I had the opportunity to spend the morning with Mary Spellings while she was creating her masterpiece for the Hatchie River Conservancy.
She started the mural late September, a project that is 100 feet long, which is the widest she has ever done. Mary’s vision for the mural was to represent the beauty of God’s creation. Her approach was to paint realistic vignettes in a symbolic line to connect them all.
That line would be a meandering river, like the Hatchie River.
Click the picture to watch the video for an exciting reveal.
For a while, I watched from below as Mary worked and then she invited me to take a ride to her outdoor studio underneath the bridge.
Mary has been painting for 50 years. She has a B.A. in Art from Union University and has taken workshops from nationally known instructors.
It took Mary about two weeks to complete the project. She found it best to work in the morning since she was using acrylic paint which became susceptible to the elements and would skim over and thicken in the afternoon. Despite that, Mary shared the biggest challenge for her was learning how to run the scissor lift.
The project beautifully came together and will be a bright feature for people to see when they use the boat ramp.
