Mural Mosaic Progress Post #1

A mural mosaic is a very large work of art made up of many individual paintings, which when arranged together, form an image. This project, The West Coast Mural Kunamokst, is a compilation of 231 separate pieces of art by over a hundred different artists. Each piece will depict an image in keeping with the west coast theme. None of the artists know what the finished mural will look like (except it's designers of course)! Konamokst will be 11 feet high and 21 feet long when it is complete. There is an active grid of the mural, with updates of finished panels being added at http://www.muralmosaic.com/kunamokst.html



I am very excited to be one of the artists involved in the creation of Kunamokst. It is an honor to be among such a wonderful group of talented painters.



Below is the panel assigned to me - panel #147. It arrived as a one foot square piece of hardboard with an absract splash of color painted on it complete with "up" arrow. I am to come up with a design that retains the color and tonal aspects of the panel, covering up all the original surface with my own painting.

So, what to paint? I stared at it for a while. Talked with my niece about it, who suggested a hampster riding a sandpiper. Yup, you read that right...Gazed at it some more. Drew up a few sketches, none of which did a thing to inspire me. Then, in the wee hours of the morning, I woke up with an image in my head: a harlequin duck in surf! I love harlequins and have seen many in the surf around jetties and headlands. A very west coast duck for sure! Look closely at the panel. Can you see a duck in there?