Carmen Mural Complete

The Carmen mural is nearly finished. I just have to re-grid it and mark it for installation. The lower section is the image on the left and the top part is on the right. Once it is installed, the total dimensions will be 11 feet high by 5 feet wide. I am pleased with the color saturation and the density of the figures within the composition. I am looking forward to seeing the two pieces together on the wall. The figure on the upper right, on the balcony, is a quotation from Manet. In general I was looking a lot at the figure groupings of Piero della Francesco, especially in the parade of matadors. The two female figures on the right, the "cigarette workers" are as intimidating as they are in the opera! Two of my favorite figures are the little boy on the right and the boy peeking out between the two matadors. Sometimes while I was working, he would catch my eye and wink. I am sure he will do the same for the people he will be living with!

Progress on the Carmen Mural

Here are some more pictures of the Carmen Mural in progress. I am happy to be finished with the top part because standing on the scaffolding near the ceiling was very hot. I could feel the heat radiating down from the roof. It is much cooler near the floor, as you can see from the photo of my two studio muses stretched out by my painting table!

Portfolio Students-Congratulations!!!

Congratulations to all my talented students who are heading off to college next month. Some of the schools that my former students are attending:
Rhode Island School of Design
Maryland College of Art and Design
Savannah College of Art and Design
Wesleyan University
Oberlin
Art Institute of Boston/Lesley University
University of Pennsylvania/PAFA
Smith
Bowdoin
St.Mary's of Maryland
Penn State
Hobart and William Smith
Mary Washington

*Bike drawing by Elizabeth Von Oehsen RISD '14

Iced Tea Recipe

Whew! It is hot around here this summer! Here is my favorite recipe for making sweet iced tea. Use a glass container. My mason jar fits 14 cups of water. Here is the recipe:

14 cups of filtered water
7 tea bags
1 cup pure cane sugar
4 -5 big sprigs of mint
Put everything in the jar. Close tightly and swirl it around to stir up the sugar. Place it outside in full sun for several hours or until the tea is a very deep golden brown. It should be very strong! Take it inside and pull out the tea bags and mint. Pour over ice, or put in the fridge to cool. This is a great picker upper on a hot day.

Opera Mural #3 Carmen

I have started the third of my Opera Murals for my wonderful clients on Capitol Hill. This one is based on the opera Carmen, and will be about six feet wide by eleven feet tall. Like the others it will disguise a secret elevator door. There will be a tiny doorknob which when pulled will open the mural to reveal-an elevator! The bottom image is the drawing on canvas of the lower part of the mural. It is charcoal, on fire retardant muslin that has been primed with tinted gesso. The main figures of Carmen and Don Jose will end up just about at the viewer's eye level when the mural is installed. In the foreground are the women from the cigarette factory as well as little street urchins and some matadors in fancy hats. In the middle ground is Don Jose's rival on a white horse. (I can't wait to paint that!) and in the distance is the bull fighting arena with a bullfight going on. The image on the top is the upper part of the mural, also drawn in charcoal on canvas. This is the balcony above the arena. It is populated by soldiers and ladies in hats holding fans. I am about to start with the color, so please check back to see the progress.

"Dog and Man" oil on panel

I finished a portrait this week, that I have been working on for awhile. It is 24" x 36", oil on panel. The subject is a Boykin Spaniel and his man. The Boykin's name is Willy and he is the most cheerful dog I have ever met. I first prepared the panel with 5 coats of gesso, sanding between each coat. For this kind of portrait I like a very smooth surface because the paint strokes are so small. Next I put an imprimatura over the gesso, using a mixture of Gamblin Transparent Orange and Alizarin Crimson. I thin this into a transparent glaze with Galkyd. I like to get rid of the white gesso before starting the underpainting. I then proceeded with the underpainting using Gamblin Chromatic Black and Titanium White, keeping the tonal range in a higher scale since darker glazes would be going over it in the following layers. Here are some links for more information.
http://www.boykinspaniel.org/ for more information on wonderful Boykin Spaniels
http://www.gamblincolors.com/ for more information on Gamblin colors and mediums

Ceramic Tiles after Firing

I am happy to say that all 38 tiles were fired without any breakage. They are going to be installed later this week. The contractor has come up with a way to install them so that they can be removed as one piece if the owners ever decide to move. I think the plan is to mortar them to a separate board which will then be attached to the wall, rather than simply mortaring each tile individually to the wall.
And a special thanks to "All Fired Up" on Bethesda Avenue for being so accommodating and fastidious firing these for me.