The Shiva

Some projects fail, and some shine… this one shines in colours I never painted with before.

I was asked by a local music venue to design a stage mural based on Shiva. If you know anything about Shiva, you would know that Shiva is NOT a woman, (my mistake), but rather a God. Not that this is terribly relative to the painting, but when I paint a subject? I consider it a chance to really get to know the subject. I had never attended college, but my job as a muralist pushes me to paint all kinds of things that I would have thought totally boring. I usually find out that it is anything BUT boring.

So to learn about the story of Shiva? I consider these to be the perks of my job.

I decided to make several separate canvases and fit them together much like I did for ArtPrize. This time I wanted to make them different sizes. As much as I enjoy symmetry, I also like non symmetrical images. So with this mural, I wanted to try something new.

I decided to vary the sizes and shapes of the canvases into a larger fitting canvas. I decided because it is on a stage, he needed to be LED and UV light reactive paint. I do enjoy these paintings, but never have had one so big.

The hardest part of this painting was the small space I had to do it. So making the canvases at The TreeHouse Studio, then back to the ToolBox Studio, was a little daunting  but I made my way through. Only one week past my projected finish date, but the painting was more fun to paint than I expected. So I did not mind that it was around a little longer. I enjoyed the colours and vibrancy this painting brought to my studio. The last part to make was Shiva Himself to pull it all together.

 

I knew I needed to make the center painting the most interesting. I had been using my rotating easel for 11 years now, and I knew the effects it could pull off. The electric flow that pushes out from the center was a perfect touch to making a Chakra origin. I painted him in about three hours, but almost 8 hours of perfecting the gold metal look.

 

All in all it was not to hard to hang. Aside from getting the black light to be the perfect center, and a little time at two stories up… He came out beautifully. Every band that plays that stage… will be in front of the Shiva. I am very happy with this project.

Now how did George Harrison’s (of the Beatles) sister come up

to be able to see this painting? I happen to be at the right place at the right time. A lovely lady, and a patron of the of the arts. She had come to Springfield to promote some Beatles duties, and came to see the stage. She said a prayer to Shiva, and confessed she thought it was a stain glass.

I was elated.

🙂