The Hotel that Burned in 1943

In early 2020 I started painting a 110-foot-long, 2-story mural that would be a life-like reproduction of a hotel from the 1800s. The wall that was getting the Mural Treatment looked like this, and had seen better days:

The Ramona H.E.A.R.T. Mural Project wanted this mural to be a replica of the historic Grand Kenilworth in as looked before it was claimed by fire in 1943.

After getting my hands every piece of visual documentation available (approximately 2 photographs), I made a rough sketch – a VERY rough sketch, as drawing anything smaller than a wall isn’t my forte – then I measured the wall, I measured it twice, even found out the plaster wasn’t very nice.

But I didn’t paint this mural onto the wall. Instead, it was to be painted onto 63 Dibond panels that measured 4’x8′ each and would later be screwed onto the exterior wall of the Ramona Food and Clothes Closet.

In my friend’s garage we built a frame that held 3 panels at once (to line up the left/right edges, and up/down edges). After purchasing 20 panels, we sanded, cleaned, and primed them. Finally the painting began!

Perspective matters, and each panel was painted from the point-of-view of passers-by on Main Street. Photoshopping the painted panels onto my sketch and then onto a photo of the existing building helped preserve my sanity

Ok, now on to installation!

In April we installed 17 panels to give Ramona residents something to look forward to after quarantine.

Having relieved the garage space of many panels, more were ordered, sanded, primed and painted. The “tower” part of the mural was carefully painted then even more carefully cut, as it would stick up above the roofline and had to look 3-dimensional from the street.

Finally, all the panels were finished. We hauled the remaining 45 panels to the jobsite and began attaching them to the wall. Due to the building’s age, we had trouble finding some of the studs, despite using thermal imagining and eventually drilling holes every 1.5″ for yards at a time!

Ramona residents drove by during installation, delighted and astounded by the change to the familiar corner of Main Street.

“It looks great. Completely throws off the building. I didn’t recognize it when I drove by.”

“It is fantastic. Looks like you could walk right into it.”

“…the best I’ve seen in a while. Thank you.”

And the finishing touch – the tower! A professional welder built the brace for the tower and installed it onto the parapet, reinforcing it for Santa Ana winds.