TWO MAN LIFTS DOWN, YET NOT DOWN AND OUT

At the end of each day, part of my routine is turning off the genie lift and plugging it in to charge it for the next day. Unfortunately, I found I was not turning off the man lift properly, so it only received a partial charge. After only using the lift for a few hours, it died. The solution came down to requesting a second lift out of three the client owns. Just as they brought a second lift and I climbed up in it to get back to work, it was obvious that I was going to be no better off. The red charge indicator light on the second lift also started flashing. Oh well... To adjust, I went back to the old fashioned method of using ladders. Since the ladders were not tall enough, we compensated again --- by mixing up a large batch of creamy snow colored artist oils then thinning the mixture down so we could roll (instead of brush) it on. In order to reach certain areas, we had to use a roller with an extension pole. I prefer the brush and applying it by hand. It simply looks better.

On Friday, I have a few documents to finish up and get in the mail before a major deadline with an opportunity next year. If my artwork is juried in, I will be spending three months in Scottsdale, Arizona (January through March) selling my artwork directly to art collectors. My wife and I are empty nesters now. Since we are not so tied down, it will be much easier to travel and focus on art. My wife wants to learn how to paint in watercolors. Wintering in Scottdale would be much more pleasant than Central Utah and there is so much to paint in the area.

Plan on checking back in Tuesday of next week to see some more progress on the mural. by then, two man lifts should be well charged up and ready to use. By the end of next week, I hope to have the entire wall tinted with base colors so no white will be showing through. WHen that happens, we get down to serious painting. See you soon!

PLEIN AIR PAINTING FOR ONE WEEK AUGUST 2-7th

Hello everyone! I'm back to the mural sight with my paints and big brushes. It has been a while since I went out in the open air to plein air paint. En plein air means just that --- to paint outside in the open air. The objective is to capture atmospheric light through paint and to also nail the correct colors. In the studio, the plein air sketch can either be finished or used as a color and design reference for a larger piece. This blog shows a picture of me painting plein air and another picture demonstrates a plein air painting, painted first outside then finished in the studio. The object in attending this workshop was to tune into the correct atmospheric colors outside, then bring this influence into my studio and mural works. The instructor, Linda Curley, is also an accomplished mural painter. I had fun the whole week!

Today, back on the "Godzilla Mural Project", I managed to block in several warm and cool colors into the sky. After a basic foundation of acrylic underpainting mostly in cool colors, I got out my oil paints and big brushes. Although I had some warmer colors for the sky premixed in acrylic paints, I prefer working in artist oils, so I dipped into the yellow, white and red, with a touch of blue oil colors, to block in the reflected light from the sun setting in the western sky. The object of this project is to recreate the twilight time of day showing the last few minutes of intense evening light. So far, so good.