August 15th, Our 19th Painting Session

©2011 Judy Burgarella, Dawn Mill and Christine Thomas
  
Vero Beach Mural Project, 8'x36' for the Community Center.  Artists: Dawn Mill, Christine Thomas and Judy Burgarella. Sponsored by the Vero Beach Art Club
 
 Got to the Community Center about 8:30, and was painting by 9:00.  Rob Slezak, Parks & Recreation Director, already had all six panels in place against the wall in the Florida Room.  When the panels aren't in place it usually takes us about 45 minutes to set up (and pack up).  So it doesn't pay to just drop by and work for a few hours, we prefer to spend a long day and make our time worthwhile.  The Florida Room, where we paint, is used by various groups throughout the week, with Mondays and Fridays reserved for us to paint.

Vice Mayor Pilar Turner (above left) stopped by to see the mural today, and expressed her appreciation for our efforts.  She marveled at the size of the project and was interested in hearing about the various habitats depicted in the panels.  The six habitats in present-day Vero Beach are:

1) Downtown Vero Beach (by Judy Burgarella)
2) The Woodland/Farm area of Western Vero Beach (by Judy Burgarella
3) Swampland (by Dawn Mill)
4) Lagoon (by Christine Thomas)
5) Beach and Ocean Drive (by Dawn Mill)
6) Coral Reef of Vero (by Christine Thomas)

Today we mostly worked on our first panels, Dawn refining her smaller elements with very little yet to go, Christine refining the lagoon floor, adding little fishies, and primping her scuba diver.  We worked for long periods of time today in silence which was occasionally broken by chatter about our pieces, a brief visit from a small group of adults and children ... and THUNDER AND LIGHTNING!  Sounded like it was coming into the building!
 
Below is my first and the first panel.  It's moving along, but not fast enough for me.  I made some progress on the sidewalk, reshaped the grass islands, worked on windows and trim, and shortened the dog-walking lady (dog is yet invisible).  Can't wait to paint some critters in mine.  The black sky to the left is there because it is a continuation of the old panel which ended with 4th of July fireworks and black sky.  I will be reworking this to look more like a passing storm sky, but for now it says as is. 


Panel #1, by Judy Burgarella

Panel #2 - no change so not posted.

Dawn's panel (#3) is still being refined, although she probably only has a couple of hours' work left to do on it.  She refined the water a bit more, finished a bird, added some greens, and painted her family into the canoe, with herself in the middle.  Looks pretty lifelike to me--even down to her red glasses! 



Panel #3 by Dawn Mill

Christine worked on the lagoon floor, adding plants, rocks and shadows, and painting light filtering own into the water.  She added more fishies and refined others.  The children will love her panels, and I can picture them learning about the many wonders in Vero's ecosystem.  We plan to create a legend map identifying all the plants and animals in our panels for educational use.

Panel #4 by Christine Thomas

Well, the next painting session will be Friday, and we expect to get a lot done that day ... yeah!
Stay tuned!
Judy Burgarella
Blogger for the Vero Beach Mural Project