Painting again...sort of

I haven't been painting for a few weeks, since we were in Ohio and then busy moving. Sylvia has started radiation treatments and has to go to Bremerton every day. We didn't have anyone to watch Kate today, but I went ahead and took her out with me. She's gotten better at amusing herself now, so I thought I might be able to get some work done while she played nearby. That didn't go so well. I'm going to be working on some other projects for a while, and then we'll have to see what we can do for finishing up Hogwarts. Maybe I can get volunteers to go out with me for a day, or something.

A couple of months ago I agreed to do some set painting for a multi-stake musical production at church ("Savior of the World"), thinking that I would be heading the painting committee. Well, turns out I am the painting committee. I'm going to be painting some big plywood arches to look like stone. Fortunately they only have to look like stone from a distance.

I also got a call from some friends of Ross and Cathryn's (owners of the Jerusalem mural), asking if I could paint some clouds and airplanes on their son's bedroom walls. I haven't been out to see the room yet, but should be starting that soon. I'm going to try to keep it really quick and be done in a week or so, and not have it drag on (and on and on and on....) I love clouds. The great thing about clouds is that they're so free-form and non-exacting. The airplanes might require a little more precision.

And on top of that I'm also going to be doing a pencil portrait for my brother's wife's uncle, that has to be done before Christmas. I haven't done any drawing since Kate was born, so I'm not sure how tricky that's going to be.

So, today I went out to Port Orchard, hoping that I would be able to get at least a little painting done, but also to pick up some of my supplies for these other projects. Sylvia had put everything in the closet while I was away. (Having the mural in a closet makes it very handy for storage.) I did what I could today, picked out some paints and brushes to take home with me, and put everything back in the closet. I'm not sure when I'll be back out there.

Here's Kate playing with my hanging spoon. It's a spoon on a string, taped to the wall. Whenever people come to see the mural they always ask, "Why is there a spoon hanging on the wall?" I use it as a plumbline for getting my vertical lines straight. I had a piece of string, and I just needed some kind of weight on the end. The spoon was handy.

(I did a spell-check on this post, and it wanted to change Bremerton to "premarital." Hmmmm....)