Fun is on "The Way"

Last night as we loaded the paints and ladders, moved the truck, set cones out to keep the space open in order to take my "progress" shot (see "February" post, scroll to "Start here"), some young ladies out having fun with their cameras began frolicking on "The Way" in front of the mural. As I have mentioned before, it is no coincidence that the image beckons interaction and photo ops., but I had no idea how popular it would be. The design was also intended to be as "friendly" as possible. I get questions about who and how we created the design. Thankfully I was not told what to do by the Mural Committee, although I credit them with selecting the name and overall theme (and a ton of other stuff I will cover in a future post). And I have to thank JC for talking me into doing it.
The mural design that was presented for approval last summer had only a slight revision by the Committee in the drawing stage. Originally I had a Cormorant warming it's out stretched wings atop the rookery and a 5th Pelican overhead. It was suggested that I replace these creatures with dolphins and I am happy with the results.

I was reminded of this design change early Thursday when a Vulture landed outside the window and posed in the morning sun here at El Rancho Botello.

Then the phone rang. Steve Todd, our "Ojai Hay Guy" would be at the bottom of Chismahoo and we needed to meet him there with our hay trailer at 11 AM. So much for getting an early start painting, but will be glad to have food for the animals before the much anticipated rain this weekend. We left the trailer near Hwy 150 and headed to "The Way" with plans to put some detail work in on the Harbor Seals, Shorebirds and seaweed.

JC painted in the whiskers on the seals and the legs and beaks on the birds with a small detail brush and some White, Black and Grey followed by sprigs of ice plant in various shades of green and yellow. I started tracing the Panizzon Family from a projected drawing on paper using graphite paper.

A parade of old and new friends have joined the fun and here are a few fan photos:

Dick W. on bike with JC

Pups and Grandmas

Stefanie and Boulder Harrington

Juan Pablo, Maricela and Diego

Carpinteria Beautiful's Dame Donnie Nair

Love your hat and glasses, Donnie!

Dick and Libby Wienberg

Bicycling Bob Henry

Kathy Henry and friends

JC with Meredith Brooks Abbott, Artist Extraordinaire

David Powdrell, Photographer Extraordinaire

And so another week slips by as rain clouds blow in. Yes, we bucked the hay into the barn before it finally poured. What a way to have fun! Glad to have you along for the ride!

Zorro on a Chismahoo Hay Ride back home from WSB

Winging it on Wullbrandt Way

My plan has been to bring the scaffold in to paint only the top 1/4 of the mural in order to minimize impact on pedestrian traffic on Wullbrandt Way. The scaffold would have consumed so much of the sidewalk I was reluctant to use it when making the initial measurements, cleaning and priming and painting the sky. Today I decided to try painting one of the 4 Pelicans. If it felt unsafe at all, I would make plans to bring the scaffold down from the ranch.

In the studio I had prepared a full scale drawing of a Pelican. This was done by placing the original 2" scale drawing into an opaque projector and enlarging the 2 inch scale to 1 foot scale and penciling it onto butcher paper. After positioning the drawing on the wall with duct tape, I slipped a sheet of graphite paper under the drawing and traced the pelican onto the wall. Following the faint graphite outline with a little  Greyed Raw Sienna gave me the basic shape. Blending Neutral Grey, Blue and White I blocked in the body and wings. Neutral Grey, Burnt Umber and Carbon Black with some matte  medium quickly gave life to the feathers. I had padded the top of the ladder so that it would not mar the painted surface and only had to reposition the ladder once before the Pelican was close to completion.

The photos of me today were snapped by my old friend Paula Galbraith. I came down the ladder, trader her my palette for the camera and caught her and fellow painter Chris Galbraith stretched out with Zorro. They had just come up from the beach for a look at the mural on their day off. They own Carpinteria Frame and Art.

Plenty of other visitors made for a fun filled day. Some (Patty Manuras) went running down Wullbrandt Way when I pulled the camera out.

Patty taking flight

Hoping to get a couple more Pelicans up before the rain arrives. Now that is wishful thinking.

Pelican taking flight

Go Warriors! Surf's up! Cattle call!

 It's been several days since my last post. So much has happened including so many people. I will mention a few for your entertainment. Let me start with some class mates and one that I went all the way through school with, Barbara Ann Young. She and I were in Ms. Constantini's First Grade class at Aliso School shown here (note: "Are we good helpers?" and "Our color friends").

Barbara Young is the blonde in the center and I am next to Ms Constantini.

Barbara has been my life long friend so when she came by the mural one afternoon and suggested we go have a drink inside Senor Frog's, what could I say? Love you, Barbarian.

On another afternoon our Senior Class President Tom Riemers showed up the day after his 60th birthday.

Chelsea and Tom Riemers

 And later that day another Carp Warrior from our Class of 1970, Mona Duarte dropped by.

Mona Duarte with Zorro

And on another day my classmate, neighbor and fellow artist Matt Moore stopped and gave me a little help shaping the surfboard.

Matt Moore of Rincon Designs

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.... we welcomed our first calf. An adorable, wobbly, silky black sweetheart reminding us that Spring has arrived.

And back down to Wullbrandt Way again.... I had the faces on the harbor seals painted so JC was able to paint on the whiskers. The rough texture of the plaster wall makes it very difficult to paint thin lines so he used a small brush and took his time before finishing the rocks at the rookery. Meanwhile I was overhead completing the top portion of sky that will have the Pelicans soaring across. This mix of Ultramarine Blue, Titanium White and Yellow Ochre is a more subdued and natural color than the "Kodachrome" Cerulean Blue of the "postcard" sky. Blending the blue from light to dark and back to light is challenging. I want for there to be some "life" to the sky as seen in  the maquette but the transition must appear to flow somewhat evenly. This expanse will be broken up when I add the Pelicans which will help conceal these transitions.

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It was not just the Class of '70 that visited WSB this week, there were plenty of Carpinteria Beautiful people as well.

cleaning the beach

 "Are we good helpers?"

Gayle Ward

"Our color friends"

The Mayor:

Al

Fellow Artists:

Marjorie

Judy

Neighbors that I lean on:

Bradley

And new friends:

Friday night I stayed in town so I could attend the ribbon cutting ceremony at Bartlett & Harrington, Jeff Moorhouse and Avocado Festival's new digs in the Bright/Powell building. Next morning my Mom treated me to breakfast at Cajun Kitchen before drawing the shore birds, then painting them the way Dorthy Tripp taught so many of us to do.... " with a flick of the brush".... and so on.

JC came to pick me up and we headed up to the top of Rincon Mountain for Graham's birthday BBQ.
Then back up the Chismahoo to Rancho Botello to feed the animals before dark.

"Daylight Savings" having kicked in this morning,  it's an hour later than I thought and I need the sleep if I'm going to get some painting done tomorrow. Word is that rain is possibly on the way later this week.

Don't forget to scroll down to "older posts" and go to "Feburary" where I continue to add to the sequence of updated progress shots. It's starting to come together!
Oh, and which ever one of you sent me that "halo" in the CVN this week........ I was touched.
Thank you.

Early Bird Special

It sure has been paint'n weather. We put a good number of hours into the mural this week.
Most notable, the harbor seals. JC blocked them in with a mix of Neutral Grey, Titanium White, Carbon Black, Cerulean and Cobalt Blues, Raw Titanium and a little Raw Sienna and Yellow Ocher. To get it to flow into the VERY rough surface we added small amounts of Matte Medium. After some repositioning and a little "fat trimming" on one, JC sped right through it while I focused on some detail work in the Salt Marsh. Again, too many visitors to mention them all here, but Foster came by for a photo op applying a few brush strokes.

And CHS classmate Freddy Olivas (catch him playing at the Palms) shown here with his wife and JC.

Then a little later Tony Brown and his daughter stopped by for a good conversation.
The sun was setting so JC took the ATV back up the Mountain (animals to feed) and I was off to a meeting with Foster and Donna to talk about the mural dedication, some chile rellenos then spent the night on Walnut Ave.. The next morning my Mom and I went to Esau's for the Early Bird Special. I noticed the dolphin image at the top of their menu had the slender look. I needed to correct my plump mural dolphins so the cook gave me a piece of wax paper and the waitress loaned me a pen and I traced it for reference later (pens do not work well on wax paper). After our yummy breakfast and 1/2 price coffee we headed to the Salt Marsh for some yummy photographs.

We then checked out the main beach or "City Beach" as they call it now. Such a beautiful morning to have it almost all to ourselves. I needed to see some seaweed and get a feel for the sand. Turned out to be a good way to celebrate what would have been my Dad's birthday.

Then began the day of painting and blabbing on Wullbrandt Way. Early in the design process, Brian Mootz requested I put a "Beach Babe" in the mural. This one's for you Brian:

Carolyne Mootz does WSB

Seems like there are plenty of beach babes to go around in this town however:

Back to painting faces on the seals and then another CHS classmate Carol Koehler with her Dad, Lester Koehler (now 93 and still living on Palm Ave. a block from where I grew up).

Some more detail work on the seals and another Brown (Steve) drops by. Really appreciate his opinion since he is also an artist and a descendent of the family who once owned the entire Carpinteria beach.

No sooner was I back into the seals when Donna shows up with a white chocolate mocha latte and a camera to take this shot of me painting, just in case you were thinking all I do is chat and take photographs:

Now those who know me have heard me tell of my third grade teacher and how I credit her with really encouraging me to make art. Well, here she is looking way too young to have been my third grade teacher, don't you agree?

 

 

 All and all it was a great day on Wullbrandt Way. Foster is now speeding out of town in an Airstream for Spring training while I'm loading up to head back up the mountain. As I piled the paint and ladders onto the truck a young lady named Evelyn arrived for a close look at our happy harbor seals. Her approval meant the world to me and reassured me that I got the smiles just right.

Happy Birthday Ernie Wullbrandt

Grey, Blue and Sand. John and Mary Wullbrandt on "WSB"

Loyal followers, please stay tuned.
These have been busy paint'n days for JC and I, leaving no time to blog.
(Thanks for filling in with your letter in CVN, Bob H.)
To keep this blog alive I share shots of my Mom and I visiting the "World's Safest Beach". Needed to get another look at it before heading up the street to paint. Notice how similar the grey color of the wet sand on "WSB" is to the sidewalk on Wullbrandt Way?

Happy Birthday Dad