Painting in Progress

The previous owners of Tulip Town receiving an award for their painting contribution to the Istanbul World Tulip Summit 2014. This is a print of the original I painted for the owners, Tom and Jeanette DeGoede.

The last shot I got before never getting to finish the project in 2020 due to the pandemic and death of one of the town’s owners.

Adding the people to the bistro was difficult because each one need to be similar in size, but still get bigger the closer we got to the left end of the wall.

Perspective is the way to create the optical illusion that the building recede.

The details in the Dutch town are taking time and toll on my back. So I get to use a chair and glasses for the next 4 years.

A video of the wall can be seen at https://www.facebook.com/Jennifer-Bowman-Artist-383130505960/?ref=hl

Here she is all fixed up.

Even though I am not down with the actual mural, the owners of Tulip town have built and addition to the end of my mural to simulate an actual small village. They sell their bulbs out of this section. We all got to paint on the face of the gal in the doorway. “Dutch” is the artist trying his hand at it in this shot. He is our in-house “Face-painting” guru. http://www.contoursfx.com/

The tool in my left hand is a ‘Maul-Stick’. I helps steady the hand and I use it to draw straight lines as well.

2014 Saw more details. I am now painting like I have NEVER done before. Realism is not by favorite thing to do. Thank goodness I get to stop a lot and talk to people.

2012-13 Have been filled with details… lots of them. This is our loose rendition of the town of “Alkamar, Holland”. In this portion of the scene, we are depicting the process of delivering the picked tulips to the flower market through the small bustling town.

2010-1 saw the slowest progress yet. I am trying to add the actual floating market and all the boats as they wait to go to market. I repainted the beginning edge of the town 3 times, moved the market twice and basically messed up. I only finished half of a section of the panel. The last sections have been on solid marine-grade plywood instead of the canvas.

Here is the 2008-09 version. I have been asked to depict Holland at the turn of the century. The farming community of this type used to grow their produce on individually owned islands. Each farmer would then boat his animals and produce to market. The market was a floating building that buyers would bid on the produce that floated through on the boats.

This one didn’t make us sick when walking by it!!

I have lost the name of the Photographer who took this, but it’s the best I have looked since then! In 2008 we started on the North East corner of the barn and I tackled painting a large windmill in a corner … that turned out to be a FLOP!!! The image would drive people crazy as they tried to adjust to the changing perspective as they walked by. At the end of that month the owner, Tom DeGoede, and I decided it would look better if he just built a real one with turning blades instead.

The Southwest section of the South wall 2006-07.

The South East section of the south wall 2004-06

The Crowley tug boat was added in 2006 along with the madronna tree. My signature and image were added at the very end. The mural was dedicated on “locals night”.

2005 saw the addition of the snow geese and herons along with the La Conner bridge in the background. The sky starts to be a little more drematic as the sun sets.