May

12

Cadeau du Cheval mural

Filed Under Judy Wood 


One of the new projects I am working on is a panel for the enormous “Cadeau du Cheval” mural that is currently under construction, to be unveiled in September at the Spruce Meadows Masters tournament. This is one of a number of gigantic artworks that seem to be in vogue at present. As I understand the process, a huge painting (often in the area of 20 by 40 or so feet in size) is created, then is cut up into smaller squares. Each participating artist receives a square, which they can interpret as they wish, as long as they stay on theme for the overall concept of the particular mural (horses, in this case) and stay within the colour range on the panel they have received. Some are quite challenging because they will have a strong pre-existing shape which then has to be worked into the final product being done by the “team” artist.

For this project, the participating artists were sent a link to an online page that had a selection of panels, and they could submit a request for their top three picks, thus having some ability to control the colours and shapes on the panel they would be sent.

My link for panel choice came fairly late in the process, then the email I sent with my picks got lost in space, so I was pretty far down in the pack when it came to choosing. However, I had determined that I wanted an “easy” panel, i.e. one that was just colours with no strong shapes to work with or around, and that I wanted dark tones. I got pretty well what I had requested, so all is well on that front.

When I made my choice of panel, I really had no clue where I would go with it (still don’t to a considerable extent!) but then I realized it would work well with a theme I had already been contemplating, which was a Gothic, or at least “dark imagery” one. I had already started compiling potential images for the Gothic concept into an image folder, so really it was like I had anticipated the whole panel idea.

I was anxiously anticipating the arrival of my panel, which finally landed on my doorstep about a week ago. Actually having it in my possession threw me into a tizzy of uncertainly and anxiety. I propped it up in the studio where I could look at and think about it, moved it around, took pictures of it, and generally got myself into a state. Finally about two nights ago I had a dream about it, and that was enough for me. Once I start dreaming about things, I take that as a sign that I have to deal with them. Bad enough to worry about stuff in your waking hours, never mind when you are asleep as well!

Unlike virtually everyone else on this project, I’m not painting on my panel. I’m doing a photomontage which I will figure out how to get onto the panel when the time comes. I hope.

So yesterday I took one of the photos of the base panel, pulled a bunch of images out of the photo files, and started assembly. So far I’ve got nineteen layers open in Photoshop, with more yet to come. At this stage I am just playing with images and possibilities and seeing what happens. The photomontages are very much unplanned and are a product of a lot of trial and error on my part.

First image today shows the panel as it is.

Second image is one version of where it’s at so far. There are a lot of elements that are open layers in Photoshop that I have “turned off” (i.e. made invisible) for the moment while I work with the ones that show on this work in progress shot. I will do a huge amount of work resizing, changing opacity, moving images around in relation to each other, adding elements, subtracting them, whatever it takes for it to feel “right”. All this without getting too far off track for colouring. The end result may look somewhat like this, or may look totally different. I’m never sure where I’m going on these, or how long the trip will take, but I always know when I’m “there”. I’ll post updates intermittently so we can all see how it’s coming along. I’m interested and curious about this too!

A couple of stats here. There are 238 panels for this mural, and each one is 16″ x 16″. You can do the math for the final size if you’re inclined that way. Let me know if you do, since I’m not going there. Mine is number 230, which is near the middle of the bottom row.

You can learn more about this mural and others that have been completed or are in progress by checking this site http://www.muralmosaic.com/ If you click on the Cadeau du Cheval equine mural link on the site, you can see the panels that have already been completed, and keep track of how the final image will emerge as more panels are completed and posted.

I have to give full credit to the organizers of this project for total professionalism and attention to detail in every aspect of how they have handled this and dealt with the artists. It’s a pleasure to be associated with this project. More later!!

PS of course the featured equine in this version is my own “dark horse” Alpac.

©Copyright 2008 by Judy Wood. See original post here.

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