Welcome to the weekend! It's wonderful to have a day or two off after working so many days in a row for the gallery and traveling. Plus I am getting SUPER EXCITED for all the holiday fun coming up! Ive already started shopping and thinking about decorations. I am trying my best to hold off as long as I can though I do admit that I am listening to some Christmas Music Playlists while I write today's blog....shhhh don't tell anybody.
This past Thursday I spent as usual at my gramcrackers house for dinner. As I have recently talked about in the blogs, she has had me painting a rather large mural on one of her living room walls. Last year for Christmas I gave her a wood burned piece of art from Cloud Nine Studios - Feather and birds
My grandmother loved it so much she wanted me to paint a more realistic copy of the piece on her wall. It's been months and months but I finally finished the piece! When I began I knew it would take quite some time. Mostly because I could only get over to my grandmother's house once a week for dinner for a few hours and by the time we caught up and ate I only had an hour or two for painting.
She was incredibly patient and it was so nice to see it come alive a little but at a time each week. Many times she would be impressed with simply the under layer of the painting. It was exciting as the artist knowing how I could make it come over more alive when it was finished.
I have painted on walls a few times before this but mostly I have only worked on movable surfaces previous to this mural. It was interesting to figure out how to move my brush in ways I was uncomfortable with to hit spots I may have missed or wanted to fix when the paint was wet near my hand. Normally I am able to rotate my surface it I need to but with the painting being on the wall, I had to learn to adapt.
I am typically I pretty clean and organized painter. I don't use a ton of paint on my brushes and I tend to be able to wear whatever I like because I am very aware of were all my paint is. At times I thought I should have changed from my nice gallery clothes but chose to stay in whatever it was that I was wearing so I was extra careful not to get paint on parts of the walls I didn't want to or drop anything on the carpet! Oil paint is almost impossible to get out of things without ruining the original surfaces with chemicals/mineralspirits.
We added a Leo symbol above the feather to represent my Papa who passed. To my grandmother, the feather is symbolic of his spirit leaving the physical world and evolving into the the next. Each one of the three birds is an representation of the transformation. The first on the left is blurry and undefined, the seconded with a few details, and the final very defined and bold.
In the end, I am extremely happy and proud of how it has turned out. I tried to take some photos along the way and don't have the best finished product images. When I finished it was late and the lighting is difficult to photograph with. But here you have it!
Thanks for stopping by today's blog! I hope you enjoyed the images of my process and journey through the feather mural! It was a great experience that taught me many new things and also gave me confidence in areas I might have been lacking. Hopefully I can show better pictures of the final piece soon! Let me hear you thoughts in the comments below!
Until Tomorrow - Dream Away
Samantha Menzo
Etsy Featured Item of the Day:
Feather Bracelet by - LeChaim
Song of the Day:
Seal - Fly like an Eagle
Color of the Day:
Garden Oasis 699 Paint
