LA County Fair: Floral Exhibition Murals

Half of the 64' Illustrated Color Block London Map

      I haven't been to the LA County Fair in at least a decade. There hasn't been too much of it that appealed to me to justify the expense of attending. Plus, it's always ridiculously hot! One part I did always enjoy was the Floral Exhibitions building (oh, and the big yellow slide too of course). The exhibits were always stunning and beautiful, plus there was air conditioning.
      This year I was invited by floral and exhibit designer, Jim Hynd, to paint murals above the displays for this year's show. The theme this year was London. I painted three murals of various sizes to fit Jim's overall design concept. The first was 32' long silhouette of the London skyline. I had to create the design and layout for this mural using many photographic references and maps. The second was a smaller mural with a circular window which I painted as the Big Ben clock face. Lastly, the third mural was an enormous 64' long stylized map with cut outs of various landmarks. This mural also took a lot of research and time to design the layout with the specified illustrated looking style.
       Painting these murals were fun though an incredible challenge due to the extreme heat. The experience was somewhat bittersweet since these will probably be that last murals I paint for a while. This exhibition will be open for viewing August 31st through September 30th.