David Goatley said when he was choosing images for the ECHO Players’ mural, he was looking for images that were larger than life.
He did just that.
The 56-by-16-foot mural doesn’t even fully fit onto one wall of the gym at French Creek Elementary School. The centre of the mural, which has ECHO Players performers throughout the years, fits onto one wall, while the two side pieces depicting the control room and the wings can only fit on the adjacent walls in the gym.
For the mural, Goatley said he used different sized figures so that people’s eyes would flow through the image and it wouldn’t just become static.
Goatley said the large faces take about two days to complete.
Since starting the mural in mid-September, Goatley said he was asked to include three more figures — the founders — into the mural.
Goatley, who has been using a piece of machinery to paint all the different parts of the mural, said he can really simplify the painting to make it work at a distance.
“When you’re as close as I am (working), you start worrying about the details,” said Goatley adding that once the mural is on the wall of the Village Theatre, people won’t be able to see all of those small details.
In the past month, there have been school groups, locals and even some of the people depicted in the mural stopping by weekly to check out Goatley’s progress.
ECHO Players plans to unveil the mural on the Village Theatre on July 1, 2017 in time for Canada’s 150th celebrations.