After almost a week of rain I was able to get back to the wall today! Exciting to finally paint in some colors. I started with a bright yellow underpainting of the large house. I like the look of having the bright colors peek through from underneath. Lots of people stopped by or hollered from their cars to encourage me. It was nice to hear. I am plugged in to my ipod - because I like music but also because the noise from the traffic echoes through the underpass and can be overwhelming at times. Just because I am listening to music doesn't mean I don't want chat- feel free to give me a nudge or a loud hello!

Ahhh...so great to have amazing people working with me. Roberta Ross and Carey Gilmore worked well past midnight to lay down the outline. I had the street closed to traffic and brought a generator for power. 

Thanks to the knowledgable folks at Cloverdale paints on all their great advice about surface prep. The concrete walls of this wall are very porous and didn't need a primer coat. I filled in the wider cracks with a concrete filler. I have to wait for the filler to dry before it so applied a base coat of white to the higher areas, avoiding the cracks. First day on the wall and already some interesting conversations with passerbys. 

I will be starting on the East side of the overpass. I had a great guy pressure wash the surface, he removed any of the peeling paint, any debris stuck in the tracks up above, and the pigeon poop. The pigeons are scared off for now, but I am sure they will be back 

We recently met with CP and we have the official go ahead! I will be starting on the mural within the week!!!
I have been in the studio playing with paint and finalizing colors. For maquette I used this amazing new paper from Art Placement. It is made with stone, no paper products at all so you don't have to gesso it and it doesn't warp when you apply paint! It is light and thin but the painting on the surface of it is similar to painting on panel. It comes in 36 inch pieces - not quite long enough for me to create a mini-version of the mural so I just cut and taped it together.