Artwork Heralds Agriculture At The Pennsylvania Farm Show
(Continued from Page El)
the Appalachian Mountains.
As a result of his attention to
detail, an apple orchard, Christ
mas tree farm, vineyard, several
crops, and various animals are
included. Also the lumber, maple
syrup, and beekeeping industries
are part of the mural’s elements.
“I tried to get as many kinds of
animals in that are involved in
the Farm Show, but I wanted a
naturalistic continuity to it I
really wanted to let it have a
more natural flow,” he said.
After a summer project paint-
right sides of the mural, animals patterned after designs
on the original Farm Show building.
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ing a baseball mural on City Is
land in Harrisburg, Mason re
ceived his next assignment when
architects approached him this
July and asked for a sketch for
the mural.
From that first sketch, and
with help from Farm Show direc
tor Dennis Grumbine, the final
project began to take shape. “He
(Grumbine) liked the idea of cen
tering it on the young girl and the
cow, that there was an optimism,
a positiveness about it, and that’s
what the Farm Show is all
about,” said Mason.
With the sketch providing a
framework, Mason went to work
crisscrossing the countryside of
mostly Lancaster, Lebanon, and
Dauphin counties to take pic
tures of animals, landscape, farm
buildings, and churches.
“I drove around, took pictures,
and talked to people, and they
would give me ideas,” he said.
He began the painting process
in October.
To keep the artwork to scale,
since it is put over such a large
surface, Mason puts black and
white copies of the sketch into an
overhead machine and projects
the image onto the canvas. He
then draws the outlines with raw
sienna paint. A color copy of the
sketch hangs on the canvas to
serve as the template.
Even with the underlying pat
tern, however, the mural is not a
paint-by-number effort. Mason,
joined by assistants Mark Bros
seau and Ryan Good, does not
worry about painting carefully
along the lines.
“We’re trying not to be too me
chanical. We want it to have a
gestural, organic quality about
it.”
Mason used oil paint with an
alkyd resin medium, a durable
combination that does not need
any clear coating to protect the
artwork.
Each of the panels took from
two to five days to complete. The
20 canvases will be glued onto 8
X 10-foot panels, which will be
hung on the wall. Mason plans to
use a weekend just before the
show to touch up the painting.
When the panels are hung to
gether, he explained, there may
be some extra painting needed to
make sure the picture is seamless.
Mason grew up outside of Bos
ton and came to Pennsylvania to
study painting
and printmak
ing at the Uni
versity of Penn
sylvania. Still
life, sport paint
ings, and other
murals are also
a part of his rep
ertoire; however
landscapes have
been an em-
phasis.
He has exhibi
ted his work at
the Gross
McCleaf Gal
lery, Philadel
phia, for 20
years. Mason’s
next exhibition
will be at Dart
mouth, followed
by a landscape
exhibition at the
Gross McCleaf
Gallery.
Above Mason is a sketch that served as the template
for the final work that will hang in the Pennsylvania Farm
Show building. He referenced the pictures on the desk for
the mural. “I drove around, took pictures, and talked to
people, and they would give me ideas,” he said.
Assistant Mark Brosseau looks off of the color copy of
the sketch to fill in the outlines on the canvas.
We are proud to have participated in the construction
at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex.
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Harrisburg, PA 17101
m.gordon@mindsDring.co
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 4, 2003-E33
Brosseau gets color on hfs brush.
Since 1920
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