inset, because no one will know what it is unless I tell them.
That was such a success (with space remaining to put in the year it was built and the year it was torn down if I am able to learn that information) that I decided to help people know what Twin Buttes are. That helped fill the too-big real estate of the road.
I sat down in the redwood wood chips which replaced the mud, and began fixing the label. You can see how the daylight changed during that interval to the late afternoon sunshine which casts a golden glow.
Please admire the detailed orange blossoms and navel on the label’s orange:
Further, note the claws on the rooster along with a hint of a shadow. This appeared on the actual label when I held it in the formerly unavailable bright sunshine.
Throughout the process of painting this mural, I continually use the measurement of “best viewed from the back of a fast horse”. After detailing the auditorium, Intern said it was “getting to be slow horse quality.”
I wonder if I’ll be able to finish it next Friday. Prolly not, when I consider how many orange blossoms remain, along with an uncontrollable desire to make the oranges brighter throughout. I also want to add a few more details, because those are the types of things that keep people looking closely.
To top off the great day of painting, there were PEOPLE IN THE LIBRARY!! Is this because the mural is drawing attention to this great free resource in this poor, tiny town of few benefits other than mountain views and the smell of orange blossoms each spring?
8 Comments
This is looking lovely and the landscaping REALLY helps it pop and look much more polished and finished.
Thank you, Elisabeth! It is just the way light is supposed to work! But I still want to brighten the oranges. . . and then I’ll want to fix this, tighten that, and add something else, until there is nothing left to improve. Then I’ll look at it a month later and think “oh-oh!”
When they removed the redwood log, why didn’t they remove that stupid little bush? It annoys me every time I see it. Can’t they see it is blocking part of your beautiful mural? Maybe some unfortunate “accident” can happen to it (like spilling paint all over it) so they have to take it out.
Marjie, it is a mystery to me why the monument log and stump got removed. Was the tree crew following instructions or going rogue? If they were following instructions, then no one took initiative to remove the shrub. If they were going rogue, they were holding back from going completely nutso! I’m curious if any heads will roll. . .
Wow, that must have been such a nice surprise to find the place all cleaned up! I love everything about this: the ladder man, the navel, your lettering, the shadow of the rooster’s feet, and the intern’s proclamation that it’s getting “slow horse ready.” But the best thing of all is that it’s drawing people to the library! How cool!
Michelle, I HOPE the mural is helping the library! I was so enamored by seeing the mural without the trees covering it that it took an entire hour before I even noticed that the log and stump were gone. (If it was a snake, it would have bit me?)
I like the visible but subtle titles. Adding the years for the auditorium would add interest, but maybe you shouldn’t get bogged down in the trees in order to finish the forest?
As far as the “star” on the orange, maybe you could turn it into a spider? Or is that a no-no for orange farmers? Maybe another tiny creature? It could be your “hidden mickey!”
Sharon, I have learned that the auditorium was gone by 1979 so I am closing in on it. I’m guessing it was built in the late 1800s. I loved that old building, just thought it was the coolest thing when I was a kid. Still do!
Look at the label again: the star is gone.
I’d like to hide some things but that dang wall is so very rough that painting small details is almost impossible.