Tag: tulare county mural

Library Mural, Day Six

If you subscribe to my blog, you probably received an email last night about a new post. It is scheduled to publish on Friday, but I hit the wrong button. Then I immediately rescheduled it. So, you may have read Friday’s already (or you may have no idea at all what I am talking about here!)

Yesterday was a day of painting oranges. The challenge was to separate the trees from one another as they diminish toward the distance. It was a little boring to photograph each step, so let’s start with how it looked the day before yesterday.

I got a little bogged down so moved to the label.

I could hear my internal coach saying, “HEY! Paint from back to front!” So I began working on the oranges on the right side. That side is noisier and colder (the wind comes around the corner) and darker with those peculiar fruitless mulberry trees that are still holding their leaves.

Thus we conclude Day Six. I won’t be back to paint until a week from tomorrow.

2026 CALENDARS, “AROUND HERE… and sometimes a little farther” available here, $25. All the drawings were new in 2025. You’ve only seen the one of the pier, which sold in the show of the same title.

Library Mural, Day Four

Intern returned, so we studied the wall together and discussed the next step. He put a base coat on Twin Buttes, and I worked on the mountains south of Alta Peak, since I got a few semi-helpful photos on Friday.

Together we mixed the color of the background of the packing label. Intern was SHOCKED that I painted the two oranges on the label before the background. Together we peeled back the masking tape, and he did a great job while I kept figuring out the mountains and a facsimile of Venice Hill. This is an odd group of hills just east of Ivanhoe, not exactly visible from town but definitely a landmark. I just made it up, because it looks different from every vantage point.

When I was satisfied with the distant mountains and fake Venice Hill, I began tinkering with the last inset, the auditorium of the Ivanhoe School back in the last century when I attended school there.

Intern was so cold that his teeth were chattering, so I told him that he had done enough for the day and sent him home. He was very helpful in many ways, and I also was able to teach him some helpful things about perspective and portraiture. Although he is a college student taking art classes, the instruction is insufficient. That’s how it was when I was in college too, and it is why I love helping people learn to draw.

The orange leaves have been troubling me. I know they will be delineated in the closer branches and trees, and be less clear when farther away. I can paint orange trees in oil and draw them in pencil, but using acrylic paint on a wall is just confounding me, handcuffing me so that I cannot figure out how to paint orange leaves. So I got a little help with them from a fellow muralist in the form of some texted photos and tried again. This time I just started with the farthest trees, hoping that I’ll figure out how to detail the closer ones.

After painting awhile, I stood back to see if the 2 halves of the mural make sense together. This caused me to jump over to the right side and rearrange the rows a bit, then begin texturing the distant trees.

After 6 hours of standing in the cold and the mud, I was ready to quit. So, I tried the combination on the trailer locks and was able to figure out how to open the thing. I carried my crates and stepladder to the opposite side of the library from the mural and put them in the ridiculously oversized trailer. Can you say “overkill”?

I have been asking for months to be given a key to the library so I can stash 2 ladders (now down to needing only one) and 3 crates of paint (now down to only 2), and to have access to water and to a facility. Instead of doing this apparently easy thing, they hauled in this giant trailer, parked it far from the mural, and I have no access to either water or a bathroom.

They’re from the government and they are here to help me.

I am able to make process in spite of this “help”.

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Library Mural, Day One

I got to the library at 8:45 to survey the lay of the land. Muddy. Significant log. Big roots to NOT trip over. What’s that weird little box on a pole? Could it be a Little Free Library, right here at the library?

After I unloaded the ladders, I realized that the wall was full of spiderwebs and dust.

When I was almost finished wiping it down, the representative from the Arts Consortium showed up, along with my intern. There was a little bit of paperwork; I gave Intern some jazz about not being able to sign his name in cursive, and Rep had to tell him that his last name initial was needed. (“Kids these days. . . sigh”, thought the old artist.)

Intern was helpful. I was able to teach him a little about starting a mural, using various tools, deciding the order to proceed. He learned about measuring and translating the scale of 1/2” = 1’, along with using a plumb line and a square.

We started with measuring the wall, to be certain that the measurements and proportions matched the approved design. Next, we taped off the insets.

Intern wasn’t dressed for painting, but he was really careful, and we painted the skies.

Intern was a hungry cold boy, so he left for lunch and I began the green base coat.

When he returned after his lunch, we finished the green and I painted some dirt base coat.

What will I do today? I will be on my own, because Intern has end-of-term projects to complete. The library will be open some of the hours that I am working, so I will be able to store my equipment and supplies until Friday. But they don’t open until 10, so I will be starting later on Friday.

The logistics of this job are rather intricate and challenging. I’m not surprised, because it took 3 years from when the county supervisor asked me to paint this mural until I am actually on the job.

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Mural on a South-Facing Wall in September. . . Part One

This is not ideal for mural painting, particularly in contrast my last experience painting at Mooney Grove on a north-facing wall in February and March.

Realizing that the entire day would have strong hot sunshine on the wall, I determined to finish it in one day instead of the prescribed four. I knew it might possibly take 2 days, but I was focused, locked and loaded, ready to rock and roll, and whatever other cliché you can find.

This will be one day of painting and two days of posting.

First, let me be clear about something: I am Very Thankful to have been chosen to do this job and at the same time, I wished it could have been done at home in my studio with these creatures hanging around. (Pippin is barely visible in the bushes, and Jackson appeared after I took this poor photo).

Alas, sometimes an artist has to go out into the world, kill something, and drag it home to the cave. (Don’t get worked up—it is only a euphemism for doing work away from home.)

Instead, I saw this creature. Mooney Grove is known for its peacock population, although now there are way more Canada geese. Fortunately, they were not in mating season or hanging around my location like the last Mooney Grove mural.

Hello, restroom. I was happy to see some shade. I didn’t know what was coming.

There were domestic geese waiting for me to set up, and very very bold about it. 9 a.m. and it was already hot in the sun.HEY! BUG OFF! Apparently he had a conference to attend, so eventually he waddled away.

Let’s get to work. You guys too.

Farthest thing first – the sky. I didn’t have a colored copy of the painting that I submitted to the committee, so I was trying to recreate the scene using the original photos and a very poor pale copy of the painting.

Now it is in total sun, with the power pole shadow working its way across. I decided to put base coats on each segment, then return for detailing, rather than trying to complete each section as I went.

After applying blocks of color to each section and trying to squish the paint into the holes in the concrete block, I had to figure out how to proceed. The plan of attack: stand in the shade, plan the next move, decide the necessary colors, quickly grab the paints and brushes, sprint to the wall, and slam out the next small segment before running back to the shade to evaluate my work and figure out the next steps.

Watch the shadow of the pole move across. I kept dragging my crates of paint to the shadow as it inched to the right.

I ran out of water, and 2 wonderful park maintenance men brought me 4 bottles!!

I finally realized that I couldn’t hold the palette, brush, and the photo, so I taped it to the wall. Sometimes I don’t want to do that because the tape causes the fresh paint to peel. This paint stopped being “fresh” about 20 minutes after application. The maintenance men eventually brought this sign.

They also gave me permission to cross out the incorrect title. I didn’t bother with the incorrect dates, but I did add an “L” to Colleen MitchelL Veyna’s name.

Just rewriting this makes me almost collapse from the memory of heat. We will continue tomorrow with the rest of the very hot day of painting a mural on a south-facing wall in September at Mooney Grove Park.

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New Mural at Mooney Grove Park

About two and a half years ago, I worked on several murals on the outside of the Tulare County Museum at Mooney Grove Park on the south side of Visalia, California. Each day when I finished painting, I walked around that giant park of a zillion trees. As a muralist, I am always aware of blank walls, and I counted 7 concrete block restrooms, all painted white, all with multiple walls screaming for murals.

I photographed several of the buildings, photoshopped some of my paintings onto the plain buildings, then wrote up a proposal to present to a committee that meets 4 times a year. I also wrote a letter and asked to be on the next meeting’s agenda.

Then, The Plague struck. No response to anything I requested, no followup, nothing.

A few months ago, the Arts Consortium invited artists to submit five designs apiece, each proportioned to fit a 4×8′ horizontal mural. Five artists would be selected to paint a mural on a restroom. I submitted 5 ideas, and included my photoshopped versions for their visualizing convenience. (Always make it easy for the customer!)

Eventually, I got a congratulatory email saying my painting of the North Fork had been selected for one of the restrooms. Not my favorite, but I have painted and sold this scene about three times, so it seemed like a good candidate for a juried situation.

Next, I got instructions that all the muralists would be painting their restrooms on the same weekend, from a Friday through a Monday, and would be finished on that Monday, no exceptions, so there.

I looked at the weather, saw that Friday would be 104, contacted the nice man at the Arts Consortium and asked for a postponement or to be fired.

Being reasonable, he agreed that paint dries too fast in those conditions and went to the committee making the decisions.

We were then allowed to pick our own four day block to paint, and I chose September 21-24.

The forms began flying back and forth, along with a visual to remind me which painting had been selected, and a photo of it on “my” restroom wall.

Excuse me??

All-righty-then! So, I will be painting Yokohl Creek, which might indeed be my favorite. (GREEN!!)

Supposed to begin tomorrow, but many of the project details have been fluid, so time will tell. . .

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Mooney Museum Mural, Day 3B

After I finished the mural on the left side panel, I moved over to the right side panel to begin painting redwood trees, AKA sequoia gigantea, AKA Big Trees.

After looking through a small stack of pretty good photos of redwoods in sunlight, I chose one. Then I looked down at my scattering of business cards and got a laugh.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.

I decided to put in sky colored background to define the edges of the trees, (including some smaller trees).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.

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Mooney Museum Mural, Day 3A

First, the name of the museum is Tulare County Museum, and it is in Mooney Grove. This is a county park. Just wanted to clarify, because the title of my blog posts about this mural make it sound as if the museum is called the “Mooney Museum”. I just like alliteration.

This is how the mural looked when I arrived on Day #3.