A Mural on the Farm

From sketch to finish, here’s pictures of the painting process!

19 July 2022

It’s been awhile, yet again, since I’ve written a post. This time, I have something I am so proud and excited to share more about. About a week or two ago, my aunt Kammie gave me the opportunity to paint the side of her Airbnb out on her farm in Covington. This was one of the biggest paintings I’ve done yet and I was so happy and excited that Kammie asked me to do this. With some ideas and Pinterest searches, I went onward and started my biggest painting project yet.

The day that I went out to the farm was beyond perfect, the sunshine was out and it was so quite and peaceful there. When I pulled into the drive way of Kammie’s cute little Airbnb, she had the sweetest setup and little work spot for me. She had French café music playing and all the supplies laid out ready to go. I felt so happy and appreciative that day. While I got started on my first big painting, I kept thinking about how thankful I am to have such amazing and supportive people in my life, specifically Kammie in that moment.

Kammie is just one of the people that has supported me no matter what and has always pushed me to be as creative as I want. She constantly takes me new places and makes me try so many new things. Anytime I’m with Kammie, she always knows where to find the best inspiration and how to get me motivated to work hard and make it to the place I want to be one day.

To start off this project, I laid out the sketches I had done that week and took a moment to figure out how I was going to make my tiny drawing in to a mural. With a few minutes of contemplation, I decided to just wing it ( like I do with most things in life). I started by sketching outlines with a pencil on the wall, nothing perfect or measured, just all guess work. Sketching out the painting was the first step and didn’t take too long to finish up. Once I had an outline on the wall, I was then ready to start mixing the paints and bring my sketch to life.

I’m no professional and I only know a little bit about art and painting, but I utilized what I learned from a previous painting class and used it on this project. One of the things that has stuck with me most from my class was using only limited amount of colors and mixing your own. Anytime I paint I use my primary colors, white, brown, and black. With just these colors you can make any other color out of them which is something that I love to do and has stuck with me ever since my class. For this painting, I picked a premade green and used that along with my usual colors, but I still made sure I mixed the paints and got the exact colors I wanted to use on my mural.

Once I mixed my first shade of green, I started putting the first layer of paint on the wall. I started to feel nervous as I began to paint, thinking that this could turn out terribly wrong and ugly. Then I thought that as long as I am happy while painting it, that happiness would show in the painting itself and wouldn’t be ugly. So, I kept on painting on the first shade of green and let all the happiness and gratitude I felt flow into it. I had my jazz music playing and a huge smile on my face and just painted my day away. I lost track of time and have no clue how long this mural took me, but all on know that it was time well spent.

I finished up the first session of the painting around 5 or so that evening. I cleaned up the mess I had made and took a step back to admire the work that I had done. Looking at my work, I smiled and felt good about the progress I made. Kammie and her Grandma came out to take a look and they both gave me kind words about my mural. It was so nice to hear all the good things both of them had to say . I felt so good and proud of myself for being able to take this project on. It’s not completely finished yet and there’s just a few details I want to add in the next couple weeks, but what I have so far is something I am already proud of.

To wrap this post up, I think I want to highlight somethings that stood out most to me about this experience and how it helped me reflect on my life and the people who surround me. Like I said before, starting this project I felt so thankful and appreciative of those that are in my life constantly supporting me. If I wasn’t surrounded by such amazing and loving people, I wouldn’t be the person I am today. The support that my friends and family give me to be creative, happy, and loving is so important and it has become more relevant everyday in my life. As I reflect, I know that I want to be able to be a person of love and support to those around me. I want to help keep people inspired and to get others to try new things, just like Kammie has for me. I want people around me to feel loved and supported in the life they choose to live and I want them to feel they can do anything and everything to achieve the life they want. So, just as my family and friends have done for me, I am ready to do the same and give back to my community and the people I meet everyday. I hope that this post has made you feel good and happy, and I pray that I can be of some sort of inspiration to you guys too!

With Love,

Kabenzie :)