Hopkins Honda in progress

This is my fifth holiday season doing painted windows at Luther Hopkins Honda. Still loving it.

The photo above is how it looked after around 7 hours' work -- typically the point at which I run out of steam and have to quit, or I'll later look at it and wish I had quit.

Below, how it looked at around 5 minutes,  while I was figuring out placement of the various elements.

A note for anyone out there who creates stuff, or wants to create stuff, but keeps not doing it because of that terror of "I have no clue how this works" that stops you. That fear is normal. I had it yesterday when I looked at this window, and I'll have it again today when I start the next one. And then it'll be fine. It always is.

Dangerously Close to Done

This is a 48 x 60" canvas in progress at La Patisserie bakery, corner of Snelling and Randolph. If you haven't visited, I recommend it; great made-on-site baked wonders and the friendliest people anywhere.

The top image is where I left off today, and below is how it looked when I started. I won't be back there until Friday morning and should be finished by Friday around 5.

  

More Winter Painting at Hopkins Honda

 

These were done before Thanksgiving, but I just got photos yesterday afternoon. All are acrylic (water based) paints directly on plate glass, and will be removed sometime in spring. 

Hopkins Honda

Once again, I have decorated the interior windows at Luther Hopkins Honda for the holiday season. This is my fourth year doing this job, and I still love it.

The guys in the Service Department adore their deer and pheasant this year. I enjoy making them smile.

  The pheasant was a last-minute decision for me, as a way to add more life and color to the snowy scenes.

This work is all in acrylic paint and flat interior white latex, for the snow. At the end of the season, it gets scraped off; that part is not my job. The paint adheres well, but only as long as it stays dry, so I imagine they wet it down before razor-scraping it off.

Progress at International Market Square

 

The same curvature that made this wall ideal for a mural also makes it terribly difficult to photograph. I sure wish I could call in my brother. He'd capture it beautifully, but I don't have the budget to have this particular job photographed. 

Yesterday I got the ruined temple painted in, solidified a lot of the landscape around it, and then did some work on the lower foreground areas to give them a bit of depth and detail. Today I am going to lunch with Julie Dasher of Concept Interiors and some other new friends in the building, and will continue with the process. I expect to finish there tomorrow afternoon.

Completely Enchanted! The finished mural

5 p.m. on 9/11/11 at Wet Paint Art Supplies; tired and happy with the finished work.

 

See Enchanted Makeovers for more about the organization. The mural will be on display at their booth at the Creative Connection Marketplace on Sept. 16 and 17. Many many thanks to Wet Paint for donating the canvas and paints, and to The Creative Connection for all their assistance.

Most common questions people were asking:

What it's made of: Acrylic paint and a LOT of waterborne faux finishing glaze, on canvas.

How long it took: Approximately 24 hours' work for me, plus a few extra for my Valiant Volunteers. This is LIGHTNING speed for a project this size -- 10' long x 5' high.

Is this a specific place somewhere in the world? It's inspired by scenery here in Minnesota as well as in France and Italy, but it's an allegorical landscape rather than a literal one.

A Mural for Transformation

This is a thumbnail sketch, four by five inches. It's a mural design, made to order for Terry at Enchanted Makeovers -- click the link to find out more than I could possibly tell you here. What they're doing is incredible.

In my life I have been blessed never to have endured violence. I know so many women who have. When asked to donate some of my time and talent to help them, I said yes.

I get to lead a few other volunteers in tag-team painting this mural. I'll do the drawing and give instruction and paint right along with them, and we'll all have a great time. Once complete, it'll go to the Enchanted Makeovers booth at The Creative Connection Event. After the event, it will be placed in the offices/intake area of the women's shelter, to greet and reassure new clients as they arrive.

I won't pretend that I don't want the recognition and financial gain that comes with success; of course I do. But this is what I think art is for, no matter the form it takes: it helps us see the best possibilities in ourselves and our future.

StarTribune Snapshot

Yesterday's StarTribune article, written by Lynn Underwood. Click image to enlarge.

Posting this because the online version lacks photos and I have heard from a few people who missed yesterday's paper -- or who live in other parts of the country. This is a snapshot; the article was far too large to fit on my little scanner.

I have waited 12 years for this!

 

Appaloosa Foal, about 44" high (life size), for a girl's room in Mahtomedi.

Seriously. I was That Girl Who Drew Horses, back in high school. When I began painting murals, I thought that naturally I would get to paint horses on walls from time to time. That was a dozen years ago; this was today. While I have had two jobs in which horses were incidental to the picture, this is the first time in all these years that someone has asked me to simply paint a horse.

I was thrilled. And I have had a lovely day.

Pegasus sketch for a ceiling mural

Sketch for the ceiling of a girl's room. I'd have this on my own ceiling if I could.

This is one of the things I'm working on today. One of several. I think it counts toward my 30 Days even though it's my job, right?

What I do is visit the house and take snapshots of the area the owners want painted. I then print those photos onto plain paper, sketch my design ideas right in, and scan the drawing and email it to the client. It really helps them see what I have in mind and give me feedback.

So that's what this is -- a preliminary sketch in pastel pencil and a couple colors of pastel, on a snapshot I took at the house. Colors and other things will be refined and adjusted as I go (the pinks here really shifted toward a dull yellow tone -- not much like what I actually drew; and the red-clay colored lines will be a pretty blue-violet in the actual painting).

Florida Update Again

It was COLD on that patio/balcony today, folks. Sunny, beautiful, windy, and by the time we stopped painting, our fingers were numb.

These walls are very rough stucco. Yes, artists can paint on it, and it can look very good. It just takes about twice as long as working on a smooth surface.

I pretty much spent the day painting palm fronds. The trees are all my work.

Martha adding some flowers to the plants I painted. We do this kind of tag-teaming a lot.

Taking flight

Detail of glass elevator panel

Kestrels always make me smile, so I enjoyed this very much. Finished the job yesterday afternoon.

Full panel at upper level

Finished pathway on glass door. This is what you see when you enter the foyer of the house.

More from the Elevator House

Moments after I finished painting, in the foyer of the Orono house.

This is FRESH paint -- I put down my brush and picked up my camera. If you look closely you'll see I haven't even removed my dropcloth from the floor yet.

Kestrel Elevator

Flying Kestrel, detail of Orono elevator project. This is almost 16' above the floor of the home.

The Kestrel does have a friend, naturally.

The full results of my time on the scaffold -- a complete scene to replace the former view into a dim, bare elevator shaft.

Hopkins Honda Part Deux!

Detail of Finance Office window. I had such a good time with this.

Scene on the Finance Office window

Entry doors to the Service Area.

Next time I'm in the market for a vehicle, I'll look here first. The people at Hopkins Honda are great, and you can tell they really love working with each other. I always enjoy my time there.

 

Thanks

Snowy Owl on window at Hopkins Honda, by Tracie Thompson

Have a blessed and beautiful day, y'all.

Going UP!

I get to paint ... an elevator. And it's glass, and ... here's the "before" shot from today:

Note the tapestry hung over lower level pane to hide the machinery within.

It's getting an Old-World-Style landscape that will block out the glass surfaces entirely, since the elevator is not in use at all.  Work begins Monday 11/15; watch this space for updates.

Barn swallows in the kitchen

This is at 1214 Van Buren Ave. in St. Paul; the house is a cute little remodel, up for sale.

 The design was my idea -- something soft and elegant to add character to this kitchen without overwhelming it. The colors are taken from the wood and countertops already in the room.

Total working time was about 12 hours. It's acrylic paint and a lot of water-based professional-grade faux finishing glaze.

 

Finished mural

Total time on this was much less than I'd anticipated; three shortened working days (the heat made it near impossible to work past 2 in the afternoon).  Here's a close-up view of the surface -- great stuff for soft clouds and water, awful for anything that needs sharp definition:

I'll be painting spots in my sleep tonight

But I'll be happy about it.

It took two full working days (about 16 hours) for me to create this tree and leopard -- whose young owner has named him Hunter, much to my delight. 

Below, a snapshot of the wall before I arrived, with its existing green/blue color scheme: