A project come true: The Four Seasons Mural for a School's yard.

Whoever has followed me since three years ago maybe remembers a  post on a Mural Project for Josep Orriols i Roca School's yard. The School is located in Moià (Barcelona, SPAIN).

I published the project for the first time when I had been working on it for about nine month, and I had serious doubts about its being  painted because of economical crisis in Spain. But luckily parents were very willing to see it done, and to let their sons and daughters have a more colourful School, no matter what it might cost. They organized events to collect money and provided all the colours that I had specified, whith the sponsoring of our local Paints Store. 

Today I can say the mural has come to life and am offering a view of the whole process until its completion.

The initial goal was to have some of the concrete walls of the yard decorated, and we chose the one in the sight: 

La Colorista, 2010.

My project aimed at representing the colours in the natural landscapes around our village all along the Four Seasons of the Year, in the same order that we experience them since the School Term begins: from Fall to Summer. Colours were picked from photographs shot in Moià's surroundings, and the proposed design was this one:

The Four Seasons' Mural, Isabel de Yzaguirre Maura

(La Colorista),2011.

Netx step was to translate digitally picked colours to NCS notation, the system used in Spain to make paint with tinting machines. I divided the mural in four parts, one for each Season, and chose the corresponding hues. I did this by ocular comparison of the colours I saw in the screen with hues in the NCS fandeck. This way, I looked for the more approximate ones.

Autumn colour palette, IdY (Isabel de Yzaguirre Maura).

Winter colour palette, IdY.

Spring colour palette, IdY.

Summer colour palette, IdY.

- And how was the mural painted?

It was done in the end of october, in 2012's Fall. The School Major's Team transferred the design to the wall, thought of an easy notation system so everyone knew which colour to paint, and assigned a part of the mural to each Class in the School. Previously, parents had primed the concrete wall.

Eldest pupils painted the higher part of the mural, with the help of their teachers and small platforms. And children in Infants School painted the lower parts. They all painted the first layer of the mural.

Hands to work!

Work in progress.

Volunteer dads and moms painted the mural's second layer, on a Saturday's morning.

The graphic guide.

The final touches.

Signing for posterity, 2012-13.

The very moment when the Four Seasons mural was finished.

The Official Opening, with all the pupils and teachers, and with the good company of the School's Giants, Xot and Fura.

Here you can see how alive and cheerful look the mural colours in a snowy day:

Notice how the colour of snow is matched in the mural, as well as the blue of the sky.

In a personal way, to see this project done makes me feel very happy. It meant uncountable hours of work that now have turned out into great satisfaction. I think it has been worth all the efforts made.

Pupils and parents were very happy making it possible, and the mural has become a symbol of the School. But I will explain that in a next and shorter post.

Until then, be well and fill your life with colour!

Isabel de Yzaguirre,

La Colorista.