untitled mixed media

Work

The Trolley Barn

Photographic mural across three walls and a ghost-sign restoration, on the last standing bay of Richmond's 1911 car barn.

The restored trolley barn from the street, the 1925 workers painted across the long wall and the Virginia Electric & Power Co. sign above
The preserved bay of the trolley barn before painting, bare brick with a For Sale sign
The main wall repaired and primed white, before any image went on
The 1925 photograph in full: the Virginia Electric & Power Co. maintenance crew on the flatcar outside this barn, the sign on the wall behind them
The same photograph enlarged on the sign: Virginia Electric & Power Co., Maintenance of Way Dept., as it was painted on the barn in 1925

The building in the background of this photograph is the building these murals are painted on. The sign across the top is the original, already on the wall when the photograph was taken, and I brought it back.

The archival photograph of a streetcar inside the barn, painted on the left wall
The sign artwork drawn from the 1925 photograph: Virginia Electric & Power Co., Maintenance of Way Dept.
The photorealistic render of the mural on the barn, approved before painting
The render from the street side: the streetcar bay, the open bay and the crew on the long wall together

This is the render the client approved before I picked up a brush. It puts the finished mural on their own building, at full size. They saw all of it first.

The part of the 1925 photograph that goes on the long wall, before it is broken into values

This is the same photograph sorted into six shades, dark to light. Each shade gets one paint, mixed to match it. Every color on the wall came out of the photograph.

Value 1 of six, the darkest, picked out in magenta: every part of the photograph that gets the same paint
Value 2 of six, picked out in blue
Value 3 of six, picked out in cyan
Value 4 of six, picked out in green
Value 5 of six, picked out in yellow
Value 6 of six, the lightest, picked out in red: every part of the photograph that gets the same paint
The value map projected onto the primed wall at night to transfer the layout
The Virginia Electric & Power Co. sign half restored, old letters beside new
The finished barn from the front corner: the restored sign over the open bay, the streetcar on the left wall and the crew on the long wall
The long wall square on: the crew standing on the flatcar, painted brick by brick
The corner of the barn from 45 degrees, the crew on the long wall and the painted platform running across both

The picture runs across two walls that meet at a corner. I set the perspective for the one place where you can see both at once. From there it reads as one photograph.

The corner where the two walls meet: the crew on the long wall, the crane car on the end wall
The end wall from the sidewalk, the crane car and two workers, the apartments behind
The streetcar bay square on: car 1906 inside the barn, painted on the preserved wall
The streetcar bay from the side, the restored sign around the corner
The end wall square on: two workers and the crane car, with the 1925 sign visible behind them inside the painted photograph
The end wall from the side in evening light
The restored Virginia Electric & Power Co., Maintenance of Way Dept. sign, hand-lettered
The restored sign from below: Virginia Electric & Power Co., Maintenance of Way Dept., over the open bay
A child running past the painted streetcar bay on the sidewalk, the restored sign overhead