Today was a very long, productive day.  In celebration of tomorrow's centennial of the National Park Service, the park staff here had hoped to have the windows in the visitors center painted.  In last week's meeting it was pointed out that I could do it, being an artist and all.  I got up early, took care of some personal business from home, made my coffee, and headed to the VC, less than a block away.  I pulled out paints, we found a high ladder, I sketched it all out with a dry erase marker, then set to work.  Something close to eight hours later, it was done.  Or done enough, at least.  The best part was that of the stack of brushes available, it was the super inexpensive, fat plastic brushes meant for kindergarteners that worked the best at laying the paints down.

Window painting is challenging if you don't have freshly cleaned windows and all the right materials.  But, a challenge is always fun to overcome!  We realized this morning that there is no white paint, anywhere.  To get an opaque look on windows, you have to add white to all colors.  So, I had to use the light coming through the windows to brighten the paints.

I got home at dinner time, we grilled and made a really tasty salad using lettuce and spinach grown in their cool little greenhouse.  After dinner a couple friends came over.  It's going to be a much earlier night than last night's 4am bedtime.  I'm wiped.

Closeup of the finished product. Angle from standing back makes it harder to see, with the buildings outside.

The big windows before.

Sketched out.

Finished!  The window is about 14 feet wide, I think.

My brushes.

This is the sky at dinner time, 6/7pm.  So long until sunset. Tonight I realized, since we actually have sunshine, that the vivid blue that is almost purple, typically found at the apex of the sky, here extends far more to the horizon.  Makes sense with the sun hanging at a low angle all day, there's less light mid day to diffuse the rich blue.