We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Rosemary Vasquez Tuthill. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Rosemary below.
Rosemary, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
My mural project technically ended on September 23rd of 2020, when the Eastvale mural I painted was dedicated. It was a long journey to get to that point, and that is what I am going to discuss.
I will begin when my husband and I were exploring my job options after working as an R&D engineer tech ended, due to the sale of the company. He suggested that I return to my art roots that I put aside for decades. Considering that option was better than the hour-plus round trip drives every day on a congested freeway, I agreed. I also took the opportunity to spend time with my father, but that is another story. A few months passed, and I began oil painting, and I created a Paint and Sip Party business, but I also wanted to take the time to document my father – Emigdio Vasquez’ – 400+ easel works and his 32 murals. I decided to start that undertaking by creating a video documentary about his murals. While working on the mural documentary research, an appreciation grew for one of his murals. Dad had painted a beautiful large mural that currently hangs in the city of Anaheim’s City Hall that was themed as the evolution of Anaheim ‘s history. That appreciation was to be recalled as the basis for an interesting project.
We live in the city of Eastvale, California, and we attended many City meetings and events. Eastvale has been fortunate to have community members involved in the early stages of considering incorporation and cityhood and that community spirit carries through to this day with its elected representatives encouraging community input, unity, and active participation in committees and community events. To this end, a Eastvale City Council member invited us to participate on our cities’ beautification committee in 2018. We knew our City’s 10th anniversary was going to be celebrated in 2020, so that gave us the idea to pitch a mural that would highlight aspects of Eastvale. This was harder than we first thought.
Given that the nascent city was only 8 years old, we needed a more encompassing design concept. However, an inspiration was born from recalling my father’s Anaheim City mural. So, as an approach for the mural’s design, we researched way back in time for the area’s inhabitants and started sketching vignettes with the indigenous peoples, a representation of the Spanish land grants, early pioneers, the dairy era, and the East Vale School from the late 1800’s. We then started to transition to more current times with a tapestry design that would weave the vignettes from the past to a transition period and migrate to the new construction and our high school along with the communities’ parks, activities, notable residents, and the past and present City Council representatives.
Our next task was to sell this concept to the others on the cities’ beautification committee, so we first ran the idea past the City Council member mentioned earlier, and he became the champion for the project. We made our pitch to the committee that backed the idea and then met with, and we gained the support of, the City Manager. We had a follow-up meeting at our home with the City Manager and some of his staff to see my art, and I recommended that someone go to Anaheim and look at my father’s mural to better visualize the concept. We started the refining the mural concept and attended a meeting with a couple City Council members that liked the idea and wanted to participate in the design details. After an iteration or twenty, we had our completed design, and we were ready to present the layout to the whole City Council.
We made the pitch, and it was a success with unanimous approval. Next, we needed to identify all the subjects with more detailed design which also needed to be approved by a City Council member. This was also not an easy task, as the whole process took about a year to go from the pitch to the final concept design, detailed design, and financial approval.
Once all the approvals were given, it was not the end – it was the beginning of doing the work. The build particulars started when we settled on the size of 5 1/2 feet by 14 feet on canvas. Next, we researched a company that could construct a frame mount with high quality canvas and stretcher bars. We were fortunate to find a company not too far from Eastvale that was in Garden Grove. The lead time for the mural construction was about two weeks, and they delivered it to our home. We mounted it on the back of an Ikea cabinet that extended about half the width of our garage. Now the reality began to sink in.
There were significant unforeseen issues with the design. I used photoshop on a 15-inch screen to create the design for the 5 1/2ft X 14ft mural/painting. I imagined the City Council people (in the middle) would be about 8 inches tall. They turned out to be about two inches tall on the canvas, this issue created a domino-effect throughout the canvas vignettes.
Originally, I thought about creating this project as a mural painted in the manner that my father painted his murals. Nearly all his murals were painted in acrylics, but they were on a very large scale. I notice that it looked like he painted the Anaheim mural with oils, which would in my opinion, made it a large painting. In my project, acrylics would not work, so I decided to paint it in oils and call it a large painting. What’s more, I had never painted on such a large scale in oils.
The people’s faces were so small that my husband had to research magnifying glasses to purchase for me. He found some magnifying glasses that are used by surgeons with little lights on them. They worked well, but at first, I could only wear them in 1/2-hour increments. I finally grew accustomed to them, and, after a couple of weeks, I was able to wear them longer. I still wear them today for painting, reading, and I am wearing them right now as I write this article.
I started the painting portion of the mural project in September of 2019, before the pandemic and resulting shutdown. I worked every day 5 to 6 hours, so my husband put a TV in the garage, and I listened to countless TV shows. I tend to work better and longer listening to something interesting, or maybe it is just background noise.
In March 2020, the pandemic shutdown forced me to put more time on the project. I often get distracted with other outside activities, and I needed to focus more on the painting tasks as the unveiling deadline was in September to coincide with a celebration of the 10-year anniversary of the City’s incorporation on October 1st.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am the daughter of renowned painter Emigdio Vasquez; and I grew up watching my father oil paint. In Kindergarten there was more art supplies for children than at home. Naturally art was my favorite subject throughout my school years. I have created art all my life, but I had a 30-year career in aerospace until my last company I worked for was acquired in 2014. My artistic practices were learned from my father, and I gained my passion for Portrait Painting. I want clients to know that when I do a commissioned painting, I make sure it is of my best quality which means I do not rush to get it done. As a portrait develops, it comes to life when I focus on the person’s eyes are painted. You can see in my portraits that the person’s eyes seem to follow you from any angle. I then work with shadows, depth in the painting with many translucent layers, and a meaningful background. I am most proud when people see my portraits and they say, “that’s amazing!”
Like most artist the main challenge is to be able to support yourself. My long-term aspirations for my work is to continue my family legacy, creating art that triggers the viewers fond memories and scenes from a time we all can relate to in our life’s experiences.
I help others to explore their inner artists through my Paint & Sip business paintpartyexperience.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist – Everything I see or do is seen through the lens of color and creativity. In my art, I strive to paint memories with the colors of life. Wherever we go, I see potential subjects for landscapes, cityscapes, portraits, and still life inspirations. There is an idiom, “Stop and smell the roses.” Take the time out of a busy schedule to enjoy and appreciate the beauty of life. There is not enough time to paint all I see on canvas, but I can see them in my mind’s eye.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
In my journey, I learned you must believe in yourself and do something (paint/market/write/sketch) every day to continue to grow and survive. There were many times when I was ready to give up and go back into aerospace, but I used my stubborn side to perceiver and continue working to reach my goals. Progress was slow, but I started getting invitations to show in galleries. I volunteered to talk in schools about the importance of art. I leveraged every possible contact, made new contacts, and started getting recognized as a capable oil portrait artist. Am I now as they say, “resting on my laurels” ? No, I work every day to continue my art journey.
Contact Info:
- Website: vasquezart.com
- Facebook: Amazing Portrait Paintings by Rosemary
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6aTy9avWcA
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5p-qZtgF9w
Image Credits
Photos by Rosemary and Steve Tuthill