Biltmore’s back, in 3D

Rendering of the Biltmore Hotel mural to be installed on the west facing wall of the old Bijou Theater building in downtown Hermosa Beach. Rendering courtesy of the Hermosa Murals Project

Rendering of the Biltmore Hotel mural to be installed on the west facing wall of the old Bijou Theater building in downtown Hermosa Beach. Rendering courtesy of the Hermosa Murals Project

 by Dan Blackburn

“I have this relationship with walls.” 

Internationally acclaimed artist John Pugh revealed this in a 2013 Tahoe Quarterly article. He now is applying this quirky trait to a second, eye-popping mural in downtown Hermosa Beach.

In his huge, custom-built studio he calls his “barn,” located high in the Sierra on the outskirts of Truckee, Pugh has started painting a mammoth mural depicting a Hermosa Beach icon: the old Biltmore Hotel (now the site of Noble Park). The finished work will be installed on the west-facing wall of the former Bijou Theater on Hermosa Avenue.

 

Artist John Pugh is painting his Biltmore Hotel mural on canvas in his Truckee studio. Image courtesy of John Pugh

 

Pugh specializes in an art form known as trompe l’oeil (French for “trick of the eye”). That means simply that observers will view a flat wall with a stunning and often humorous 3-D presence.

This will be Hermosa’s second mural by Pugh and the 10th and final mural of the 10-year-old privately-financed Hermosa Beach Mural Committee. Pugh also painted the trumpet that emerges from a wall at 10th Street and Hermosa Avenue, acknowledging the city’s legendary history of jazz.

“Every mural that we have done, I have started to worry about how we would top ourselves for the next one. Somehow it always works out,” Hermosa Beach Murals Project board member Steve Izant said. 

Pugh is painting the top half of the mural on canvas in his studio. Last week, workers began installing scaffolding at the Bijou’s for workers to prime the surface for the mural.

Pugh and his wife Annie hope to begin installation of the mural by the end of this month. the painting will be unrolled and glued to the wall like a giant sheet of wallpaper. Then it will be covered with a weather-resistant protective coating.

A swelling green wave will be painted directly onto the building. Completion of the mural planned for late February or early March.

Pugh has been creating ocular delights for more than 37 years, since his first project at his alma mater, Chico State University. That was an “illusion of a wall crumbling away to reveal academe’s Greek columns underneath,” according to the Tahoe Quarterly.

 

Workers prepare the west wall of the old Bijou Movie Theater building for installation of the Biltmore Hotel mural. Photo courtesy of the Hermosa Beach Murals Project

The new Hermosa mural will cost $123,000, or about three times the average cost of the previous nine murals, according to Izant.

“It’s been an incredible journey,” he said of the decade-long endeavor, noting that the concept started on a long weekend with friends in Santa Paula “which has a great [mural] program.” 

“We all said, ‘Why can’t we do that in Hermosa Beach?’ I’m proud and grateful to all who helped get those done.”

An unveiling of the Biltmore painting is tentatively planned for March 13 or 14. After that, he added, the murals board will disband. Care and maintenance of the 10 murals will be handed under an agreement with the city of Hermosa Beach

Izant encouraged residents to “make a point of coming out to see it while it is being painted.” ER

 

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