a mural.

I don’t always use watercolor, and when I don’t, it’s a mural. Okay that’s not true, this is my first mural. But I did very much enjoy and feel a creative surge working with a totally different medium than I normally do. Painting large scale is first of all, way way different from my 8”x10” paintings. And using opaque house paints was a real curve ball. It took me months to conceptualize what, how, where, the colors, everything about this mural for Logan’s wall. He started telling me more recently that he loved rainbows and wanted his room to “be beautiful” and have a rainbow on it so that’s where the side wall idea was born. I wanted a little curve of color bleeding into the back wall so when he falls asleep at night he can look over at the colors.

I love a traditional rainbow but we already had a color story in his room so I made the executive decision to go rogue with the colors. I did bring him with my to the paint store and ask him which colors he wanted and then showed him swatches for approval. I put together a rough concept on computer paper so I had the general line work to reference when I was drawing it out on the wall in pencil. Logan was there for that part and he approved of the idea. I even let him paint some of the wall with me so he could be part of the process and feel proud when it was all done. I paint with Logan often and he follows my instructions pretty well at this age now, so I felt comfortable having him do some painting “in between the blue tape lines” with heavy overseeing on my part.

One of the hardest parts of being creative is you want to do everything from start to finish and not have anyone mess with your idea and your process. But I always want my kids to grow up having practiced and experiencing moments like this so they can become artistic little people, too. So I intentionally push aside my own controlling ways, with boundaries and guidelines and a time limit, to allow for these special moments to take place.

Logan did come into the room when I was making his lunch and start painting green in a spot that was not supposed to have green. I could have lost my mind that my original color plan was destroyed, and trust me I did in my mind. But I knew in the end it would be okay and I more so focused on explaining to him that he needs to have an adult present when he’s going to paint on the wall. Since I mean, that’s not a normal occurrence, obviously.

The mural took 2 days on and off working on it. I also definitely would use a better quality paint next time since these needed about 3 coats before I felt they looked complete. I would also work on pressing my tape down a little harder to make cleaner lines but all in all - I love it and Logan does too. His room feels inspiring, adventurous and warm. Everything we want for our little, wild boy.

Thanks for reading!

xx Stephanie