Yea!!!! All Finished!!!!!

I took this photo just before this last panel went into the truck to deliver to the Pavilion.  Yea!  all finished!!!

Another two finished!

I am getting seriously tired of working on these panels but am happy to report that here are two more finished and I have only one to go which is in good progress already so I am seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. 

More Portrait Panels finished!

Well, two more panels refurbished thanks to help from my friend Cheng Lian!  Check out his website at www.chenglian.us 

3 Panels done! 5 more to go.

Well, I have three panels done with the refurbishing and have 5 to go. I have a lot of work done on the others too so it's not like they have to be done from start to finish. The boards have gotten so rough in the weather that repainting on the faces is very difficult now.  Wish me luck!

New portraits on the wall

Here is an update on the pavilion project. Finally

got this family done despite the poor quality photos.  The photo of the mother (lower middle) had to be reversed.  I've never met the family other than the mother so only had the photos to go by.  I hope they like them. Otherwise I will have to get new photos.

Wednesday and Thursday's Efforts

This is another area of the "Patron's Courtyard" portrait mural.  I've been working on this family for the last two days. Not finished obviously and missing one of the subjects who is on another board. 

  The portraits are catagorized by the size of the head from chin to hairline.  These are quite a bit bigger than the Hometown hero portrait of Tuesday.  HTH portraits are 3" and these are actually 5" so they take longer to do. 

   I find painting portraits in acrylic very difficult because the paint is hard to blend so I have taken to putting layer over layer until it looks right.  I know there are blending mediums and slow drying mediums but since the portraits are so exposed to the elements I like to try to keep them as pure as possible in hopes they will last better. When they are finished I coat them with a sealer.

Tuesdays work

This is one of the "Hometown Heros" from this past year.  It's acrylic on plywood prepared with gesso. I didn't finish his shirt yet because part of it is on another board that is usually installed next to this one and I want the paint to match on both sides.

   Hurricane Ike destroying the huge tent like cover over the Mitchell Pavilion which is now being repaired.  During the remodeling the 8 mural boards were removed to make way for the heavy equipment passage.  This is such a wonderful opportunity for me because I now get to bring the boards home to my studio and actually work inside to paint and restore them!  I have three now and have spent quite a bit of time mostly cleaning and resealing them and am now getting down to the fun part of getting caught up on the portraits.  Fortunately the boards were not damaged in the hurricane but the elements have taken their toll on the acrylic paint over the years.  I have until May to restore them before they have to be reinstalled.  Okay, back to work!

trying to catch up and upload photos again!

Remember this painting? I finally finished it in April according to the date on my photo! I spent some time modifying the values and center of interest after discussing John Salminen's approach to abstract watercolors with my friend and fellow artist Diane St. Germaine


I am still working on the Pavillion portraits but the weather has not cooperated very much this year. The wall is in full weather and sun so when it is wet or too hot or too windy, I can't paint. I am now also in the process of trying to preserve the previous artist's work, as it is deteriorating very quickly. I am experimenting with painting over each fading portrait with a coat of outdoor acrylic varnish, in hopes of just stopping them where they are until I can get to each one and restore the colors.
I have more finished paintings but can't locate the photos on the computer at the moment. More later! Cheers, Tonya

A beautiful day in the neighborhood!

It's a beautiful day today and finally a little cool. I should be working on this mural at the Cynthia Mitchel Pavillion here in The Woodlands, but it is Monday and I have so much other catching up stuff to do today. I will probably go tomorrow morning. These are some of the "hometown heroes" and this particular photo shows the Mitchels themselves. It is a big project and I have two more in this line that are unfinished and then they are also adding two more that I haven't even gotten the photos for yet. There are also some private portraits that are going up on the other end that I have only gotten the white base painted for. I will try to find a photo of that.

Here is a photo of one of the private portraits in the transfer stage. I use clear plastic to lay over the original drawing and then trace with permenant marker. I tape this up and then slip some transfer paper behind it and trace it off. The clear plastic has been a real breakthrough because it is so much easier to place the new figures between others that have already been done.

After I trace them on the wall, I then fill in the outline with geso for several coats sanding in between coats to get a nice smooth surface to paint on. This also covers the dark underlying green. When that's done I can then easily put the clear plastic tracing back up and align it and trace off the details to begin the portrait.

Here is a view of the Hometown heros for this year in the geso stage. The head sizes on those are 3 inches. The closest people in the front in white shirts with flags are 7 inch heads. The Home town heros are high enough up that I have to use a stepstool ladder to stand on to paint them.