Murals in Progress
As we alluded to in our blog post from August 6th, the panels we purchased were delivered to our studio location (the back porch of the school at Mitcha) on that date. Big thanks to Rachel & Victor at SIM Angola for that, as the construction store’s delivery truck could not obtain petrol during the city’s supply crisis!
The very next day we hoped to get all eight of the pressboard panels primed, but after an hour or so we realized the primer we thought we bought was actually some form of lacquer! So, we did a quick trip again to the paint store, and after some haggling, we purchased a large container of white paint. Note to self: don’t purchase art supplies when jet-lagged! The white paint worked just fine as our primer layer (which, after sanding, we applied in earnest two coats each on Saturday, the 7th). We also were blessed by a local missionary at Mitcha who had a rotating saw and cut the one panel for us in three, ready for painting the CEML’s chapel murals on.
So, the first full week of painting on panels has now passed — plus the day and half the week prior — and we have painted about eighteen hours so far having more than started half of the eight 4’x8’ mural panels. We ended the first full week with all the drawings for the CEML chapel finished, as well as the baby Moses drawing. In addition we completed the school mural (two vertical panels) and near completed the baby Jesus mural. All is going well and now that we’re used to the venue and the discipline of painting so frequently I believe that all paintings will be completed by the time we leave on August 28th.
Bethany K. Hoskin
