Train Station Mural update

Work has continued on the train station mural this past week.  Though the walls were pretty much covered in the marathon of work over the initial weekend, there were a few sections to finish, and lots of details to work out.  Producing the mural in pieces made it possible to install it quickly, but making sure the whole image comes together can require seeing it all in place.  Our mural creator Delia King has been back in town again this week, working on the platform along with a few volunteers.  The rain has held off, but fierce winds tend to whip through the space by the tracks.  Still, a lot of work has been accomplished.  Shapes have been better defined, colors enhanced to unify the composition and build more space, and details that had been left open now being settled.  Delia is confident that all the painting will have been completed by the end of the day, leaving just the task of applying a sealer for tomorrow morning.

That's not the end of the story.  BelmarArts has a whole list of events set for Saturday, April 26th.  At 3:00 pm, the Boatworks will be hosting two guest speakers, Tom Gallo and Gary Crawford, who will be talking about the history and future of trains and Belmar.  Then at 4:00 pm, the action moves over to the train station (just a couple of blocks away, between 8th and 10th) for the official unveiling and dedication of the mural.  Everyone is invited to return to the Boatworks after that for the exhibition reception for our current Belmar and the Railroad exhibition, which includes more than three dozen artworks with train themes.  The reception is from 5 to 7 pm and will include the typical refreshments.  Visitors are welcome at one or all of the events, and admission is free.

Train Station Mural part 2

Work continued this morning on the train station mural.  Before long all the remaining pre-painted panels were attached to the wall in their proper places and the effort shifted over to painting the design on the wall.  Some of this was about touching up, some was making corrections to the original design, and some was about filling the spaces from one piece to the next, especially the odd spaces over and around windows and doors.

Once again we started cleaning up around 4:00, but this time we had color on the wall from end to end.  Details will continue to be added, but now we have everything blocked in.

Above, a view of the whole wall as seen from across the tracks.  Below, closer views of the mural from each end of the building.

Considering that all this went up over the weekend, there may be a lot of confused and surprised commuters at and passing through the station tomorrow morning.  A happy surprise no doubt, to see this colorful display and the stories it tells replacing the plain white plywood that covered this wall just 48 hours ago.  Work will be continuing over the next few days, just details compared to what happened so far.  There will be a special dedication on April 26th, but since this is an outdoor public space, you can stop by anytime and check our progress.

Train Station Mural part 1

The process of creating a mural for the Belmar train station began last summer, with the first call for design suggestions.  Last fall, new plywood was prepared and attached to the station wall to create a suitable surface for the mural.  The last time we reported on it here on the blog was back in January, when the process of painting the design onto cloth was begun in the Boatworks.  The designing artist, Delia King, has been continuing work on the panels in her own studio since then.  The dedication of this mural is scheduled a few weeks from now, and we've just been waiting for the weather to be suitable for the process of completing this outdoor artwork

The plan was to start the installation yesterday, but that spring weather took another day off.  Delia and Pat used the opportunity to work indoors on some last minute painting.

Today was very windy, but otherwise the weather was much more suitable to our needs.  Warmer, sunny, a beautiful day.  Delia brought the painted pieces and all the other necessary supplies over to the train station platform in the morning.  We had several volunteers there to help, morning and afternoon shifts.

Work began on the right side of the building, where the design includes a view of Belmar's beach.  The first three panels were up on the wall by noon.

This installation process was pretty simple, not unlike putting up wallpaper, except that usually isn't done outdoors in constant 25 mph winds. First, she used a roller (above) to put a layer of acrylic gel glue up on the wall in the predetermined space.  The same roller was used to put more of the glue on the back of each panel (below), laid out flat and upside down on a drop cloth, held in place to keep it from blowing away.

After that, a group of our volunteers helped carry the painted cloth panel over the wall and began adhering it to the wall.  Hands and squeegees smoothed it to the wall, and razor blades were used to trim the pieces to fit the architecture of the building, with more glue added as needed.

Shortly before 4:00 we decided to call it a day.  Most of the larger panels had been installed, from the beach up to New York Harbor.  There are a few more large ones to add on the left side, and some smaller spaces to be filled in with a combination of glued panels and direct painting on the wall, and some touch ups will be needed all over.  But the majority of it is in place.  Above is a view of today's work from across the tracks, and below are closer views of how it looks at each end.

We are expecting nice weather again tomorrow, so the plan is for Delia to return early in the morning with more volunteers and to put in another day's work, creating this beautiful colorful scene to be enjoyed by people waiting for trains, people arriving in Belmar by train, and the hundreds of passengers who pass through the town every day.

How To Paint a Train Station in a Snowstorm

Back this past summer the Belmar Arts Council announced a competition to design and produce a mural to cover the 80' wall of the Belmar Train Station facing the tracks.  There were about a dozen entries and a town organized committee selected a winner, Delia King, an experienced muralist from Philadelphia.  Her design (above, click to enlarge) is a Belmar-centric view of the region, with the beach in the foreground on the right, and a view that stretches back to New York harbor on the far left.

Painting a mural on the train station includes a number of challenges.  Besides the 80 foot length, the wall is interrupted by several doors and windows.  The wall is on what can be a very busy train station platform, which could lead to painters and passengers getting in each other's way.  The exterior of the train station was old and not suitable for painting a mural that will be expected to last for years.  And by the time the decision was made the days were growing shorter and colder, and the experienced muralists within the BAC know that paint doesn't dry well in cold weather.  However, our muralist had an answer to these problems.

Delia's process is to paint the mural on another surface and adhere it to the wall.  A few months ago we primed some plywood panels, which have since been attached over the old wood sheathing on the station.  The mural is painted on pieces of synthetic polytab cloth, informally known as "parachute cloth".  Lightweight, flexible, and very resistant to tearing.  Constructing this mural will require 25 cloth panels of different sizes and shapes, several of which are 5' x 8' like the one shown above.  These cloth panels are primed and the mural design is reproduced on them as a line drawing.  The painting is done with a special mural grade acrylic paint.  She had premixed about a dozen colors (below) which would be used throughout the whole mural.

Early this morning the Boatworks was set up with big tables in both the front and back rooms, and these prepared cloth panels placed on top.  Above, Delia holds up a panel that will include the Statue of Liberty.

The next step was to get some volunteer artists.  Word had been put out in our newsletter, on our website, through newspapers, social media, other arts organizations, etc.  It all proved incredibly effective.  We are estimating that we had more than 80 people show up over the 6 hour event to lend a hand with the project.  Represented in our volunteer painters were Girl Scout troop 1564 of Howell, art students from St Rose in Belmar, experienced veteran painters of many public art projects in Belmar, curious and interested members of the community, and many of our active members.

The drawn designs on each panel were coded like a giant paint by number project, so the volunteers could pick up brush and cup of paint, and jump right in.

As colors filled each panel, the big shapes and scenes of the composition came together.  In the later part of the day, we were visited by a video crew, shooting the artists at work and conducting some interviews.  The resulting video will be used to promote this as part of the Monmouth County Arts Corridor project, using the very active art scene in many towns along the shore to expand more arts through the region, and will eventually be posted online.

Below, the panel shown previously with a line sketch view of New York harbor now has some base colors.

We started to wrap things up around 4:00 pm.  The snow that had been swirling around for the past few hours was getting heavier and starting to stick, plus we had to clear the space out for a scheduled musical performance in the evening.  Delia will continue work back at her studio, with a plan to start installing it in March or early April, when the weather cooperates.  An official dedication at the site is scheduled for late April.  Check back here and the main website for more details.

Train Station Mural Update

The train station mural project is finally going forward.  The committee has chosen a design, which will  eventually be executed on fabric that will be adhered to the train station exterior.  However, it was decided that the current train station wall won't be suitable for that, so our first step will be building a new one.  Good quality half inch plywood will be primed and attached over the whole wall, and then the mural will be attached to that.  Therefore, our starting point is the wood.  It will take 22 sheets of plywood to do the job, which has been donated by Jaeger Lumber.

Using all three rooms of the Boatworks, we were able to set up 9 boards at a time, on top of tables and saw horses.  BAC volunteers took turns using the four rollers to roll coats of white primer (provided by Belmar Paints) on first one side of the wood, and then the other.

When both sides of the boards were dry, we could move them to a safe place and put out a new set.  When this process is all done, they will be cut to their proper shape and size and be installed on the train station wall.  Check here for future updates.