Piedmont Park Conservancy Mural
This is a 20' x 40' barrel-vaulted ceiling mural. Architectural grade, synthetic canvas was mounted on the ceiling and the mural was executed from a scaffold on site in oils on the canvas surface. It depicts the park as urban theater in a contemporary baroque mode, as was appropriate for a barrel vault of this type. I've included some details from the mural and some preparatory studies. All figure and environment studies were done from life.
Installation Image
Complete view of the Piedmont Park Conservancy Mural
This painting is 20 by 40 feet on a barrel vault and therefore impossible to photograph without distortion or omission. This photo solved that problem: it is an aggregated image made from six separate photos “sown” together in Photoshop. It allows a view that is rendered comprehensive and rectangular. Upon seeing this image, I realized that it was the first time that even I had seen what I had created in totality.
Piedmont Park Visitor's Center Mural, Installation Images
This image was provided by TVSDESIGN, the architects who were responsible for the building’s interior. The Piedmont Park Visitor's Center is a beautiful beaux-arts building in Atlanta's version of New York's Central Park--Frederick Law Olmsted designed both.
Piedmont Park Conservancy Mural, Detail
This central view includes a sculpture at the 14th Street entrance to the park that honors those who greeted the Union troops upon their arrival in Atlanta.
Piedmont Park Conservancy Mural, Detail
The great challenge for this project was to express something essential about the park and the ways in which the city’s diverse population used it. I characterize the design as baroque urban theater, since all of the figures are in motion and to some extent are involved in performance.
Piedmont Park Conservancy Mural Detail, Sunset
The pavilion was beautiful at sunset, within a parenthesis of two of Atlanta’s iconic buildings. Note the lovers at the wall to your right. The pavilion was beautiful at sunset, within a parenthesis of two of Atlanta’s iconic buildings. Did you notice the lovers at the wall to your right?
Piedmont Park Conservancy Mural Preliminary Studies
I made many compositional studies prior to climbing up the scaffold. Even though unpredictable additions were made during the painting process, the basic structure was fully conceived in advance; one cannot easily improvise on this scale.
Piedmont Park Conservancy Mural Study, Watercolor
This was the first study that juxtaposed the two sides as if on the barrel vault. Of course, in the Visitor’s Center both sides are seen as upright and there are two bottoms. This made for a challenging conceptual and design problem through which I had to feel my way, even though there are excellent precedents.
Original Visitor’s Center for the Piedmont Park Conservancy in the city’s main park, designed by Frederick Law Olmstead.