St. John's Great Fire to be memorialized in massive mural

Goodness, gracious, Great Fire of 1892 mural project has an artist to put painting on an aging wall in downtown St. John's.

After a call for submissions the city of St. John's decided on a design from artist Julie Lewis.

"Quite exciting," Lewis said.

"I'm really enjoying the process of looking at the wall and being in my mind to picture where everything is. There's a lot of logistics involved. Even though you have your creative side of it you really do have to double and triple check where you've placed everything."

On Wednesday Lewis stood alongside city councillor Sandy Hickman and the Paint Shop's Don Travers in front ofthe gigantic slab of concrete that will serve as her canvas for the project.

"We felt that this huge wall on McBride's Hill would be a wonderful opportunity for an artist to put forth some wonderful artistic abilities and some thought into the history of that fire," Hickman said.

Great Fire of 1892 mural to get underway

7 years ago

Duration 2:07

Artist/Animator Julie Lewis will take on the project

For Lewis, an artist, animator and studio owner, this isn't her first mural project or the first time working with the Great Fire of 1892 theme.

"Ironically enough, it was back in 1999 the city had me doing a restoration of the Great Fire of 1892 and that was at the old Murray Premises square," she said.

"I was just starting art school that year and it was fascinating. I didn't really know what I was getting into. It was my first experience really being up on scaffolding."

Nerve-racking as well because of the huge canvas, Lewis said.

"I got used to coming down from the scaffolding and stepping back and looking at it like it was a letter sized sheet of paper and then getting back up again and doing it piece by piece."

Lewis has mapped out her colour-rich project using the same technique artists have been using for thousandsof years.

"It's definitely a help to have photoshop skills because you can actually take your imagination and turn it into a measurable grid," Lewis said.

"It's interesting because when you go to research these sorts of things it's the same way that they did things back in the 16thcentury. Using a grid wasgood then, and it's good now. I had one or two apps that I looked at that might help, but at the end of the day I said, 'nope' good old measuring is the way to go."

Lewis said depending on weather,the project could take between 60 and 90 days.