Making of a Mural

After developing a concept, producing a scale gouache study, writing a proposal, there is the tiny matter of actually painting a mural.

NJTransit has a policy of not allowing artwork to be painted directly onto their concrete, for reasons of historic preservation. This turned out to be a blessing, really; the historic concrete in this case has a high relief texture to it, with rocks and pebbles the size of hamsters surfacing throughout.

With lots of input and options from Custom Sign Source and Valley Arts, my wife Denise and I came up with the following process:

• Break down and recomposite the artwork to fit the precise measurements of the stairwell, based on 4 ft. x 10 ft. aluminum composite sign panel dimensions, keeping the faces away from any seams.
• Create color separations and a working palette from the gouache painting.
• Convert the color separated art to linework, then convert the linework to an Adobe Illustrator file.
• Have the line work printed onto the composite panels. While the sign panels have a smooth enamel surface, printing a 30-40% gray behind the art creates a sandpaper-like tooth to the surface, making it more conducive to painting.
• After printing, we coated the panels with XIM Brand urethane modified acrylic (UMA) primer/bonder/sealer.
• Premix as much of the palette as possible. We used Lefranc & Bourgeois Flashe vinyl paint, which dries to a satin, gouache-like sheen, with really nice leveling properties; also it preserves the appearance or brushstrokes, the surface texture dries nearly flat. This allows it to catch light evenly throughout the day without any streaking shadows or divets as the sun passes east to west in the southern sky.
• Apply a UV protective varnish (in this case, Golden’s MSA Satin Varnish) to protect any fugitive colors from fading in the sun, and to facilitate future cleaning and maintenance. The varnish requires a gloss “isolation coat” between the varnish and the paint surface, and the satin finish returns the colors to their soft matte, gouache-like sheen.

And now, all of that again, but with pictures…

1- Break down and recomposite the artwork to fit the precise measurements of the stairwell, based on 4 ft. x 10 ft. aluminum composite sign panel dimensions, keeping the faces away from any proposed seams.





2- Create color separations and a working palette from the gouache painting.



3- Convert the color separated art to linework, then convert the linework to an Adobe Illustrator file.





4- Have the line work printed onto the composite panels. While the sign panels have a smooth enamel surface, printing a 30-40% gray behind the art creates a sandpaper-like tooth to the surface, making it more conducive to painting.

5- After printing, we coated the panels with XIM Brand urethane modified acrylic (UMA) primer/bonder/sealer.




6- Premix as much of the palette as possible. We used Lefranc & Bourgeois Flashe vinyl paint, which dries to a satin, gouache-like sheen, with really nice leveling properties; also it preserves the appearance or brushstrokes, the surface texture dries nearly flat. This allows it to catch light evenly throughout the day without any streaking shadows or divets as the sun passes east to west in the southern sky.



Baby food jars are perfect for holding deceptive amounts of mixed paint. 



A note about pigments: in the world of non-toxic colors, there are very few truly opaque colors. In some cases, we addressed this with multiple coats of paint. In others, we painted in the necessary values, then glazed the local color over, before working in highlights and accents. The lack of opacity, as a plus, also meant that it was easy to keep the drawing visible until we were sure we were done with it. 







From a technique standpoint, most of the surfaces were painted from dark up to the midtone, with the modeling and highlights—as well as the deepest recesses—painted over top.  







Denise loves following directions. I don't. Denise loves coloring in the lines. I can't. In this way, we make a surprisingly good team. She took on large flat areas and tightly organized patterns, I handled all the portraits and any areas of improvisation; when enlarging a 20 inch study to over 30 feet, there can be quite a bit of wiggle room in the translation.  

7- Apply a UV protective varnish (in this case, Golden’s MSA Satin Varnish) to protect any fugitive colors from fading in the sun, and to facilitate future cleaning and maintenance. The varnish requires a gloss “isolation coat” between the varnish and the paint surface, and the satin finish returns the colors to their soft matte, gouache-like sheen.



And then, it's off to the installation! (I'm skipping over several months of NJ Transit protocol wrangling and painting storage.) 

High Hopes For A New Year

There's going to be a mural...

So, I've been selected to create a mural for the Highland Avenue train station in Orange, NJ. The project is funded by a grant from the arts and urban renewal non-profit, H.A.N.D.S., and is being orchestrated by the kind, creative, and energetic folks at ValleyArts.

The plan I've concocted looks a bit like this:

And the proposal reads like this:

References to the Valley’s industrial past as an epicenter of hat making are to be found throughout our area. It is the intention of my mural design to take the nostalgia for our district’s manufacturing past and use it as a lens through which to view our current richness of cultural diversity. Proceeding from right to left as the dedicated wall space increases, a line of people appear, larger than life but as if descending the staircase from a sepia toned past to a full color present, using a plurality of headwear to tie the two together while highlighting their contrasts. In the background, the same sepia fades to a brilliant orange, overlaid with collaged imagery from early 20th century felt hat catalogs.

By concentrating on the varied hats, scarves and wraps, we can detect hints at each person's ethnic or religious background, but each is a portrait of individuality that ultimately obscures any reference to socioeconomic status, profession, or place of origin. Each hat represents a link to a history that may even predate the fedoras and feathers of the past, while still holding onto its own modern relevance.

MEDIUM AND PRODUCTION:

The proposed mural does not make any overt reference to the visual art or music performance aspect of our current Valley. This is by design; art about art can run the risk of patting itself on the back, and I have found my own work to be at its best when the art serves to communicate outside of itself. My intention is to produce the mural as a painting on or affixed to the supplied metal panels, with the intention of celebrating our area with an actual painting, as opposed to a printed reproduction. Our world is full of reproductions, whether in the form of print media, digital streaming, or television, with paintings, orchestras, and theater prohibitively expensive, contributing to an ever widening class division.

More soon!

Counting down

Well, just another week till Ludy hits the shelves. In the mean time,  Kirkus Reviews had some nice things to say.

"Patrick's folksy account is crisp and packed with facts. Gustavson's evocative illustrations combine oil paintings with gouache on watercolor paper, painting Ludy as a gangly beanpole with an enormously expressive face."—Kirkus

A very short story.

 

drypoint etching on Rives BFK paper. 3" x 3"

Feral Town

For the past two years, I've taken up drawing on post-its notes.



The original idea was to do something creative with little passing thoughts I had, in an immediate context, with the time I had available. I would scribble them out between teaching obligations, for the most part.



The whole thing hinged upon working on something that wouldn't turn into work. I've so far thought up and drawn over 400 of them.



So much for not turning it into work.







So I began making drypoint etchings of the series. I'd previously tried doing little gouache paintings of them, but they just took on an air of seriousness that worked against them. In paint they became meaner, and their cynicism turned into outright pessimism.

But the drypoints, for some reason, seem to work, and seem to retain a sense of directness without being too heavy. This is important in my little suburb of animalian dysfunction; I'd like it to be clear that I'm not wishing any of these little guys any ill will. I'm glad Maureen and Tom can work things out in their own hamster way.

A few have been making their way into the Monday edition of The Atticus Review, an online literary magazine edited by author and photographer David Olimpio.

You can also see most of the whole ongoing shebang on Instagram.

More to come... and maybe a shopping option.