Journey to Surrender

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Mural in Valladolid

Painting a Mural in Valladolid

Zentik Project Hotel

I was in Valladolid to see the pyramids of Chichen Itza. The challenge: to paint a mural. The Hotel "Project Zentik" had invited me to paint a mural at their eco-boutique hotel.

I've painted some murals before. Here's my wall in San Miguel de Allende. It's a school called "Libros Sin Frontiers."

Libros Sin Fronteras in San Miguel de Allende

The Hotel Zentik has a lot of rustic eco-friendly spaces. This is the huge palapa that houses their restaurant.

Here's an example of the palapa-style lodgings at the hotel.

The entrance to the lobby.

And the eco-friendly gardens.

This is the owner Fernando Jordi and his daughter Mariana. On their right is the wall I took on as my project. The space is to be used as a snack bar.

When I arrived, the wall hadn't been prepared, and the space was being used for storage.

The next morning I was pensive. I'm trying to come up with a good concept.

As I was thinking, Fernando's man Arturo prepped the wall for painting.

We moved the furniture away from the wall, which measures about 5 meters long and about 3 meters high.

The swimming pool is right next to the snack bar. There are hammocks for the hot weather.

Aurora was happy in the cottage we were assigned while painting the mural.

The view of the gardens from inside the cottage. Valladolid was having perfect weather. Not to hot, cool evenings, no mosquitoes.

Look closely and you will see a small iguana lizard.

While thinking about the work, I found some time out for relaxing with the Ukulele.

I had recently done a series of tango dancers, and it seems to me that the space I had chosen would be ideal to play with the idea.

I asked Fernando if he would mind posing a bit for me. And he obliged me with his wife Maria Elena.

Guillermo and Mariana, posing for the tango painting.

After making a few sketches I set to work. By now the wall had been prepped. Apart from the sheer size, there was a problem with electrical outlets protruding from the wall. I decided I would get better results with a mural this size by using vinyl house paints for the larger sections. The color fastness is good, and they would properly seal the wall, given that this space is partly exposed to the elements. I chose to use Comex vinyl paint. I set out downtown with Mariana and visited a local paint store. The owner mixed the colors according to our specifications. I chose a lime green and a rosy pink to simulate the bright colors found in the "Boca" area of Argentina, where the Tango was born.

Boca, Argentina

Now that I had an idea, it was time for more coffee and thinking.

I made some sketches for an idea, which I showed to Mariana. She was delighted and I set to work.

A lot of plastic trays for mixing small quantities of paint, an assortment of brushes, Vinyl paint for the big areas and Artist quality acrylic paint for details. Masking tape and assorted tools for measuring. A step ladder. I was ready to go.

It was a pretty big space. The clock was ticking.

I started by making a sketch with charcoal. I decided to integrate the electrical fixtures into the work by making them part of the lamp posts which are so typical of tango street scenes. As I was sketching in charcoal I realised I had miscalculated the proportions; the height to width ratio on the wall was much wider than I had anticipated. I had originally planned only two dancing couples. I realised I would need at least four. So the right side of the wall mirrored the figures on the left. It was basically a balanced sketch and I thought it would work.

Now that I had the sketch on the wall, Aurora helped clean the floor area up so that I could begin painting.

This is the left side of the wall.

A bar sits in front of the piece. I felt that it added dimension.

This is the right side of the wall. I like the rough feel of the charcoal sketch. In some ways I like this part best.

Now that I have the sketch up, the idea is to paint the wall behind the dancers with one of the garish colors that would be used in a barrio like Boca in Argentina. I hope the lime green will be strong enough to do the job. Here, Arturo and Juan are helping me block in the background color.

I tried to make the figures life-sized, but as I'm a bit short, so are my dancers.

I'm painting over the charcoal with a bit of black paint, so I don't lose my sketch.

As the work evolved I got as many people as I could to help me.

The grounds of the hotel are green and relaxing. There's an underground cave beneath the hotel where you can swim in warm and curative mineral waters.

I'm looking at the work from the stairway that leads upstairs to the spa-massage area.

Here's the left side of the painting with the background blocked in.

Here's the right side from a different angle.

This is the next day. It's not finished yet, but I've made some progress. I've painted the figures with stronger color: artist's quality acrylics.

Mariana applies some finishing touches to the wooden blinds, as Teresa helps decorate the main figures.

Everyone helped.

The mural ended up having a certain cartoonish quality, such as this hard-boiled tango dancer who looks a bit like Dick Tracy.

I counted on the tiled floor and the strong colors of the foreground to give depth to the painting.

The lamp posts with electrical fixtures hanging out gave it a note of realism. And since the figures are a bit short of life-sized, they seem to be standing farther back than I am.

Aurora helped with some final detailed work.

Back in the restaurant we celebrated the successful mural.

Left to right, Mariana the hotel's manager, Mariana, Teresa's daughter, Teresa, Michael Dolan and Aurora Lopez.

The owner, Fernando, and I hamming it up for the cameras. A typical tango dance. Actually the tango is said to have been invented as a kind of a macho dance for men.