Rock those Brushes! Firing up Two New Murals...

After several weeks of  negotiating, work has commenced with a vengeance on the two murals for Saskatchewan Government Employees' Union (SGEU). The "negotiating" part involved hashing out what and who specifically would end up being featured in the murals. There were quite a few considerations with this. First and foremost, all of the characters needed to be relevant and topical.

Second, there had to be an "aesthetic" sensitivity to the entire layout. (My job to ensure this!)

I decided to build a temporary frame, to hold the panels, in our back yard.

I suspect that the main reason why my submission to SGEU to undertake this (fairly ambitious) project in the first place was approved out of twenty-six "serious proposals" was mainly due to my mural-painting portfolio. My working portfolio clearly telegraphs the fact that my career has been built on murals. In my case, it is not so much "wishful thinking", as proof positive that I have both the experience and credentials to carry it off.

Like this.

Having dealt successfully with all of these concerns (and more), I was delighted to get a positive green light to go ahead, and have now splashed on the first...um...five or so glazes.

Once the layout was lightly sketched on the primed panels, I was eager to start painting.

 You can imagine, after looking at the sketches for the past few weeks, I was very happy to start actually painting. Put another way, I was biting at the bit! Without any more hesitation, I dove straight into painting. There is not a lot of guesswork here. I have pretty much nailed down the technique now, after so much painting leading up to this project.

By the end of the first, long day of painting, I had pretty much completed the first two glazes.

One of the most exciting things about this technique is that we get to see the entire surface area virtually "come to life" simultaneously. I will not "micro-manage" a certain area...because that would not be the best approach to mural-painting. Rather, it all...paradoxically, gets painted at once, if you get what I mean.

I was happy to find out today that there is a dedicated portal on the www that will feature regular updates on this project. It's really well conceived. Check it out here.