Show Dean Cornwell Artist Finds Work of Painting Worlds World's Largest Murals on Canvas Greater Job Than Expected B By EVERETT TIPTON Associated Press St Staff Writer LOS ANGELES Feb 5 Dean 5 Dean Cornwell is making a contribution to art in a way he did not expect when he c began work here four years ago on the worlds world's largest group of mural paintings done on canvas Im losing my shirt at it he confided confided con con- tided today with a twinkle The group is exceeded in size b by Michelangelo's famous Sistine chapel chape murals in Rome but these were ex by the Italian master on pla plas- plas ter ler Cornwell entered a contract with wit the Los Angeles public library to d do dothe dothe the murals for Now he finds find the cost of importing canvases employing employing employing em em- models and assistants an another and other expense far exceeded his But Id I'd always wanted to d do mur murals ls said Cornwell who at the time he beg began n them was receiving as much as 1200 and 1500 for a single magazine illustration LIKE FICTION WRITER In a way I was like the fiction writer who earning a comfortable living nevertheless ne determines to break brcak free and write the serious novel he ic always alwa's has planned to write Im I'm painting something here which I hope will live for or centuries H His s Indians Spanish and American Ameri Amen can characters are arc giants four times the hc size of ordinary men although they hey do not appear so to the observer Four Tour of the canvases are 40 by 19 feet leet and eight are 20 by 12 He works on a platform in a a aloft loft with the floor floora a dizzy forty feet below I 1 learned I had to be as much an engineer as an artist he said He first made small drawings I These were photographed and projected pro pro- jetted at many times their original size on the huge huce canvases on which he sketched them again The coloring color colorS ing also was done first on a small scale Before him was a chart of hands with a and and rd without flesh He constantly had to study anatomy he said so hands four times the normal size will appear natural on canvas The paintings seem nearly complete but Cornwell said he has about six months' months work yet ahead of or him The murals depict three eras in Cal California ornia history the discovery the mission and the early Americanization tion then the founding of of Los An- An hi to 1871 I It It is proving a bigger job than I thought he said I had these linen canvases made in Belgium I 1 had to have educated Indians to pose The others just squat there and you cant can't do much with them For these figures I employed 75 models at 1 an hour Then there were the cos cos- Cornwell born and Louis Louls Louisville ville vine K Kyt Ky studied art in night school Later he was on the Chicago Tribune with Floyd Gibbons and Ring Lard Lard- I ncr There he Ray Loci Iner Long g editor of Red Book who took him to N New w York as his favorite illustrator t when he became editor of oU tan tn |