Back to Class

Still Life in Watercolour: Citrus & Chillis by Artist Bee

This week I could teach at Watercolour class without being distracted by mural painting. It is good to be back in class doing demonstrations again. For the sake of our beginners, I painted a still life of simple shapes - citrus fruit and chills.

Life Resumes

This week has passed quickly as life slows down to normal routine. Actually, it has been a lot slower as my body tries to recover from the rigours of mural painting in past days. I caught up on cleaning the house and doing laundry and my two dogs and rabbit finally got the attention they have been accustomed to. There are also hundreds of photographs to organise and paperwork to be done. But I am not complaining. After all, who gets to do a huge mural in a lifetime?  I am blessed and happy to have had the opportunity to do this. My dear friend Jean asked me if I ever thought I would do this when I was a young girl. "Not in my wildest dream", I replied. Life is indeed full of unexpected surprises!

My chocolates - given by a kind delivery man while we were painting the mural

                "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." -Forrest Gump


Read the article on the mural in The Post on 21 April 2012 on http://www.artistbee.com/artistbee.com/News.html

The Parable of the Tree

My inspiration for "The Parable of the Tree" mural is taken from one of Jesus' parables:


“The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” 
Matthew 13:31,32


Instead of a mustard seed, I have used a Boab silhouetted against the brilliant colours of the West Australian skies with a community of people of all ages from diverse backgrounds at leisure and play beneath the tree. It is a message of hope, a labour of love and a gift to the people! I have been greatly blessed to have had the opportunity to do this work. 

Art Mural Day 10: It is finished!

"The Parable of the Tree"
Art Mural designed by Artist Bee

I woke up extra early this morning in a race against time to paint in all the figures while we have the cherry picker. Not knowing when the cherry picker would be collected, I painted as fast as I could, doing a record 11 figures in 2 hours. By 9am we have completed everything above 3 metres.

I spent the rest of the morning touching up and painting in the wheels of the bikes which the volunteers left unpainted. At noon, I was pleasantly surprised when a man who delivers goods daily to a nearby shop presented us with a small box of chocolates. He said it was to thank us for letting him park his van in the barricaded area everyday to make his delivery job easier. The chocolates were delicious! At 4pm I was finally done. What a relief and I am so happy we have finished the mural.

As we packed up and were about to leave, a lady walked by and thanked us for the mural.She has been having health issues and told us the colours of the mural brightens her whenever she walks by. Such words of encouragement make me forget my tiredness and indeed it has been all worthwhile!

Art Mural Day 9

Start of Day 9

Today is a race against time for the use of our cherry picker. Early tomorrow morning, it will be gone, so we had to finish all the areas which can only be reached by using it. I started earlier than usual and worked continuously till evening, working a record 13 hours straight. By 8pm we had given the tree a second coat of paint, painted more figures and traced the last remaining 11 silhouettes onto the wall. I was so glad that my trustworthy helpers and support crew were at hand. Once again, all our meals had been taken care of. What a blessing!

End of Day 9

Art Mural Day 8

8am Day 8

12 Noon Day 8

6pm Day 8

Art Mural Day 7

Beginning of Day 7

 Another early start on a fine day with cloudy skies but no rain. I completed the tree today - hooray!
I spent the rest of the day mostly doing the skies, blending in the colours for a more natural look. Doing this on my canvas test piece a few months ago had been easy, but now I am faced with a 23m by 7m wall and a reach of only about 2 m square at any one time while perched on a cherry picker that swings wildly each time we have to move positions. My partner has, to his credit, become increasingly skilful at manoeuvring this little machine. We joked that he can now earn his cherry picker licence!

The Tree completed

By evening, we have done about half the skies, leaving the other half for tomorrow. We will then have to paint the tree again for the second time as we need to have two coats of paint. We only have the cherry picker till the weekend, so my priority is to complete all the work above the 3 metre line before then. By today, my partner and I have worked nonstop 12 hour shifts for the past 6 days. Once again, our hearts are warmed when a dear friend brought us not only a delicious home-cooked lunch but dinner as well. This is the mural at the end of day 7:

End of Day 7

Art Mural Day 6

Beginning of Day 6

Energised by a rest day yesterday coupled with fine weather, we made excellent progress today. I managed to get most of the tree done and we also put in the colours in the sky. A very capable young Phoebe painted more silhouettes while Helen and Chris helped with the sky. We also set up a videocamera to record the growth of our tree. By the end of day 6, this is what we have after one of the most productive days so far:

End of Day 6

Chris having a go on the cherry picker

What has been most heartwarming about this project has been the tremendous impact it has on relationships in the community, both within the church and without. As I have been practically camping out in the site 12 hours a day, I got to know the regular passers by, delivery people and people working and living in the neighbourhood. Many of them stopped by to tell us how pleased they were with the mural and what they liked about it. There is also Vince, who came specially just to see the progress of the mural every evening. I also got to know people who volunteered to help and many of the volunteers too, got to know one another. And for two days in a row, I have had people just come buy us drinks and even cooked us dinner! How wonderful is that!

Art Mural Day 5

The heavens dictated our schedule today. I had planned on doing the tree but as soon as I started a passing shower stopped me in my tracks. It was a good thing that I only managed to put on a few blobs of paint for before I knew it, brown paint was trickling down the wall. Although there were many interludes of sunshine, it was just too much to risk having more paint trickling over and ruining the mural. So I switched to tracing a few more birds in the sky and figures in the tree. At noon we called it a day. The Good Lord knew we needed to replenish our strength. I can feel my aching muscles and jelly feet. After so many hours up the cherry picker, I feel as if I were on one everywhere I go, even at night!

The Mural on Day 5

So, today is mostly a day of rest, and as a bonus, I got to watch Mary Poppins in the afternoon.

Art Mural Day 4

I had some really wonderful helpers today. It was such a welcome relief to sit in the shade and watch the progress of the mural from an easy chair and even take a short nap! The weather is kind to us with cloudy skies and less intense heat.  Energised from resting I got to work again in the afternoon and started painting the tree. We made good progress and by the end of day 4, the Boab tree began to take shape.

Beginning of Day 4

Many hands make light work

Having a little snooze at last!

End of Day 4

Art Mural Day 3

The mural on Day 3

This is my second 12 hour work day since the mural painting began. I have learnt to conserve energy by staying the the shade as far as possible and to keep out of the midday sun. However, my feet are still killing me by the end of the day.

I have different helpers come at different times of the day, from an eager five year old to an energetic seventy year old. Being a community project, I made sure everyone had a chance to do their bit, within their ability. My design allowed people with less technical skills to do fairly simple tasks of painting within the designated lines.  I was excited as the participants and passers by are really a part of the greater installation. They become part of the artwork as they moved around the mural. Art extends into life, and life into art.

We also had really positive feedback from passers by as this was a fairly busy corner of the city.

As I had been up since very early in the morning, I did not even realise that a lady who passed by and stopped to chat was in fact, the Mayor herself, whose silhouette is on the mural. It only dawned on me after she had left!

Young helpers doing their bit

By the time we packed up and I stopped to take a photo for the record, the street lamps had come on and the sun had set. This is what the mural looked like at the end of day 3:

The Mural at the end of Day 3

Art mural Day 2

Diary of a Mural : Day One

Very early this morning work began on the wall. The professional painters were there to paint the primer coat, which has been tinted with the two main colours of the background. It took them the whole morning to finish the primer coat. With their spray paint and expertise, they accomplished the task in a relatively short time. The rest of the mural will be the more painstaking tasks to be completed by me and my helpers.

First, my helpers painted the horizon line and filled in the violet colour above the orange. This took half the afternoon. Other volunteers worked on drawing the grid lines in chalk, which will be the reference points for the placement of my silhouettes.

It has been a long day, but everyone is pleased with the result, especially me! And thank God for the beautiful weather, too. Now, for a good rest and another early start tomorrow morning.

Art Mural Painting Begins

For the past eight months I have been working on a massive art mural project. It involves painting a 23m x 7m wall of a church building which faces a large open-air car park. As this was to be a community art project, I had to think of a design that could involve a large and diverse group of people including children. My design was inspired by the biblical parable of a seed that grew into a large tree which gave food and shelter to the birds. In the local West Australian context, the tree that came to my mind was the fascinating Boab. I had a vision of a community of people under a giant boab tree. I used silhouettes, which were taken from photographs of real people who volunteered to pose for the images. We took photographs of well over a hundred people, and the final design contains nearly a hundred silhouettes.

I am getting really excited now, as we have reached the final phase which is the actual painting of the mural! Tomorrow I get to go up a cherry picker, for the very first time in more than half a century!

Here I was, a few days ago, placing the first important line on the wall, now washed and ready for painting. I hope to document the progress of the mural in the coming days. Countdown begins!

Still Life: White Jug & Radishes

The Still Life set up

Starting with the radishes...

White Jug & Radishes
Watercolour on paper by Artist Bee


I spent yesterday morning doing a water-colour workshop and this was a still life demonstration which I did for the group. My way of working is first to do a thumbnail sketch to determine the composition and values. To simplify things, categorise values as darkest, lightest and intermediate. It helps to squint while looking to lose colour information which can be confusing, and that way it is much easier to see the darkest and lightest values. Once I have a thumbnail done, I get to work on my paper with a very loose sketch. I like to start with the main subject first. Like a drama, a painting has a cast of main actor, supporting actor or actors and the background extras. I have chosen to highlight the radishes which are succulent and vibrant. The beautiful white jug sits elegantly behind, lending support and visual interest but not competing for attention.