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Arts & Entertainment

Edmonds Watercolor Artist Will Create His First Mural

Local painter Joel Patience will create "Edmonds to Starboard" on the outside wall of Running in Motion.

Joel Patience was rear-ended.  Twice.

And now he is about to paint his first mural. 

No connection?  Those twin tragic traffic accidents six years ago marked the beginning of muralist Patience's career as a painter. 

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When he began losing feeling in his hands and fingers, his wife suggested an odd idea: Take up painting to bring that control back.  The strategy worked. 

"That's all it was, basic physical therapy," Patience said. 

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That career culminated recently when Patience was chosen by the Edmonds Mural Society as a muralist for this summer's project. 

I know this, as a founder of the Mural Society, and because I had recruited Patience to submit a concept last fall.  He was, I can safely tell you, pretty reluctant. 

Nevertheless, he did.  He swallowed his misgivings and submitted his idea.  His Edmonds to Starboard made the rounds of the Society's three-tiered and six-month-long Artist Selection Process, and was chosen as one of five murals the organization will produce next summer. Patience will paint Edmonds to Starboard on the exterior wall on the side of Running in Motion in downtown Edmonds.

Edmonds to Starboard is a brilliant skyscape of Puget Sound featuring a local schooner named the Adventuress.  Patience encountered the scene on a 4th of July holiday weekend.  Charmed by the sight, he captured it in watercolor.

Of course, being chosen to transform the work into a mural introduced a new problem.  How do you paint your first mural? 

Nowadays, when going from small to very large, it's not uncommon for muralists to use a projector.  They project an image of their mural on the wall and sketch in the major elements. 

Last summer, Greg Hartman, who painted Emerging Edmonds on the side of Comstock Jewelers in the downtown, did just that.  Patience wants to try the old fashioned way.

He has been consulting muralists, or "old-timers" as he calls them.  These are artists who painted murals before the days of projection units.  They drew a facsimile of the wall on clear paper, with each brick counted, and laid it over an image of their mural. 

"So, I'll be transferring it brick by brick by brick," Patience said. 

Patience has not only been experiencing success locally.  His paintings have also been finding favor abroad, in Italy, where he likes to vacation. 

In one small city, Stresa, he had painted several locales in the picturesque environment, when a local tourist bureau, StresaTravel.com, approached him.  They are considering using his works to promote tourist travel to Stresa.

"I was totally floored," he laughed.

That success led Italia! magazine to recently select one of his works to feature as well.

Small town charm in Italy or small town charm right here, it looks like Joel Patience is finding his home as an artist.

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