Castle in the Sky

A gift for my daughters' school

Revisiting Scenic Art

The amazing and talented Saya Whitney, a mom at my daughter's school, reached out to ask if I would be interested in helping out with the art for Performing Arts Night. Having studied Scene Design for theatre and having painted a ton of sets, I thought it would be fun so I agreed. The performance is featuring artwork from the movies of Hayao Miyazaki. He's one of my favorite filmmakers so I definitely couldn't say no to that!  Once I spent all night riding around in a lifesize version of the Catbus from "My Neighbor Totoro" but that's a whole other story.

We met up at school one day and Saya asked me to paint the Castle in the Sky. In my head, I thought "Oh, that's going to be a challenge." There's a lot of detail in it and it's important to get the architectural elements right. It could go wrong in a lot of ways. It's been a long time since I did any scenic art or even painted with acrylics, because I generally prefer watercolors. I immediately said "Sure, I'll do it." Why not! Getting to meditate on Miyazaki's art directly by recreating it was a experience I was all in for.

Dusting off my scenic artist hat and opening my acrylic painting box, I looked inside and hoped my paints hadn't dried out. Some of them are decades old. Every once in a while, I'll need to paint something with acrylics, so I keep them around. Maybe after doing this, I'll be inspired to paint with them a bit more. 

Getting started

I picked up the cardboard circle that was my canvas from Saya's house and took it home with me. Somehow, I managed to keep it from getting bent while driving back with all the kids in the carpool. 

First I drew the outlines of the whole castle, then I started painting it from top to bottom. I had to paint the tree and the top buildings of the castle upside down because it was easier that way. When I first started I wondered if I would finish in time, because it was taking me a while. But I picked up the pace and it's ready for it's big moment next Friday. 

All the mom's who worked on the different characters and set pieces are gifting the art to the school. It's been an incredible community to be a part of and I'm so grateful that my daughters were able to go to Clarendon and learn about Japanese culture and begin learning Japanese. I'm happy to give something back. It's been a great experience and I don't know what I would've done during the pandemic or for the last seven years without this wonderful community.