33~ Mural 2012: Bench (Settee)

I had been both looking forward to, and dreading, painting that settee. I won't kid you, it was no picnic. The gesture drawing had been easy ~ it usually is, and promotes a false sense of security. This over-confidence happens often (my looking at my little gesture drawing and thinking, "How easy it will be to draw this!") Working out the details usually brings me down to size. Drawing the pattern hadn't been too hard, but cutting the pattern and transferring it to the wall was another story. For my first attempt, I started too high. Fortunately, I didn't do all that scrollwork, but I did some of it. When I got to the bottom, I realized there was a problem. I had that white baseboard, and I really hadn't thought it out. It looked pretty weird sitting up there above the floor, but I thought it might look equally weird if I painted down over the baseboard. Besides, it had four legs, and wouldn't they look weird either way, if they came down to the same level? I thought I knew a workaround, but wasn't sure, and besides, I was tired: too tired to make another decision. It was dark and we'd be knocking off soon. I called in the troops. Brenda and Annette, another artist I'd gone to school with, happened to be across the hall. I asked their opinions, and Annette immediately said I should paint it down over the baseboard. I had to re-draw it, starting a few inches lower than I'd done. I had a lot of trouble matching up the two sides of the pattern exactly ~ my guidelines weren't quite square, I think. Annette had also suggested going with black wrought-iron work instead of white. I'd been thinking of painting the iron white. A lot of café chairs are white; but also, I thought that black might recede a little too much against the deep, bright-pink background. Colors can do that. She suggested green for the seat. It would pop against the pink. I didn't want it to pop so much that it would just look stuck on, so I chose a lime green and toned it down until it looked natural against the pink. Annette's suggestions turned out well. Painting the black curves of the wrought iron wasn't too hard, except for matching up those round connecting pieces. I had my trusty Kilz® for any blips. My workaround on the legs of the bench was to stagger the feet, setting the back legs on top of the baseboard and the front legs on the carpet. We all loved the result. It looks very whimsical. I got quite a bit done that night and finished it out the next morning.


Mural 2012: Tuesday, November 6, 2012 (Bench, Settee Style)