September 2nd, our 24th Painting Session

Vero Beach Mural Project Sponsored by the Vero Beach Art Club (http://www.verobeachartclub.org/ )  Created by Artist Volunteers Judy Burgarella, Dawn Mill and Christine Thomas.  Stretched canvas panels, 36' long by 8' high, each panel 8' x 6'.  Created in and for the Community Center.  Visitors welcome to watch the artists paint between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. on Mondays and Fridays.
     Today there was only Christine and myself painting at the Community Center, as Dawn is on vacation.  A rather short painting day, as we arrived a little late and had to leave early because of another group using the room.  Bob Barbour, videographer, set his equipment up and ran some video of us painting.  Below is Chris, Bob Barbour and a colleague who helped him out.

Bob Barbour fixing video equipment

At noontime Christine and I shared what food we had brought, and were joined by Sue Dinenno, who is going to be in the mural with her cute little dog Phoebe (she will be the gal in panel #1 walking her dog).  We ate and chatted a while then went back to the canvas.  Inbeween painting, Bob Barbour posed us and rechecked color and lighting and ran more video.  Peni Baker, friend and colleague from the Sebastian River Art Club, stopped by with her friend to catch up on the mural's progress.  I hope to work on a mural with her for the Sebastian club in the future.


Peni Baker and "friends"

Although there were a lot of happy interruptions, I managed to knock out the lamppost, a tree, some storefronts and palm islands, and spiffed up the archways which still are in need of more work.  Problem with architecture is that details are important on such a large work, or everything gets thrown off kilter, and reference photos are essential.  Many times I end up leaving the canvas to walk down the street with my camera to shoot more photos as reference, or just to examine a portion of downtown's detail. 




Canvas #1 by Judy Burgarella

  Below is Christine at the canvas.  She is working on her dolphins and the pelican on the sign, and doing touch-ups here and there.  Oops--that's not a paintbrush in her hands, it's an Ipod!  Christine is very techno-savvy, and brings in her laptop which is a tremendously handy visual tool--makes it quick and easy to locate images of plants and animals, etc.  It's on my "must-get" list.  Many people are using laptops to set up near their easels so that painting from photos is much easier, and details can be zoomed in upon.

We are eager to see the end-game of this project, so Christine and I discussed coming in Tuesday and perhaps Wednesday, as we are losing Monday due to Labor Day.  So we probably will come in one or both of those days to work on the mural.


Christine Thomas working on Canvas #4, Lagoon


  We had to pack up early due to another group needing the room.  We both lamented that we could have painted another few hours, after just getting our "mojo" going.  Once we get unpacked, set up, mix our paints, figure out which elements to work on, it really is a pleasure plying our craft and chatting inbetween.  We missed our buddy Dawn's quips and comments though, and hope she is having a terrific time in Alaska.  Here's hoping we get lots done before Dawn gets back, and surprise her with some progress.  Stay tuned for more next week.
Judy Burgarella
Blogger for the Vero Beach Mural Project