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Model
Train Scenery
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This was the most fun mural ever. It is only 1 foot high, but full of scenery from the 1940's era. The scenery developed during research when I fell in love with the artwork of Max Jacquiard and Larry Fisher, who both painted a lot of the Canadian Pacific Railroad through the Rockies in British Columbia. "Go to Puppies" is the lower portion of walls in gradient faux. |
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FOUR-WALL DETAILS:
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To the left are Mt. Cathedral & Mt. Stephen, as seen in Max Jacquiard's fine "Steam Art", this one called "Rocky Mountain Majesty". While doing research for this mural, I found a wealth of knowledge from his paintings, which enabled me to allow the whole mural to make geographical sense as well as capture the 1940's-era look. |
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The homeowners had built a tunnel through the closet and I painted the Canadian Rockies peaks where there were many tunnels built for the Canadian Pacific Railroad. The first large rock shown is made of foam and was purchased at the model train store. This wall to the right goes into a city and sunset. |
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The birch trees in the foreground above turned out to be a distraction from the town, so I later removed them as seen further above right. As it turns the corner, there is a baseball park. The track is painted as though the train could go westward as well. This town in the corner was modeled after New Westminster and the Fraser River Bridge. The next part was simply a made-up town. The names on the buildings were for family and relatives of the baby. |
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SECOND (BACK) WALL |
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| Baseball Park Detail |
A small town Train Station modeled after the Colorado "Ooltewah Depot" from a painting by Jim Jordan. |
Littul & Juji | ||
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This scene continues into the farmland where, on the next track over, is the very same 'Blind Seer' from the movie "O Brother Where Art Thou". We wanted one of these hand-operated cars in the mural, and that film was the ONLY place I could find an accurate picture of one - it simply exists nowhere on the internet. So I had to take a picture of the very man himself, played by Lee Weaver II. |
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| Now the scene shifts to more farmland, cows grazing by the stream, and a peaceful stretch of green & eucalyptus. | ||||
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| Here is the 1946 Plymouth and a rural produce stand. (PC's, please remember to press F11 for full-page blowups) | ||||
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| Here
above, the fruit stand takes us to the corner and around to an old water
tower and a bigger train depot (see below). |
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FINAL WALL - BACK INTO TUNNEL |
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Above is the "Freleng Depot", named after the Daddy's grandfather Friz Freleng, the famous cartoonist. This depot was actually fashioned after another great "Steam Art" painter, Larry Fisher (click on pics for details). |
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This Railroad Crossing intersection has a lot going on, hot cars, celebrities, a park and vintage filling station. You simply must click-to-enlarge and find out the lurid details! |
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| Now the scenery gives way to wide open spaces again. The Daddy wanted some of it to look like Wichita, Kansas, where his Dad grew up. If there were a man on a telephone pole here, I suppose he'd be the Wichita Lineman. | ||||
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As the mural comes to the end, to re-enter the tunnel, the Daddy asked if we could just say that the Rocky Mountains could now become the Colorado Rockies, because of his Alma Mater: University of Colorado-Boulder. What a beautiful campus! So we took artistic license. Click to see the Colorado Buffaloes' Stadium, the tunnel close-up, and foam rock. |
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This group of photos shows a pretty good representation of the gradient faux, from light down to deeper blue. First is Baby Chadney with a juvenile train, and then Baby Kacey with an L.A. Dodgers-capped Teddy Bear. Then the baby's name, Samuel, was done in fun shapes over the crib. |
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