I am DONE with the murals!

Today, Celeste worked with me to put a second coat of varnish on Jim Gronsand's mural.  We had a couple of setbacks, like a gallon jug of polymer varnish with a leak (will have to ask for a refund), and realizing that the big jug of satin varnish was "wrong" for the mural anyway.  The varnish needed to be glossy, as we had done last week.   It really brings out the colors, especially the black.  So, we wiped off what we had done in this morning.  The coat underneath had thoroughly dried and so stayed intact.  We then took a break, had a great Mexican lunch, and Carrie joined us.  We all went back to assess the situation, and validated that gloss varnish, not satin, was the way to go.  So we did a second coat of glossy polymer varnish and fortunately had enough   Most of the mural was acrylic, so the polymer varnish was great for that, but Jim had done some of the detail work in oil....so the varnish for the detail work had to be different.  The last step was for Celeste to finish the oil parts with spray damar varnish....we cleaned up while she did it and then we got out of there (because it smells bad!)

I previously posted the mural Lynda Byers and I did.  It was in the room next door, and was finished in early April.

So, as an artist....I now reflect:  Would I want to do a mural again?  Yes, I would...given some inspiration for the right place and the right image.  I learned through this process that I would like to be involved in the design of what I paint, even when doing it with others, and (of course) the freedom to make changes.  In these murals, I was not the designer, but I did get a lot of freedom to execute things as I thought they should be and am pretty happy with the results. 

RIP, Jim.  It was great to work with you on this project, and I am happy we are able to preserve it as you left it. 
Thanks, Celeste, for your help in bringing it to completion.
Carrie, thanks for the support today.  It helped to have "new eyes"on the project.