Murals in the Meadows!

How about a break from Orthodontics and teeth? As our patients know, I am really into painting, sculpting and encouraging the arts. Aside from the artistic side that great orthodontics benefits from, I think having an artistic outlet can add a lot of flavor and beauty to life in general. I thought it might be nice to show the progress I am making with the Mural that the Town of Castle Rock asked me to paint. It is located in the tunnel that leads to the Grange in the Meadows, underneath Meadows Parkway. Officer Seth Morrissey is running the program to deter graffiti, and various artists are painting murals along the trails, bridges and underpasses throughout Castle Rock. I actually agreed to painting, thinking that it would be the size of your average wall. When we went to see the site, I was met with a NINETY foot wide wall! I had to shift gears, and planned to break down the wall into five sections measuring 18×12 feet. The overall plan is to use a sepia-like effect to unify the five sections, and to blend with the surroundings.

I started two weekends ago, and was lucky to have two very talented volunteers help, Billy and Lela. We started with a simple tree in the middle section of the wall. By simple, I mean the design- we actually painted many thousands of fine branches in three layers to give it a delicate look. I started with a very light tree in the background that took a full day to paint. Although this layer is the least visible at first glance, it gives the final result an overall lush and warm feeling. We spent hours and hours on those small fine braches! The next day we added a medium tone, and then the darkest tone on top of that. We finished with a white ground with a few areas of sparse grasses coming through to give it a wintery feel. Presto- one section done!

The next weekend we started the Buffalos drinking at the water hole scene. This was painted similarly, in layers and in sepia tones. I sketched the buffaloes on paper, and used an overhead projector to draw it on the wall. For the sky I used a photo on my phone that I took while mountain biking in Buffalo Creek, but ended up changing a large portion of it while we were painting. Now that I’m looking at it, I need to touch up a few areas, but it came out really nice.

What is next? I think we are going to do something fun with frogs. Stay tuned.

Dan Rejman, D.D.S, M.S.

Dr. Rejman is the owner of Meadows Orthodontics in Castle Rock, CO. He was recently named the “Best Orthodontist in Castle Rock, 2014”, by both “Best of the Best”, and Douglas County Living. Stop by his office to see more of his artwork- both on the walls, and displayed on all his patient’s smiles!