Napa River Mural
Notes from the Artist
Steve Della Maggiora
Napa River Mural
Main Street at First
About 14 feet by 45 feet
Exterior latex
In spring of 1993 I met Susan Clifford at a "Business for Artists" class. Some time after helping her and her husband on a music CD project, I received an invitation to submit a bid on a downtown Napa mural. Susan got one as well. Neither of us had the nerve to apply individually, but Susan, offering to do all the paperwork, convinced me to go in with her on a bid. This was the first public mural that I ever attempted. I'm sure I wouldn't have had the guts to try it without her.
The mural was sponsored by the Leadership Napa Valley group, who handed us a stack of photos with images that had to be included in the mural. I wrestled them into a coherent design, which amazingly was accepted. I then spent about a month converting the design into a fairly finished 1/12th scale painting.
The mural wall is made of 8 by 16 inch basalt blocks. I drew the scaled-down block pattern on the painting, and then took it to Kinkos and had them make a couple of sets of color xeroxes of it. Using these as guides, taped right up on the wall, Susan and I painted away for the next couple of weeks. (She then went on to other projects.) I painted, and repainted, and repainted the wall for another month or so. This being perhaps my only chance to paint a mural in my home town, I refused to call it finished until it was as good as I could get.
The sunlit clouds and brown hills in the mural tell us it is almost sundown on a summer day. The scene is a composite. The left bank is from a photo from the 1890's. The right bank is from a photo from about 1915. The river itself has been widened in the mural about two or three times so more of both banks are seen than would normally be possible. It also fits the shape of the wall better.
Steve
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