Ramsay Community Mural Complete!

The summer weather left much to be desired in terms of work days but I managed to finish up the painting when it was nice enough out, no hail, thunder showers or excruciating heat destroying my poor brushes. Here it is take a look!

Its so long, you cant see it all at once or take a single picture of it in its entirety. So I made a quick mock up to give the general impression of the majority of it by patching a bunch of pictures together quickly in Photoshop.

I also got a page featured in the local Ramsay Neighborhood Newsletter on page 13. Its in Black and white and the mural is very colourful but it gives you an idea.

I'd like to take this opportunity to give a shout out and show my gratitude with a special thanks to the following: John Holt for introducing me to Shannon who was my go to person for this project. The Ramsay Community Association for giving me the opportunity to splash paint in my hood. To those volunteers that helped me along the way: Jordan, Greg, Ben, Nolan, Teegan, Becky, Lanny and Cindy. Thank you!

 Above are a few more to help get the idea across if you haven't visited the Ramsay rink to see the completed piece it in person yet.

Filling up - Ramsay Mural

IV on the Ramsay Mural

Its been a lot cooler out, which is really helping with the application of paint. The pigments are covering with fewer layers because it is coming out of the can thicker.

I also brought up a camping chair for the lower bits so I don't have to kneel on the gravel. Unfortunately, it broke within the first hour of using it.

I'm adding pink and purple which is getting me closer to finishing off the pattern in many of the letters.

The remaining white areas will eventually be filled in with blue, a different blue than the background.

My buddy wandered up and reapplied some of the orange he painted to make it less streaky and transparent. It was a super hot day that day and the paint was coming out of the can as thin as ink.

The letters are shaping up. Once they are filled in I will go back and retouch the black outline.

Add more colour to your world

When I'm not teaching my teen camps full time, I sneak in some colour after work and on the week-ends, wether permit tin, on the Ramsay Community rink mural. Got his by some bad storms which really cut down how much I could do this past week but I did have a little help from my friends recently.

My best friend Ben, and niece Teegan, helped me add some orange and magentas while I added some green to the piece.

There is an overall pattern I am following, ROYGBIV and mixing the previous and following colours onto each letter.

One thing I didn't expect that has become apparent as I proceed, is that the pure tones need multiple coats to flatten them out and hide the transparent looking brush strokes. Meaning…… I have many more hours to put in than I anticipated. C'est la vie.

Its nice and quiet when working alone, but much more fun when I have music playing and helping hands. I teach after my day shift tonight but will be back at it tomorrow night and throughout the week-end if anyone out there wants to pop by, message me for details :D

Ramsay Mural - Red handed

Every chance I get after work I get up the hill to put down paint on the Ramsay mural.

I left it a bit too long and it acquired some graffiti, the whole purpose being that this mural would hopefully discourage it altogether, Where it got tagged, I will be painting over it with my signature information.

I started filling in my lightest hue - yellow.

I filled in the many little shapes which has been taking a lot longer than I initially expected and needs multiple coats to cover properly.

The process of filling in the letters gets underway.

On another session I start in on the red.

Some of the letters get a bit more emphasis than others.

I get to the end of the long line of letters and anticipate my next session of paint application.

Ramsay Community Rink mural

I love my neighborhood, ramsay. I was elated to be awarded the opportunity to do another mural for my community. This time it is along a wall over 100 ft. long near the rink, at the top of the hill. The community decided on my preliminary, had the wall primed and I got to work.

There are a lot of invisible steps when making an outdoor mural. First you have to visit the site and take measurements. Then you have to transfer that data to a suitable design template. 

 Then you have to design it and have it approved, in this case by the Ramsay neighborhood community board.

 After that happens, other parts of the machine need to get going, you need to get money and gather the necessary materials, especially the paint colors.

 I definitely will go over budget on the paint but I'd rather get good outdoor plaint that will last if I am going to put many hours in on this piece.

 I managed to get down most of the lettering free hand, with a bit of planning but no measuring to get them to fit in the length properly.

 Then I begin the elaborate flower of life patterning in each letter.

My initial plan had a much larger circumference but this far more detailed version is due to the garbage can lid I decided to use to construct the pattern.

 It is a challenge to go around the posts so I'll have to create a cardboard shape that can bend and fold around the posts.

 I had a friend pick the paradise blue that will be filled in around the letters.

 My nephew Nolan came to visit and "help" me on the mural.

Stay tuned there is more to come.

unveiled-revealed

The project I have been helping Martinho Corriea with and devoting a lot time to could not be shared until now as it has been formally unveiled at the Art Box where our studio has been for the past months.

Here is Martinho giving a speech before the unveiling. It was a classy event, everyone who attended was dressed up, I didn't get the memo and I wore my Totoro cat bus shirt and painty pants, i guess thats the benefit of being one of the artists, I can get away with a fashion faux pas.

Back when it was still cold and snowy we prepped the panels and started in on the background brick work. I am looking forward to seeing how this unfolds and listening to an excessive amount of podcasts.

The level of complexity and detail in the mural Martinho designed makes this particular project time consuming. I was given the main task of being responsible for the flags the guys are waving.

We have a complex dixie cup mixing system. The paint needed to be applied about 4 layers on the whites and reds to get bold coverage. At this point most stuff is blocked in and now we can move onto finer details and modelling the forms better as well as adding some values changes to the waving flags etc.

Tedium……….. up and down the step stool, a hundred times a day, limited palette in my life, the drone of the fan, the crappy overhead lighting. Aaaargh, hit the wall then come back. At some points this project was torture, The scale alone is daunting at times…….luckily the monotony of the day can be broken up by amazing food selection on International avenue. We had indonesian, Indian, Lebanese, Chinese, Italian and so on and so forth, Lunch may have been my daily highlight:) Skip way ahead, Maestro Martinho does all the finishing work and completes it and applies tons of layers of protective varnish.

This iphone photo does not do the pice justice.I am really proud and amazed at how the final composition turned out. There is spectacular, sense of movement and a lot to look at. I learned a lot from working under Martinho, met his friends, was impressed by his considerable ability to concentrate and focus for long periods and the level of professional perfectionism he seeks to obtain his artwork. Overall a great experience and I'm glad he asked me to help out on his Mural. It will be hung in the future along 17th International Avenue so keep an eye out for it. He also has a few others along the strip, the Portuguese themed one above Chicken on the way has been one of my favourites to look at while driving into forest lawn for years (his too, to my surprise!)

Big Rock Cock

Big Rock invited me to work on a mural of their distressed cock logo for a spot in their main space. They want a big round mural to the right of the skylight above the doors. This is the view front he second floor landing a the top of their stairs.

I created a variety of samples for them to choose from.

Each one has different aspects I thought they may like.

The first two are conservative, using their logo with their brown and red pantone colours.

The next are black with gold and red over the brown with a release technique to distress it further.

Here is the one on the right once some of the red paint is peeled away to reveal the brown underneath.

On the next two I decided to try something a bit different, the first, on the right is inspired by the old traditional label and the one on the right is the base layer to create a bottle cap design.

Here is is with a variety of washes and layers to achieve various looks.

On the right you can see how the black layer is removed to reveal the silver and red underpainting.

The Calgary Stampede and exhibition has arrived so my city and this project is on hold until the debauchery ends and the town sobers up. I look forward to hearing from Big Rock what they are interested in.