Anatomy of a Mural Project

I recently finished 4 paintings for Vectra Bank’s new Corporate Center in the Denver Tech Center at Belleview Station and I-25. Thanks to the efforts of art consultants Liz Graham and Jennifer Perlow, I had the good fortune to not only participate in this project but to visit this beautiful building a few weeks ago (I even got to wear a hard hat!)

Many people have asked about this project – specifically how these 4 paintings will be reproduced as wall murals in a corridor on the 6th floor. Here’s what’s next in the process.

Step 1: First, a little bit about the paintings. Whitewater (Spring) is inspired by the Arkansas River in Central Colorado, home to some of the best whitewater rafting in the country. It measures 30×40″ and will be reproduced as a 16ft mural.

The Winter painting was inspired by Silverton Mountain in the San Juans. At 4ft x 8ft, it’s the largest in the series and will be reproduced as a 28ft wall mural. The other two paintings were inspired by the work of Steamboat-based photographer Noah Wetzel. Mountain Bike (Fall) is a 24″x 48″ painting on wood. While it’s based on his shot of Emerald Mountain in Steamboat Springs, the figure on the mountain bike is modeled by my friend Trevor Greco.

The fourth painting, Summer, is inspired by Noah’s photograph of Upper Cataract Lake in the Eagle’s Nest Wilderness Area. I added the woman with a backpack to replace his brother Ben, who is in the original shot. He looked great, but I wanted the series to represent men and women equally.

Step 2: Nocerino Editions Nocerino is known for fine art reproductions and I was happy to get to work with Mike Abel and his crew. They scanned each of the paintings with their Better Light 4×5 Scan Back System. I was amazed at the color accuracy from camera to computer. Plus Kyle and Jules have some mad skills. Hint: there will be a series of fine art prints created by Nocerino available later this year.

Step 3: Schiller Reed is our next stop. Located next to Nocerino, Schiller Reed specializes in reproductions of any shape or size. They will print the digitized files to their high quality large format HP Latex printer that makes indoor or outdoor prints. The images will be printed in sections as wallpaper to be applied by the installer.

Step 4: Installation. A professional installer adheres the wallpaper segments to the walls, custom-built for the pieces.