Artistic Murals By: Tamara Gerkin

Step By Step Process 

City Of New Port Richey, Florida

September 17, 2004

Day 1: My special thanks to Mark Peterson and his crew from Color Rite Painting and Stucco Co. for doing a great job on resurfacing the wall!  If anyone is  looking for a company that is dependable and good, give Mark a call at 727-514-4753.

Day 2: Three days later... The newly resurfaced wall had a coat of water proofing applied.  This water proofing will help keep the PH balance in check. 

Day 3:  After the surface cured for 7 days, I used a concrete bonding agent to seal along the bottom edge, window seals and outside edges of the wall..  This non porous product that will help strengthen the edges and prevent water from seeping into the concrete along the sidewalk and at the window seals.  

Day 7:  (9-23-04)  I've applied a heavy coat of PH inhibiting primer that will serve as a block between the new surface and the mural.  Though this is back breaking job on a wall this size, it is perhaps the most important stage in painting a mural.  After this layer cured, I gave the wall a second coat.   The primer is a black and white gray that I had custom mixed at Sherwin Williams and will serve as an excellent base color for the mural.

Day 8:  9-25-04:  5:31 AM...Hurricane Jeanne is arriving to Pasco County in a few hours, which is where I live.  This is our 4th hurricane in 6 weeks.   My heart and prayers go out to all that have suffered greatly from these vicious storms.  For my friends and family in and near West Palm Beach, I pray that you and your families are all right.  Please call me ASAP.  

LET THE MURAL BEGIN! 

As you watch this mural grow, please know that I do not use a projector or any other means beyond freehand drawing to create the mural.  Because of this, you most likely will not see an exact reproduction of the small painting. There will be areas that I  intentionally change for the sake of the mural, because what may work on a small scale, may not look so great on a large scale. However, the basic genre, theme and composition will remain the same...  

 Painting Day 1& 2: (Primer & light sketching)            

Painting Day 3: (Blocking in large areas of color)            

Painting Day 4: (More blocking in of major shapes)               

Painting Day 5: ( More sketching in basic shapes and applying the base color.) 

Painting Day 6:            

Painting Day 7:          

Painting Day 8:                     

From this stage on I will be refining the composition, color and shapes, as well as adding detail to objects.  Due to the wind blowing so briskly, I've started refining the sky and distant buildings, trees and road.  (The wind has a tendency to blow the paint right off my brush onto areas of the mural that I had no intention of splattering with paint.)

Hey...what happened to Day 9?  I'll figure this over the weekend...

Painting Day 10:                  Since Gloria Swanson owned a home in New Port Richey, these posters will serve as a tribute of sorts to her.  I've decided to not use the Charlie Chaplin poster that I originally depicted  in the small painting, but will instead paint a full size figure of Chaplin complete with walking stick, floppy shoes and dark suit.   

Painting Day 11:           Each stage gets a little closer to the finish line.  Once I'm satisfied with the pictorial image, I'll paint in all the titles and words that go on the signs and posters.

Painting Day 12:          

( I've changed the design of the white dress into more of a Flapper's evening dress.  The dress she had on was simply too heavy and not fun enough at this scale.)  

(This Mother and Child will serve as a lead in to the mural as well as depict family devotion during the 1920's. )

Painting Day 13:                 

( Close-ups of all the figures and car, each will be refined more and more with each layer of paint.)

Painting Day 14:           

Painting Day 15, Oct. 19, 2004:  President Bush visits New Port Richey!   Since I desperately needed to paint I opted to pass up the opportunity to attend his pep-rally at Sims Park, which is located one half block from the mural wall.  As luck would have it, I was forced to close up shop for a few hours, however, I was allowed to stay in the restricted area by my wall, which gave me an excellent view of President Bush and his entourage who ended up stopping for about 15 minutes in front of my mural.

                 President Bush's bus with his happy Secret Service men, one of which smiled for my camera... I think that President Bush was near one of the windows getting a better look at the mural.  Too bad they wouldn't let him off the bus... Nevertheless, the thrill ranked right up there with the day I spent with Wayland and Jessie on their bus, meeting Tanya Tucker backstage at her concert in Phoenix, and spending time with Johnny Cash!  At least they let me have photographs with them... Hey, maybe the President will make it up to me by allowing me to paint a mural in the White House, now wouldn't that be an experience of a lifetime? 

Day 16, No call from the President today, maybe tomorrow:  Today I started refining or rather painting in the faces and defining the red dress.  During the finale stage of the mural, I'll go through and put finishing touches on both faces. 

Painting Day 17:                (In my original color sketch I had a movie poster depicting Charlie Chaplin sitting down.   I decided that since he was such an important actor during this period, that he would be better represented as a full figure in a typical pose wearing his floppy shoes, false eyebrow and holding his notorious cane. I feel that the addition of Charlie in this pose adds to the fun quality of the mural, don't you agree?  In addition to painting Charlie, I used my fine art acrylic paint to refine the face of the women with the red hat.  Though I am becoming accustomed to the viscosity and hue changes after drying that the Mann Brothers Theme paint has, they simply cannot replace the subtle hues that my tube paint provides. )

Painting Day 18:                  

Today I dressed Mary in a dress that I found in a 1920's magazine and began finishing areas around the figures to establish low key hues in contrast with higher key hues.  

I've noticed that the comments from people driving and walking by have changed from, "You are doing a great job, to that is beautiful, thank you for painting the mural!  It is I that thanks all the citizens and visitors of downtown New Port Richey.  I greatly appreciate your kindness and support of this project.  Thank you!  Tamara 

Painting Day 19:     

Painting Day 20:             

Painting Day 21:       

Painting Day 22:                  

Painting Day 23:       Can you guess what the time on the clock stands for?

Painting Day 24:  Election Night...         

Painting Day 25:             

Painting Day 26:                  

Painting Day 27:                  

About the books: Though the book titles are fictional, they are nevertheless about real people that lived in the area and/or made significant contributions during the 1920's.  

Painting Day 28 & 29:                    

Painting Day 30:   The second to the last day.                                 

                                                                                (Check out the mosquito on Michelle's face...)  

For those of you that do not live in this area, there is a river called the Coty River that runs through New Port Richey.  It is on the banks of this river that movie stars and a few other famous people owned beautiful homes.  It is also a favorite place for children and adults to fish.  

"LET  THE MURAL END"