Stay tuned.  Unveiling of my Contest Entry coming soon.

I'm very pleased that yesterday I was selected to be among the 30 artists who will each create a fresco for the Bella Vita project as part of a community revitalization effort in Troy, NY's Little Italy neighborhood.  The original list of 50 artists was pared down to 30.  That makes it even more of an honor to be among a select few.  My finished painting will be donated as a fundraiser for the Troy Italian Community Center.  The finished paintings will all be the same size, 20" by 36". 

When the paintings are finished, there will be a Meet the Artists Event on Saturday, June 9, 2012.  I'm told there will be major news coverage as the artwork is readied for show and sale.  I believe at least some of it will be sold at auction.  Sorry the specifics that I have on this are sketchy.  I'll update as I find out more.

This project was developed and is being headed by Andrea Daley, an author and educator who has over 45 years experience as a professional restorer.  Her restoration work encompasses all types from architecture to ceramic objects.  She is the owner of DIT Restore It! and has a website full of information on the subject.

For myself, this will be a fun and challenging way to get vack in touch with my Italian ancestry.  Each of us artists is required to paint a  fresco of a scene in Italy.  First we will enter a training program that teaches all about the buon fresco painting technique.

The reason for the desirability of buon fresco paintings is their durability and longevity, as evidenced by the uncovering of the ones found in the ancient ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum.  Another of its most notable features is that the colors retain their vibrancy over time.  This is why it's a popular art form for architecture.  The paint color, when applied, seeps into the wet plaster and actually becomes a part of it. 

It's not something you ordinarily pick up on your own.  There are very special
requirements for creating a painting this way.  A plaster surface is prepared 
before the paint is applied.  The wet plaster can dry in 3 hours.  The painting can only be worked on as long is the plaster is still wet.  After that, you're unable to make any changes.  You have to be thoroughly prepared in advance with a sketch of the scene you're going to use.  To make this easier to do, the picture can be split up so that only one a section at a time has the wet plaster to which paint is applied.  As remaining sections are added, their colors at wet stage have to be carefully blended with the colors of the previously dried sections.

Besides composing the picture itself, I'd like to have all of my color choices worked out in advance.  Since I'm not familiar with this technique, I don't know how well blending colors works once they're applied.  This is a favorite way I paint when I use acrylic paint.  Acrylics dry quickly.  I paint small areas at a time.  The fresco technique might require adjusting to a different approach.

The sketch on paper is transferred onto the plaster surface with a pouncing technique.  This means that chalk is pounced through pinholes previous created in the outlines of the sketch.  Next you proceed to paint in your outlines, and add dark and light areas.  That's about as much as I know at this point.  I'll be attending a group training session over a period of 4 days, at least 3 1/2 hours each day.

Andrea and her fellow organizers at the Troy Italian Community Center performed a search for sponsors.  These are businesses or private donors who wish to have a fresco painted for their home or business.  If you'd like to become a sponsor, please contact Andrea.