For the past few weeks I've been working on my biggest art project to date. A well paid job which, now it has been completed, will leave me financially secure for a little while, allow me to relax a bit and get on with personal projects and do things that I wouldn't normally have time to do if I was scrabbling for work to pay the bills! I'm not a money person, I just want to draw, paint, create and spend time with good people and live a happy life, so being given an opportunity like this is golden to me. It can be tough sometimes trying to make ends meet as an artist!
So this project, initially began back in August when I was contacted by Wendy Barnes, the art teacher at Hawes Side Academy, which is only 20 minutes walk down the road from my house!
We met up at the school before the kids came back in September, along with headmaster Mike Shepherd and discussed what they wanted me to do.
Now at first I thought, 'hmm, this isn't what I was expecting!'. Having to paint it like a child could be very difficult, especially using spray paint which I've only been using properly for a few years and still have a lot to learn about. Also, in my own work, I like to be very neat and tidy and when using spray paint, I tend to mask off straight edges and make big shapes and it can be time consuming, but I thought, oh well I like a challenge and with a nice chunk of funding money being offered, I couldn't afford not to try!
So I agreed to the project and on the 8th September, I went into the school and with Wendy introducing me, I did an assembly for the children, showing them examples of some of the work I've done over the years. Now if like me, as an artist, you've ever doubted yourself and questioned whether what you do is any good, I tell you now, children will make you forget about all of that!
As I clicked through the images of my work on the projector screen, they were 'wowing' and cheering, even started clapping. it was quite overwhelming at times! When I left the school that day, I went away feeling very positive about the project.
Over the next week or so, I made stencil templates on the computer for the words that were going to be included in the mural (Community, Learning, Creativity, Harmony and Hawes Side Academy), I collected up hundreds of drawings from the children and went through them all at home to pick the ones I would use in the final design and by the 22nd September, I was given full use of the art room at the school to sit in and create the final design, made from the 12 drawings I'd chosen. (the wall is 41 panels wide, each panel is 7 foot tall and 4 foot wide, but I was only painting on 26 of them, 104 foot of mural!) I also used the room to cut the stencils which I'd had printed at Granthams.
I know a lot of artists and friends will agree with me on this, it's almost like Christmas morning when a big paint order arrives! haha! And this was a nice order of paint, spray caps and new mask. A treat to open!
I hung the design up on the washing line in the art room and had Wendy and Mike take a look. they were very pleased with it and it was time to start the mural itself on the 29th September. (there had been some waiting involved anyway as the contractors on the site said the boards needed strengthening before i painted them, so I'd been getting on with other work in between designing the mural)
As I said before, I would normally use spray paint in my own work in a more controlled way, masking off and filling big shapes of colour and possibly adding details in freehand with Posca paint pens, so when I began painting this thing, I was a bit twitchy about going at it so freely!
Wendy assured me not to worry about making mistakes, about lines being neat and even about over spray or colours merging together. Just think like a child and crack on! (now this is quite a task in itself really, as little kids can't hold and spray with a can at the same time, as I discovered back in the days of Baseline studio when Catch22 brought his boys in and let them have a go)
But as I got into it, it became easier and a lot more fun to do!
One tiny gripe I could have was that the height and position of the wall meant I was always working in shadow and trying to take photos of it as I went along, the sun was facing me from over the wall as I faced it! Not a major problem, but when spraying in big areas of colour, I sometimes couldn't see until afterwards that I'd left streaks in places. (As I mentioned earlier though, I still have a lot to learn about using spray paint, including filling areas neatly, so I put some of it down to that fact and not just that I was working in shadow! plus, it didn't REALLY matter that much as I was painting it like a child! haha! Another reason why this was a good project for me to do. I was able to almost practise and experiment as I went along and then either leave it or go over it. )
Due to the nature of spray paint being very harmful, I couldn't have the children being around whilst I painted the mural and the teachers were all very accommodating in taking the children out at break times to other parts of the yard round the corners away from the wall. At 12.30 every day they had lunch and came out into the yard though and that's when I'd stop for an hour. The children were so positive about the project and I had many a comment said to me as I was finishing for lunch.
They'd say hello to me in the corridor waving 'Hi David' and telling me that I was doing a good job and that it was looking fabulous or awesome! haha! One little lad came out into the yard one day and saw me and shouted 'face painter' haha! Kids are funny!
By the 2nd October I was more than half way done. I wasn't working on it at weekends so had time to rest and I have problems with my back anyway so I needed to take it easy. The weather has been great these past few weeks, but there were a couple of rainy days that I couldn't work on.
I'd actually made another drawing from my final design that incorporated the words into the mural a little better and helped me space the 12 images out over the 26 panels. Just realised I didn't take a photo of that drawing to include in this write up. When it came to actually painting the design onto the wall, I also realised that due to the size of the panels, the design changed again during the process and some of the faces had to be wider or smaller that the ones I'd drawn. Also, as well as the 12 drawings that I used, Wendy had given me some paintings that the key stage one children had done of Blackpool land marks like the Tower and the Big One and images of beach balls and buckets and spades that they wanted including in it as well.
On the 8th October I'd painted all the artwork on and it was time to get the stencils out and paint them in. Teaching assistant Matt Smith gave me a hand taping them all on and I got the thing finished just as the parents started arriving to pick up their kids.
It's been a great experience working on the project and even though it's not a true representation of my own work, I'm still quite proud to have completed it. Picasso has always been one of my favourite artists growing up and to have been chosen to come in and recreate some of his work in this way is a good thing. Big thanks to Wendy and Mike for getting me involved, all the staff for their patience and accommodating me while I worked and especially to all the children who were so receptive to the project, I've come away feeling very positive about it.
Nice little bonus in that there was a good chunk of unused paint left afterwards that they let me keep, so that will go to good use in my own work! Also, Wendy mentioned getting the newspaper people in to cover it so watch this space for that!
Thanks for reading
1 comment:
oh my goodness that is huge!! well done for doing it and making it look great, I can only imagine how knackered you must of been after painting all day.
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