Mural to Hibernate ( 'til spring '13 )

Mounting this mural will not be easy.

It comes as no surprise with a mural project of this scale that the permanent mounting will be a formidable undertaking, especially now that the planning committee has decided that the superstructure will be engineered to hold the fifty 4' x 8' panels up so that the bottom will begin ten feet in the air. This means that the top of the mural extant will soar a full thirty feet off terra firma. Considering that the surface of the mural is a whopping one-thousand and six-hundred square feet, it will constitute an engineering challenge to overbuild the structure to withstand the inevitable force of what can amount to gale force winds here on the Canadian prairies. That is a huge 'sail'! 

In the coming months, we will be unveiling the master plan for the dedicated site where the mural will be installed, just south of Young School facing the #2 highway. The plan is to erect the mural on its own site complete with a drive-in access off the highway, a rest stop with washrooms and of course a viewing bench at the so-called 'sweet spot' where the view is optimal. I mention this because you will find that a certain distance is required for the best viewing experience...too close a viewing position will be counter-productive as it is so huge that the whole thing will not be visible. I don't think there will be any issues with distant viewing; I have looked at the mural from as far away as bout 100 feet (inside the rink) and can report that a distance of twice that far would still be well within reason.

Taking this into consideration, the committee has in their wisdom opted to contract with an engineering firm in Saskatoon to draw up and certify the plans for the steel structure that must be over-built by a factor of X10 to ensure that it truly is permanent.

Thankfully, we have a very generous corporate sponsor in place that is underwriting the cost of engineering. Now the trick is to generate the final chunk of financing required to pay for the actual steel, cement and hardware that the engineers will call for with their plans.

Nor will it be cheap.

Word on the street is that the cost of erecting this mural will likely surpass the fees that I have required for my professional services as the designer and painter of the mural proper! 

But it WILL happen. In the spring of '13.

Recalling that the mural was painted inside the hockey rink at Young, it only stands to reason that as the weather evolved from fall to early winter, it was imperative to clear out of that space to allow the rink committee to proceed with preparing the natural ice for the onslaught of the hockey season, as the Young rink hosts a very busy agenda of games starting pdq.

Although I would be the first to freely admit that this 'process' is about as exciting as watching paint dry, I thought I would faithfully chronicle the de-construction of the mural as it came down off its temporary frame and was securely packed and stored in its steel container ( "C-Can" ) where it will hibernate until the spring of 2013.

Dismantling the temporary frame was a fairly tedious undertaking that involved a lot of un-screwing. We planned ahead and used screws throughout in anticipation that it would have to disassembled after the mural's completion.

Shewin and I stacked all of the panels in position in the corner of the rink closest to the exit, in preparation for their winter storage.

I suppose that this picture might seem to be rather anti-climatic...but trust me, it took a LOT of energy to get to this point where all that remains standing is the basic skeleton, ready to drop onto the rink floor for the final dis-assembly. Remember, the frame is a full eighty by sixteen feet, so it represents a bit of work even at this late juncture.

With the help of a couple of very generous volunteers, we were finally able to send the wall back down on its face for the final un-screwing. As you can see, only about three pieces of lumber were shattered in the process. Not bad considering the huge 'boom' that occurred at the moment of impact.

Once all of the panels were removed from the frame and stacked methodically in the corner  of the rink, we recruited several generous volunteers from the community to assist in carrying each panel into the C-Can for winter storage.

All of the fifty panels were stacked with spacers in between and beneath to allow air flow as well as to prevent any shifting over the winter. Great care was taken to ensure that all the panels were not allowed to contact any of their neighboring panels so that scraping or scratching of the precious painted surfaces would be prevented.

A final sweep of the snow, dust and debris was carefully performed by Dennis Sather of the Centennial Committee before the C-Can was sealed for the winter.

Ready to Rock the Red

With each successive glaze, the contrast grows stronger but just as important so does the resolution. And the red glaze is no exception...in fact it is one of the most powerful defining moments in the evolution of the mural.

The images are no longer merely amorphous...rather, at this stage the strength and character of the brushstrokes becomes abundantly obvious. It's a 'do or die' situation when it comes to the red.

The previous glaze (orange) needed to be applied super carefully, because the only guide was the 'plot point' sketch created with pencils. It was time-consuming to the utmost, due to the fact that it felt like a high wire act without a net, as the very sketchy guide lines do not help a whole lot in shoring up confidence. At that point I was heavily reliant on the dossier of source photos for reference. But now that the base glaze of orange is successfully applied, I am more free to fly with my brushes dipped in the powerful cadmium red medium.

As was the case with the orange glaze (as I pointed out in my previous post) it is paramount to make every brush stroke count, as these early glazes set the mood and template for all of the future glazes that will ultimately land us at the finished product. If you look carefully you will see that there is a lot of character and personality in the brushwork that defines the details and textures of the railway station. Even at this early stage.

I like the way that the railway station nicely anchors the lower left-hand side of the composition while forming a solid gravity that stitches it to the other buildings that sit at about 2:00 directly above and to the right. As I am just seeing it for the first time in the mural, I appreciate now that my design instincts were right on the mark with the scale and composition in this case.

You can see that the massive steam engine is rapidly coming into resolution with the addition of the red glaze. Although it will be a few days yet, I can already imagine how imposing it will appear with the following glazes: violet, pthalo blue, etc. Can you spot the two figures just beginning to emerge? They are there to establish the scale of the steam engine, incidentally the very first to pull into the rail-yards at Young back in the mid 19-teens.

What you are seeing is the result of almost a full day's patient glazing as I work methodically from left to right in two passes of about 4-5 feet swaths. If all goes well, I oughta be able to finish this stage in two or three more long days and then it's on to what is maybe my favorite glaze...violet. So stay tuned!

Ready for RED! (But not till next post)

Just about finished the orange glaze...only a few more vacancies to fill with the breaking detail.

A distant shot shows the organic growth of the orange glaze across the wall. I love my magic mural-painting brushes that do all the work. I just hang on for the ride as the brushes do their thing.

For this photo, I climbed up to the top of a ten-foot ladder. I figured that would give us a more square-on impression of the work-in-progress. From the side that is.

I backed way up about fifty feet for this shot. You can see now that the orange glaze pretty much uniformly inhabits the golden flesh-colored field. There is a nice interplay between the positive (orange) and negative ( golden) space. Or is that the reverse?

The cluster of images that finally anchor the extreme lower right-hand side of the design have been carefully balanced and counter-balanced to act as a landing spot for the eyes after they have perused the entirety of the composition.

Orange you Glad that Phase II is Started?

There's something about starting the day off with a nice cup of orange...glaze...that soothes the soul.

Facing down another -albeit the last- long stretch of 8' x 80' wall. Taking a deep breath, I steel myself for the final slog on this marathon of painting.

As per usual with my technique, I invest in a 'global glaze' where each successive glaze (in the first instance 'Hansa Orange Medium') is applied over the entire surface to basically separate the dark from the light. I consider this and all of the subsequent glazes to be a 'full-spectrum tonal study' that eventually sidles up to the natural color.

One day's painting yields about one-third of the first glaze. If patience is a virtue then this must be a truly virtuous undertaking! 

Winding up Phase I, Stoked to Start Phase II

Winding up Phase I, stoked to start Phase II of the 'forever YOUNG' mural project, as these photos will show:

Time to start prepping the newly-installed bottom row of twenty 4' x 8' panels with 100% acrylic polymer primer...the good stuff.

Working my way down yet another eighty-foot expanse of wall with the primer.

 Finished that step of priming, now it's time to re-mount the row above for perfect registration down to the bottom.

Daniel Bushman from our local newspaper ( The Watrous- Manitou) popped in yesterday to interview me and Lil Sather -one of the big driving forces behind the project and member of the 100 Years Young Centennial Mural Committee- for a feature article that will appear in next week's edition. Hope they print some color shots :) Note my faithful friend and persistent assistant Sherwin Peterson affixing the panel with his trusty cordless drill while I roll on the last few square feet of primer.

Daniel Bushman of TWM posing inside the 'curve' of the top twenty panels as they temporarily rest in the corner of the rink.

Lil Sather and Sherwin Peterson look at the top section of the 'forever YOUNG' mural 'in the round'.

Mural in the round...sort of. The effect of placing the panels in the curve of the corner of the boards (of the rink) is really interesting. Makes me think of a 'diarama'. In this position, it takes on an added three-D effect, kinda like an IMAX screen that fills your whole field of vision.

Fixed the 'Subscriber' issue

A lot of people have mentioned to me that they have been unable to subscribe to my 'Art of Michael R. Gaudet' blog due to a glitch in the widget that I have been (trying) to use up till now. Well I looked into it and have hopefully fixed the problem. Now you can subscribe by email or if you are a Google + user there is also that option. Since I started working on the 'forever YOUNG' mural about seven weeks ago this blog has had well over 10,000 visitors, but not that many subscribers.
Now, you do not have to check in to see if I have updated with a new post; when you select one of the subscriber options you will receive an automatic notification whenever I publish an update...usually about two or three times a week.
My intention with this project blog is to simply share the work-in-progress so you can witness first hand the evolution of this humungous mural. There is still quite a ways to go...I have pretty much finished the top 12' by 80' portion and now I am just about to start the second big chunk...the bottom 8' x 80' to finish.
So hang on, there will lots of fun stuff to follow yet to come!
But I think the most exciting part will be when it's finished and erected outside the rink at Young, Saskatchewan for all of the world to see. The process of mounting this huge mural will be a sight to behold so you will not want to miss it.
You will see on the upper right-hand side of this page that there is a pop out menu with subscriber options.
Have a great day, enjoy yourself and let me know if you have any problem in the future with the subscription process. I'll do my best to make it as easy as possible.

Signing off for now from the beautiful Resort Village of Manitou Beach,


Michael.

Let there be (Native) Color!

After the full-spectrum tonal study it is time to introduce the local or native colors into the mix. Surprisingly, this happens quite quickly, as all of the groundwork has been laid.

Say goodbye to the strange-looking colors that previously dominated the scene. In the coming days everything will begin to appear lush and vividly convincing...now that I am into the natural hues superimposed over the full-spectrum tonal study.

In a matter of a just a few more days, I can now say with confidence that all of the detail and colors will be coalescing to create a startling illusion of reality, albeit on a fairly gigantic scale.

You can now plainly see how the figures are really starting to pop three dimensionally out of the background. But with no trickery beyond the judicious use of contrast and field of depth techniques. For example, all of the layers are applied with careful consideration so as NOT to create lumps and bumps in the paint. I do not subscribe to the idea of plastering on a thickness of paint that lamely imitates a low-relief effect. For me, the surface of the finished painting remains relatively smooth. I am a purist in that way and always have been.

 

Introducing the actual colors that signify the various companies that ran the parade of grain elevators in the heyday of Young, SK.

Move Over Orange...

My computer-generated rendering that demonstrates approximately how the finished mural will appear.

...there's a red that wants to meet you!

A pail of red glaze all ready for application. The acrylic pigment is very concentrated and for my purposes must be diluted to a semi-transparent state for glazing over the original orange glaze. All of the subsequent glazes yet to come will be similarly transparent/translucent so that in the end all of the global glazes will retain their power while interacting in varying degrees with their fellow glazes..one big happy family of co-existing hues in a full-spectrum tonal analysis.

Even with the addition of just the second ( of a total of about 10-12 glazes at least) the red glaze, you can see how the forms immediately start to pop.

Rolling down the plank rail in front of the mural with paint-brushes flying...

A good day's work gets me to about the half-way point of the 80' wall.

Dennis Sather caught me up on the scaffold just as I was getting close to finishing the eighty-foot pass with the red glaze at the eight foot level.

The 'skyline' begins to appear as the red glaze is completed at the horizon.

The same thing from a different perspective that favors the right-hand side of the mural.