This summer my family (all five of us) went to Mexico to work in an orphanage for a week. My main "job" was to paint a mural. Having seen pictures of grounds/facilities, I knew it was mostly white & grey. I'm a huge believer in art being transformative visually & emotionally. I had asked prior to going if that was something they would like. They said yes, but wanted some sketches to select from. One of which was done in the style of Mexican embroidery. This is the one they wanted. I was fine with it because the design was similar to Pennsylvania Dutch Hex Signs (my mom's side is from a Pennsylvania Dutch background). I brought in few teenagers each day to help me with painting of the mural.
Our first day I took about four hours to draw out the mural. The wall is kind of stucco "ish", and wasn't the easiest to draw upon.
On the second day, I had three high school students from the Texas team helping me paint. We focused on the blues & greens. It was a real "learning" day for me. The surface was so bumpy, and had to figure out what way of painting worked best.
On the third day three of the youth from our church helped me start adding in the other colors. I also started seeing some "holes" in the design that needed "MORE". I added more leaves, butterflies, hearts, and flowers to fill out the design more. I worked on that and doing some larger blended flowers. My amazing crew filled in with solid color.
On the last day, my daughter (blue shirt) & her best friend helped me out on the last day. One of the wall texture "issues" was pitting in the paint. Little white "holes" that would appear after the paint started to dry. So the girls helped me for about an hour, and then I spent the next 7 1/2 blending colors, adding details, adding highlights...and other assorted things.
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