Benicia artists design San Francisco Giants-themed bats

Painters usually create works of art on flat canvases or heavy paper stretched onto a frame.

But two Benicia artists and a third from San Francisco were given an unusual task, to paint portraits of three Giants ball players onto the cylindrical “canvas” of Louisville Slugger baseball bats.

The three bats will be sold to fans during a San Francisco Giants Wives auction for the team’s Community Fund charity.

The opportunity has its roots in the days Benicia artist Donna Covey and her husband, John, lived next to another artist, Laurie Wotus, wife of Giants’ bench coach Ron Wotus, when they both had homes in Truckee.

The two women periodically meet up, and last year Covey painted a scene of AT&T Park for the Giants Wives charity.

This year Laurie Wotus had another project in mind.

She had heard how artists often paint fiberglass animals — horses and Longhorns in some areas, pigs in Benicia and, recently, jackrabbits in Vacaville.

So she asked Covey if she and a couple of other artists could paint on baseball bats for the wives’ charity.

The Giants ball club had suggested portraits of Hunter Pence and Buster Posey could be painted on bats designed especially for them, and a third official Giants bat could be painted for pitcher Madison Bumgarner.

The players also would autograph the bats, Covey was told.

“I am honored,” she said. “It’s a fun way to give back to charity.”

Covey knew two artists she felt would be up to the unusual task. She called Terry Hughes, another Benicia painter, and Geraldine Arata, a third-generation San Franciscan and classically trained artist who now lives in Dublin.

The three artists are meeting at Covey’s home Thursday to deliver their unusual work, which will go to Wotus for delivery to the Giants Wives organization.

Covey chose Pence. She said he is one of her favorite Giants because of his “never-quit, we-can-do-it” attitude and his positive, happy image. She said her painting style would work well with the “hard to contain” Pence.

Arata, whose son, Danny, is a Posey fan, painted the Giants catcher. Hughes, who likes the pitcher, painted Bumgarner.

Painting on a bat isn’t easy, though painting on a fiberglass jackrabbit gave Covey some experience in dealing with a peculiar surface.

She used a practice bat for experimenting. She made sketches onto tracing paper, treating the bat’s curved surface as if it were flat so she could plan for a surface that ranges from an 8-inch circumference at its end to a mere 3-inch circumference where a batter’s hands take their grip.

She faced another challenge — Pence already had signed the bat. Club members told her she could sand it off if it interfered with her design, because he could sign it again once she was done, as the other players would.

But, “I couldn’t bring myself to sand it off,” she said.

“I worked the artwork around it, to make the signature part of the design.”

She also researched Pence so well, she joked that if the National Security Agency traced her computer keystrokes they’d suspect her as a Pence stalker.

By the time she studied his eyes, his Paleo diet, his scooter and pictures of one of his famous catches against the wall, she was ready to paint — and to answer any trivia question about her subject.

Covey paints in acrylics, but she added a three-dimensional touch for the bat, using Magic Sculpt epoxy clay to mold Pence’s hair and beard. That’s the same substance used to make the enormous mitt that overlooks the Giants’ outfield at AT&T Park, Covey said.

Hughes also paints in acrylics, but he usually creates large wildlife artwork with a palette knife rather than a brush.

“I’m a pusher of paint,” he said, comparing his style to decorating a cake.

But he picked up brushes to paint a Vacaville jackrabbit, too — a good transition to the 1/16th-inch brush he used on his Madison Bumgarner bat.

“I had fun doing it,” Hughes said. “It took me back to my childhood days, painting little watercolors or paint by numbers.”

He said it also tied into his love of sports, specifically sport mascots, which he also has painted.

“That’s how I do my bracket” for March Madness college basketball playoffs — basing it on the teams’ mascots, he said.

Hughes did his research, too, and added personal touches to Bumgarner’s portrat — a map of North Carolina, the pitcher’s home state, a heart and the player’s wife’s name to commemorate their Valentine’s Day anniversary. Hughes also added some of the pitcher’s accomplishments and awards.

Arata used her tole painting experience to tackle her portrait of Posey, who is flanked with images of the Golden Gate Bridge.

“I had to have Buster,” she said, and she wanted to add iconic scenes from her birthplace city.

“Presentation is important,” she said, so she employed plenty of orange in the painting, so the bat would stand out in its black presentation case.

But like Hughes, Arata recognized painting the small, curved surface would be different from her oil painting on large canvases — which can be as large as 8 feet by 5 feet.

In fact, friends joked that she had no brushes small enough for a miniature portrait.

Like the other two artists, Arata said she enjoys contributing her art for charities. “It’s pushed me to media I’ve never dealt with,” she said.

The bats will be displayed at AT&T Park later this month, when silent auction bids will be accepted. The auction will continue online on the Giants’ website, sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com.

Should the bats raise enough money — club officials haven’t told Covey what amount “enough” is — she may get to paint another bat next year.

In fact, the club may decide to expand the number past three, she said.

The Giants Community Fund raises money to help underserved youth and their families, support Junior Giants leagues throughout Northern California, Nevada and Oregon, and underwrite education, health and violence prevention in specific communities.

Since 1991, the fund has given more than $21 million to help children and their families.