Harness Park on the Connecticut shore was the inspiration for this intense, hyper-realism mural, a most ambitious project.  I painted it on the wall of a small breakfast nook, creating the sensation of a garden being accessible right from the kitchen.  In preparation, I took photos from all over the park  and worked them into an imaginary ideal garden.  I painted the path and the base board to match the real stone tile floor.    The real gate you see is an antique wrought iron piece that the owner of the mural eventually attached to the wall so that it could swing open in welcome. The balance of the design is completed by the gate.

Many of the photos posted here were taken while the mural was in progress and you can discern my process in some of them.  If you look close you can see differences between views such as unfinished edges, butterflies that were added last and white spaces for the Peonies which were not yet painted.  Unfortunately these photos were taken in the days before I owned a digital camera, so I apologize for some fuzziness.