Doheny State Beach Visitor Center Mural Project

California State Parks is completely renovating their Visitor Center at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point. Part of the renovation is to create a fully functioning, 3 dimensional tide pool exhibit that teaches visitors something about life in the ocean off the Southern California coast. Behind the tide pool will be a mural that depicts the landscape around a typical tide pool

The above image is the rough draft of a 4' x 16' painting upon which I began work in April. Three paintings, actually (not only would one canvas that size not fit in my house but it would be very difficult to construct), that will be scanned and enlarged to create a mural backdrop for the tide pool exhibit. Instead of painting a mural directly upon the wall, State Parks can better use scans of the paintings in order to fabricate water proof (and child proof) art that can be replaced when necessary without recreating an entire mural each time.

The mural will depict several things. It will show some of the life bird, plant and animal life that makes use of San Juan Creek that empties into the ocean at Doheny State Beach. It will also show that all freshwater ends up in the ocean, whether it is runoff from the stream or the water from washing a car. The goal is for it to be both educational and a landscape painting. I created the draft in Photoshop from 30+ layers of photographs that I took around Dana Point and Southern California. Creating the draft was as interesting and important part of the project as the painting is (though considerably faster).

This is an exciting and challenging project for me on many levels. Everything I have learned over the past few decades has come into play here: my work as a graphic artist (Photoshop), as a student of the flora and fauna of coastal California, and as a painter. The mural portion of the project is expected to be completed in October or November 2010, and the entire Visitor Center project should be completed in the Spring of 2011.