Pandemic Backyard Mural
Our house sits on a mountain. Our backyard has a couple of retaining walls to keep that mountain in place. Since we moved in 20 years ago, they’ve been covered with ivy, but in 2018, we had some landscaping done and the roots were cut, killing the plants. We’ve been staring at a blank concrete wall. Not nice.
When quarantine started, all of our travel plans were cancelled. I had been painting little watercolors of our trip to France last year and decided to combine them into a mural on our 6’ x 20’ wall outside.
I had taken a mural painting class at the University of Utah in 2016 where my design for the two story entry hall at Esperanza Elementary was chosen, so a little wall in my backyard should be easy, right?
Andrew helped me snap a chalk grid on the wall and I transferred my design. I then did the underpainting in Quinacridone Magenta (acrylic) to make the colors nice and bright. If this layer hadn’t been done, the paint just kind of fades into the concrete. The final layer ended up being true to my design.
Chalk grid: May 29, 2020
Quin layer: June 5, 2020
Finished: July 28, 2020
It was a very hot time of the year to be painting outside in the sun with acrylic paint. Acrylic dries really fast so I had to keep the paint really wet with a spray bottle. I also put up a shade tent for obvious reasons. Lots of sunscreen and water. Books on tape (Audible) and podcasts were very entertaining. I also needed to take breaks at the hottest time of the day.
What a challenge! But I don’t think it would’ve happened any other year in only two months. And now, when we look out the back windows, we have a colorful mural of France to look at instead of boring grey concrete.