Re-creating a Giant Mural at Chaffey High School, Ontario, California

In the winter of 2018–2019, I spent a few months In Ontario, California, just outside Los Angeles. I was there working with other artists and craftsmen from EverGreene Architectural Arts on the re-creation of a large mural on the ceiling of the Chaffey High School Gardiner W. Spring auditorium.

Chaffey High School Gardiner W. Spring Auditorium.

The mural was in reasonable shape. The problem was that it was painted on an asbestos ceiling in a high school auditorium. So when they were renovating the building the asbestos had to be removed.

Most of the human figures in this mural were painted by Nigel Cooper.

It was quite large. I’m guessing 7 or 8000 ft.² of painting. So the very first thing they did was hire a photographer to take detailed pictures of every square foot of the mural, so we would have a reference to repaint it. 

I, Stephan Giannini, painting in the Chaffey High School Gardner W. Spring auditorium.

The asbestos was removed and the ceiling re-created and painted the background green. Then using enlargements of the photographs, the lines of the murals were "pounced" or transferred to the new wall.

The mural is mostly trees, interspersed with animals, figures, and buildings. There were small, hidden birds all over the place. I'm betting you can't see them very well from the floor.

Pouncing is a method of transferring a preparatory drawing for a painting from paper to another surface, such as canvas or plaster. The artist would prick holes around the outlines of the drawing, place it over the second surface, and then dust powder such as chalk or charcoal through the holes. 

Once that was complete all we had to do was spend a few months painting it!

The building and mural were created in 1939. You can find a little more information about that here. That page, from the Alumni Association of Chaffey High School, says the mural was painted by E. Peterson. I couldn’t verify that, but there was Einar Cortsen Petersen (1885-1986) Who was born in Denmark, moved to Hollywood in 1915, and painted paintings and murals in the Los Angeles area.

While I was there, I was told the original mural was painted by three brothers. If anybody has more information about this I would love to hear it.

A view of the scaffolding structure from below the wooden floor that was created on top of the scaffolding so we could work on the ceiling. That's the stage floor in the background.

The outside of Chafee High School auditorium.

There were about a dozen craftsmen and artists working on the mural re-creation. About half the crew is locally from California, and the rest from around the country.

Joe Bachelor was the supervisor of the project. Also working on the project were  Mark Sova and  Nigel Cooper, the three of whom were primarily responsible for painting the buildings, figures, and animals. I myself was a late-comer and painted about 44,000 leaves and tree trunks!

Also on the project were Greg Frohnapfel, Erica Hutchinson, and another half a dozen excellent craftsmen whose names I can not remember (please contact me and I’ll add your name and/or a link).

Two of the artists working on the "dance floor," as we call the floor underneath the ceiling that sits on top of about 80 feet of scaffolding.

A View of the entire auditorium. This was the original. I left before they took the scaffold down and was not able to get a photograph of our work after everything was completed.

Almost done! Joe Bachelor painting towards the exit door.

Originally posted at stephangiannini.com