The Mural: The Forest in a Dream

The painting we had on our bedroom wall went up for a show and we lasted about a day before we knew it needed to more art. 

Sure we could have gone into the storage unit and chosen from a few thousand options from the last decade but where's the fun in that? It's our house...what better opportunity for a mural?!

I started with my typical automatic drawing inspired approach...Don't think, just make a few marks and let the brush lead the way. 

Here I started with the darkest shapes around the edges, moved to the middle, and slowly filled space as felt naturally appropriate. I don't try to analyze my paintings too much, especially in the early goings. I'll see shapes emerge and compositions form themselves to a degree, but I try not to spend too much time "figuring it out" when I'm just getting started. 

While it went smoothly there were a few small bumps along the way. My wife has never been a big fan of red so I had to work on the initial "burst" that occupied the upper left. While that took some finesse, it also introduced a nice yellow/orange color that she did like and served a similar purpose to the warmth of the red, though with less intensity.

The large upside-down arch in the second image, originally white, also stood out too much. Once that was covered in a light tint of teal, I felt the need to add some small stars in white to bring a bit of the punch back in. 

At this point the mural sat unfinished for a good month or so. I thought it was done, but one night Cassie surprised me with "so are you ever going to finish that?" Alrighty then!

I had a couple days off scheduled for the end of July and spent a good day or so adding some finishing touches and doing some good staring. Wouldn't ya know it but the wife was right and finishing touches quickly became some extensive fill-ins, incliding what's become the "Subject" of the mural to a degree...

The center "object" was loosely inspired by a few stories involving UFOs, ghosts, spirits and even the movie "Annihilation", or at least the end of it. I wanted something that had something of a presence, but not human. Something that intrigued, but didn't explain. Something central but not necessarily foundational. It's presence adds something but its explanation, or lack-there-of, doesn't remove anything. 

I think a break is essential in a lot of artwork. I work in spurts, finding inspiration naturally and riding the wave until my energy or attention subsides. My comfort with the first phase of the mural was probably more of a lack of interest than a feeling of finality, and I also was wary of overdoing it, which can be easy when in automatic-drawing mode...Overall I think it came out great and I'm excited to grow with it as a new addition to the family. 

For good measure, I finished it up with a photo-shoot. 

Like what you see? Check out the shop for more art or contact me to talk about a commission or a mural of your own!