February 6th, the 59th Vero Beach Mural Painting Session

NOTE: The Vero Beach Mural Project is being Sponsored by the Vero Beach Art Club as a gift to the City.  The artist members of the Vero Beach Art Club who are volunteering their time and talents are Judy Burgarella (http://www.burgarellaart.com/)  Dawn Mill and Christine Thomas (www.innerspacesandouterplaces.com).   Examples of artists' work can also be found on www.verobeachartclub.org/) The Mural consists of six stretched canvas panels, 36' long by 8' high, each panel 8' x 6'.  Created in and for the Community Center, in their "Florida Room."  Visitors are welcome to watch the artists paint between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. on Mondays and Fridays.

Had a short workday, getting there at 9:30, and leaving at 3:00.  Dawn's classes are on Monday, and Christine has teaching commitments so I was by my lonesome agian today.  Not sure if Dawn was able to get to the Community Center last week, as she was very sick, but I will post any new elements of hers on Friday.

Concentrated on the southwest section of Panel #1, mainly Rita Ziegler and myself walking on the side of the Vero Furniture building.  We are old "plein air" buddies from Connecticut, and now in Florida although we both have had no time for painting together outside as of late.

This happens to be my first crack at doing a self-portrait, albeit small and vague, but I was satisfied with the end result, of course downplaying my physical shortcomings, which is my right as an artist to do!

Southwest corner of Panel #1 - Judy Burgarella & Rita Ziegler

 After researching my photos of downtown, I realized the sidewalk on the side of this building was gray, so changed that, along with correcting some of the perspective I had roughed in some time ago.  Worked on the downtown grass island and tidied up some of the buildings.

Below is greatly enlarged detail of portraits of Rita Ziegler and myself, walking with all our gear towards a plein air site to paint. 

Close-ups of me (Judy Burgarella) and Rita Ziegler on Panel #1

The size that you see above is actually much larger than what is actually on the canvas.  Getting a good likeness on such a small size on canvas is very difficult, but again it's only a mural!  Clothes, shoes and skin need a bit more tweaking, and Rita's shirt will read "Vero Beach" prominently when I'm done.

Spent some time finishing up a few other spots on panel #1, but not important enough to photograph.  Well, that's all for now folks, Dawn and I will be painting on Friday, and Christine if she can get away, so peek back on Saturday and see what's new.

Judy Burgarella
Blogger for the Vero Beach Mural Project