Sunday, June 24, 2007

Here’s an update on the Lincoln/Douglas mural progress (see the June 12 post.) We had a deal with the farmers here in Ottawa, Illinois. We let it rain at night to help the corn grow and they let the sun shine during the day so we could paint our mural. The deal fell apart on Saturday, when rain kept us off the wall until mid-afternoon. Still, I think we’ve made pretty good headway after 2 ½ weeks of painting.
An overall view, with Jared at the far end talking with Tom, an Ottawa native and frequent visitor. Lots of people sit in the beautiful park across the road from the mural and watch us work. I guess you could call it performance art.
Another angle on the mural. Trying to portray an energetic crowd.
I figure if there were trees in the park during the debate in 1858, there had to be kids in them. You can see some of the underlying line drawing on the unpainted part at lower left.
A closeup of some of the figures in process.
I sneak up on Jared with the camera.

9 comments:

Robin Weiss said...

This is quite an ambitious project and its coming along very well, What a blast to do a mural like this with your son, talk about bonding!

Nice work, Don and Jered and thanks for sharing the process.

Anonymous said...

That's a huge mural. I was asked by my new neighbor to paint a mural, but I passed on it because I don't have a clue how to begin. And where do I get scaffolding? What type of paint would I use?

Now my pastor is asking me to paint a mural on the side of his garage. I told him to choose some photos and that we could project the images onto the wall. Is that how it's done?

Jelaine Faunce said...

I bow to your superior mural skills. I used to be a muralist and I thought it was going to be the death of me. When I switched to working from home, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. LOL You and Jared have done a magnificent job on this wall. Just amazing.

Don Gray said...

Silvina,
Projecting is the way I usually get the lines on the wall to start. I make a line drawing of the design to scale and use a portable 3M transparency projector.

Most Home Depots rent scaffolding very reasonably--same price for a week as for a day.

I use Novacolor artist's acrylics, from Artex Manufacturing. They're in Culver City.

Good luck!

Don Gray said...

Jelaine,
Thanks for the encouraing words. I know what you mean. I enjoy working on such a large scale from time-to-time and getting out of my hermit existence but then it's a relief to get back in the studio.

Don Gray said...

Robin,
Yes, it's terrific to work with Jared. He used to help on quite a few projects, but this is the first one he's been free to help on in about 5 years. We're having fun.

Don Gray said...

Silvina,
Projecting is the way I usually get the lines on the wall to start. I make a line drawing of the design to scale and use a portable 3M transparency projector.

Most Home Depots rent scaffolding very reasonably--same price for a week as for a day.

I use Novacolor artist's acrylics, from Artex Manufacturing. They're in Culver City.

Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Thanks Don, and I should have said, this is a gorgeous mural. That tree with the kids in it is so beautifully rendered. And all of those people's faces! Very impressive. Must be so satisfying to stand back and admire it.

Don Gray said...

Thanks, Silvina!