Past Mural Proposals

The last time I talked to Kelly from the Punta Gorda Historical Mural Society I asked her where the mural proposals from previous murals were and if they can be seen. She told me they can be seen, and most of them are displayed at the convention center in Punta Gorda. So last week with camera in hand I went to see how other artists approached making a mural proposal.
   When I arrived at the convention center I walked down the main hall and peeked in the main events room, but I didn't see any drawings. So I backed tracked to the office I passed at the front. There in the office I noticed two framed paintings which I recognized were paintings of murals I have seen in the streets of Punta Gorda.
    The first thing I noticed is most of them were on paper with water based paint in contrast to my origional proposal of a  black and white pencil drawing. It makes sense to use color in the proposal. I guess I went with what I was most comfortable with. I haven't had a lot of experience painting on paper so I drew the best black and white drawing that I could. In the end the Mural society wanted to see it in color, and again instead of painting it on paper I went with what I know, and painted the proposals on canvas.

    One of my favorite murals is the one about the history of the Movie theater with Charlie Chaplin on the screen at the left, and a poster of Roy rogers on the right. It must have been a big favorite of the mural society because it was painted twice, once by John Gurcher before the hurricane of 2004 and again after the hurricane by Michael Vires at a different location just outside the convention center. I like the whimsical quality and how it bursts out of the movie film  frame. The quality of the design and draftsmanship are excellent.
    The movie theater painting wasn't the only mural lost in the 2004 hurricane. Several others were lost and painted again, usually by the same artist. In this case John Gucher was no longer alive to repaint it.
   There were many more proposals on display at the convention center, but not all of them. Kelly told me that there are a few of them located in the Court House but I didn't get over to see them.

Punta Gorda Mural Location

I took a ride on my motorcycle to the sight of the new murals I will be painting in Punta Gorda. This building is south of the inner city on Highway 41. It is a tennis and health club with tennis courts outside and workout machines inside. It is called Punta Gorda Club. The murals will be painted on the east wall surrounding the tennis courts at the rear of the building facing 41. The wall, as seen in the photos,does not run in a straight line. There are four panels that are offset. It is on these offset panels that the murals will be painted. I was told there was some complication about the tennis mural because the mural might be seen as a sign advertising the Punta Gorda tennis Club. Though Kelly, from the mural society, didn't seem too worried about overcoming that glitch in the process.
I can't begin painting the murals until the money is raised to pay for them. Hopefully by spring so I am not painting under the sun in July. There is a fundraiser planned on Feb. 16, at the convention center in Punta Gorda. There will be a live band and dancing, so if you are in SW Florida on Feb. 16, come on out and help the cause!

Revised Tennis Mural Sample

About a week after I handed over my paintings to the Punta Gorda Historical Mural Society I got a call saying the members loved the colors in the paintings except some of the members thought the shadow in the tennis painting was hard to read, and the main player was too dark. She asked if I would have a problem making those changes.  I said I wouldn't mind making the changes but the reason I made him dark, under a shadow, was symbolic. I told her that in my research on Bill Tilden, who the society directed me to depict, I discovered things about him that I thought should put him under a shadow. When I told her what it was, she seemed to catch her breath and thanked me for my willingness to make the changes. She said someone else would be contacting me about getting the painting back. Several days later a time and place was arranged to pick up the painting. He said was that I was to keep in mind, even though the painting depicts Tilden, the mural is mainly about the sport of tennis not an individual player. The point is that professional tennis got it's start in Punta Gorda when the historic Hotel Port Charlotte built the courts and helped organize the matches.   To be honest, I like the revised painting.

                                                                                                                                     

                           

Finished Mural Samples

They are due on Friday, and here I am on Wednesday at 10:00 pm, and I can say I have nothing to do! Oh, I will probably see something to touch up, but they are signed, and I contacted The Punta Gorda Historical Mural Society and arranged for them to be delivered tomarrow, with one day to spare.
If you look close at the frame you will see three bands of color. The inner band is dark brown, followed by a light band, and then a medium brown on the outside. Early on I knew I would use masking tape to paint those long narrow bands of color, but the problem was how to mask it off without having to re-mask for each band? My solution was to first separate the main painting from the frame by masking around the interior of the frame. Then I would paint the whole frame the color of the light band. After the paint dried I would put a 1/4inch wide strip of masking tape 1/8inch from the inner edge of the frame. That would leave me with a narrow strip to be painted dark and the outside to be painted medium brown. All I needed was 1/4 inch masking tape.
I got on my motorcycle an headed out on a mission to find my masking tape. Home Depot is just down the road, they didn't have it. Ace hardware in Port Charlotte didn't have it. They suggested an automotive paint store, but didn't know where one was. The Sherwin Williams paint store didn't have it, but suggested the automotive supply store just down the road. They didn't have it.

I went to Michael's art supply and found in the stencil department, Martha Stewarts narrow masking tape to make plad designs. It was kind of pricey so I thought there might be more tape of another brand in some other department. I asked a women who works there if she had any narrow masking tape. "How narrow?" she asked. "One quarter inch." I said holding my thumb and index finger to the narrow space of 1/4 inch. "No," she said, "we don't carry that."I just rolled my eyes and went back to Martha Stewart.
It was a challenge to finish on time. Several days I worked into the late evening. But I'm happy with the result and  I can't wait to start working on the four walls of the final murals.