A Maryland Mural

In May, I spent several beautiful days painting my first mural in Maryland! It was so good to be back in my happy place -- outside painting a big wall, just me, my brushes and paints.

This mural project came about from someone I have met who knows someone, as so many opportunities in life do. The Bayside History Museum in North Beach, MD has this little pollinator garden on the side of the building in the alley. Apparently, they have been wanting to do a garden mural for this flower bed for a while now, and I happened upon the opportunity through an introduction.

The "Before" photo of the pollinator garden flower bed.

To paint the background, I used my handheld Wagner sprayer. I have used the sprayer for large blocks of solid color for past mural projects, but this approach was more like what spray paint artists do (without the fumes). A sprayer was really the only way to go with the lattice---much faster! I wanted the background to be "soft" to not distract from the focal points of flowers, butterflies, bees and a hummingbird, but I also was going for "whimsical".

Then came the details!

A ruby throated hummingbird

Giant bees---because it's a mural and fun!

A selection of flowers and butterflies that can be found in Maryland

The Maryland state flower---black-eyed Susan.

And a special yellow butterfly for the neighbor who shares the alleyway. On my first day of painting, I met the woman who lives in the house on the opposite side of the alley from the museum. She mentioned she had lost her granddaughter in an accident and loved butterflies, so I told her I'd add a little tribute in the mural. So, if you look really close on the only yellow butterfly I painted, you can see "Sophia". I hope it's a happy reminder when she looks out her window at the mural.

And the happy little garden mural is complete! I plan to go by in the next few weeks to see how the garden is blooming after all the plants were added.