making the process easier

today we hung up one of the primed 12ftx18ft canvases. one of our leaders built a hanging system that was installed yesterday. and hooks were fashioned today to be able to hook into the grommit eyes on the canvas and set into the hanging racks on the wall.

our next step is to project outlines up onto the canvas, with overheads, of the images we will be painting. we will trace them with chalk. this will help to make it easier for the painting process (because we will be painting the canvases flat on the floor and it can be difficult to get correct perspective and placement from that angle).

remember...we have 3 of these panels to do. all 3 will create one large painting to be hung up behind the stage in the church sanctuary. we'll be painting them over the next few weeks.

PRIMING

today myself and our VineArts director began working on our next sanctuary backdrop. we have 2 sets of canvas panels (3 panels each set) which form a triptic mural painting that hangs behind the main stage. each panel is 12ft x 18ft. this is the 3rd mural backdrop we've worked on in little over a years' time. so in order to paint this one we needed to prime over one of the mural paintings in order to create a new one.

the panels are so large that we lay them out on the floor in a huge garage to paint on them. that's a photo of me standing on one of the canvas panels pouring primer onto it with a ladel. then we used long handled rollers to spread the primer to cover the canvas.

you may be gasping thinking about us painting over such a huge and memorable painting (but we did take lots of photos of it before we ruined it). this is somewhat of a normal thing for artists to do...to paint over other paintings. it was a little sad to cover over the painting underneath (see the post "RE:FORM")...but we didn't mourn too long...it was great fun spreading the primer all over it. and now we have 3 huge blank canvases to create something new and exciting on for the congregation.

and currently the 2nd backdrop mural painting is still hanging in the sanctuary (see the post "Painting the Heart of David") and will continue to hang until this new one is ready to go up (as it will coincide with an upcoming sermon series for the church).

we'll be painting any chance we get over the next few weeks...this new backdrop will be hung up by June sometime. i'll try to post updates for you as the new painting comes to life.

Still Alive

tonight i painted live at a venue downtown Boise called The Record Exchange. my friend Jerry Fee and his band were playing there live to release their new cd titled "Still Alive".

it was an amazing experience to create a painting throughout their entire set. i was positioned just a few feet away from the stage. and by the end of the night i felt like part of the band.
the painting is themed to coincide with the new cd. the lyrics of the songs are all throughout the background of the painting. the images i used all work into what the songs are about. and the overall color scheme and look of the painting was inspired by the cd cover painted by another artist friend of Jerry's.
here is the finished painting. it is an 18x24 mixed media abstract on canvas. i used ink, oil paint, latex house paint, paper images, matte medium, & acrylic paint. it was raffled off to a member of the audience at the end of the evening.
here is a wee snippet of me painting live to the song "Still Alive" as Jerry and his band play live. i apologize that the video is sideways. it was recorded verticle and for some reason i can't seem to get it to play that way. hopefully it won't distract you and you can get a taste of how i paint.

i want to give a big thank you to all who came out to see the show and also to Jerry Fee, his family, and his band for letting me PLAY with them. it was a blast! Jerry...your music is inspiring!

photos & video taken by E.M.