KRЯRL DЯAWINGS: The Fresco Years (2009

From 2009 to 2012 we learned how to make Buon Fresco paintings, culminating with the wall fresco by Gonzalo Espinosa at the Sculpture Resource Center in Tucson in November 2011.

Large wall fresco by Gonzalo Espinosa

at the Tucson Sculpture Festival

I wrote two blogs about our fresco experiences:

Of course we were inspired by the Mexican fresco painters. Below is a mural in the stairwell of the Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco (where I used to run the life drawing sessions), updating Mayan figures to the end of the 20th century. While this mural was not a fresco, it was based on the ancient Mayan fresco of Bonampak.

Maya mural in San Francisco

at the Mission Cultural Center

2009

Nogales, Mexico

The adventure started in March, when we drove across the border to buy lime from the tortilla factory in Nogales, Mexico. Lime is the key ingredient of fresco and tortillas -- they mix lime (calcium carbonate) with corn to make tortillas.

We bought a sack of lime at this tortilla factory

in Nogales, Mexico

Nogales is always a lot of fun to visit

Tucson

Then we got serious prepared all the fresco materials at the Sculpture Resource Center in Tucson.

Tucson Resource Center

After a few trial frescoes, we took the material to The Drawing Studio in Tucson, to paint fresco from a live model.

Fresco at The Drawing Studio

in Tucson

Bob Goldman painted this fresco tile

from a live model

at The Drawing Studio

Cecil posing

at The Drawing Studio

El Paso

In September I drove the fresco supplies from Tucson to El Paso and set up for a hands-on fresco demonstration at UTEP. I brought Maya Blue, a pigment that had just been recently re-invented in the chemistry department of this university. Manuel Guerra Sr paints a fresco tile below during the demo.

Fresco demo at UTEP

in El Paso, with Manuel Guerra Sr painting the first tile

Manuel Guerra Sr's fresco painting

We did the fresco demo

for maestro Francisco Delgado's class

Tucson

In October we gave a fresco hands-on fresco demo at the University of Arizona, in the class of maestro Alfred Quiroz.

I'm talking about fresco at the University of Arizona -- 2009,

before they tried the technique for themselves

Collaborative fresco panel

at the University of Arizona

Then in October, Gonzalo Espinosa painted the first big fresco panel at the Sculpture Resource Center.

First big fresco

by Gonzalo Espinosa

Halfway finished with an admirer

Tempe, Arizona

In October I drove the fresco supplies up to Phoenix, and MD painted a fresco outline from life.

MD did a fresco painting from the live model

at the New School for the Arts and Academics

in Tempe, AZ, near ASU

Albuquerque

In December I painted a bad fresco from life at the 3rd Street Drawing session.

My bad fresco painting in Albuquerque

Pigments

Fresco lead us to explore more about pigments, as one has to grind raw pigments in water first, before he can paint into fresco. The formula for Maya Blue pigment had be recently been rediscovered at UTEP, and they were using it to make many different other colors as well (such as Maya red below). We were really pleased to be using an updated Maya method to paint fresco.

Maya Red pigment

I also bought turquoise pigment dust at the Tucson Gem show, and ground that into oil to paint with.

Painted in Turquoise

We also mined our own pigments from a cave outside of Tucson. Below is an oil painting that Joshua Woodhall made from the natural pigments we collected.