Time in a Bottle...please?

Where has the time gone??? That is what happens when an artist gets focused. Time has no meaning, as you get in the zone and tunnel-visioned, it just slips away. Or in some cases, the hands on the clock pick up breakneck speed and you are positive you haven't been working that long!

                                            Just so long that I am now laying down on the job!!!

Sure makes you wish you could put time in a bottle! There have been so many events that I was interested in attending but I just know I dare not break the flow of work that is happening in the studio.

Happy to say a milestone has been reached..........HALFWAY! Yea! Actually, 16 of the 30 are now complete.
I had so much fun painting William Davenport, the first African American police chief in Ohio and maybe the U.S.  He made eye contact with me...........that is when I know that I have captured the human spirit of the person! It is rather jolting the first time it happens...having it feel like a live human being is going to step off the board and give you a talking to!

 

Stay tuned...some really different ones coming up....doctors, ballplayers, lawyers, etc!

 

And some really wonderful news!

 

Thanks for being a part of my day.....goodnight!

Barry Ruben...Need a hand? How to improvise..

Working on portrait number 3, Barry Ruben. Great challenges here, as the full body shot was in a suit and the face shot was in a reds uniform..........how to marry the two. Plus, I was missing the entire right arm in the full body shot and most of the left hand in the close up.

I determined it would work better if he were facing slightly to the left to keep the vision flowing across the mural, so I elected to 'flip' the body. This solved a couple of problems, as I was able to them use the left hand in the body shot to sketch from and just change the angle. I drew a rectangle over the right hand as a guide; my sketch still ended up being a little large so I used my printer to reduce my drawing 10% and it fit just right.

 

Changing the position of the hand presented another problem; the extended fingers now looked awkward , so I made them appear to be curled up more.

Barry Ruben, co-owner of Lima Bargain Center and owner of the semi-pro baseball team, the Lima Locos. ( The sponsors are in sw Florida and would have loved to have been here to add a stroke or two!       Well, guess that is a small price to pay for being where it is warm and sunny in January.)

THE BIG REVEAL!

Okay, it has been announced publicly, so now I can share....


NEW MURAL TO GRACE DOWNTOWN LIMA BUILDING .....
                           will be revealed in August at Toast to the City.

The August event, a Lima tradition for more than 30 years, generally included a number of musical acts in addition to artistic displays. It had an eclectic run of musical acts over the years, from Buckwheat Zydeco to Loverboy, Brownsville Station to Crystal Bowersock.

“We are looking toward supporting our mission by supporting the development of downtown Lima by doing public art,” Rogers said.

(sample of portrait painting....THE SECRET INGREDIENT...   3 x 5')

... a mural  will be painted by local artist Ruth Ann Sturgill and displayed on the Hofeller, Hiatt & Clark building on North Main Street.“This will feature historical figures relevant to our community,” Rogers said. “This will include people, past and present, who have made an impact on Lima and Allen County.”

Sturgill will start on the portraits in January, completing 3 a month, on 4 x 8' sheets of MDO plywood.  Plans are to have at least 20 completed for the August reveal. Portraits will be close to life-size.

 For a $600 donation, along with a picture, the public can honor any individual by having their image as part of the mural. The donations will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis, with the first 20 guaranteed to be on the Hofeller, Hiatt & Clark building.