A love of Salmon Arm and its artists led a Raven-area couple to have part of their home transformed into a work of art.
What was once a sidewalk leading from Ellie and Mitch McGaughey's driveway is now a creek, flowing around rocks to a waterfall that stops in a lush forested landscape where deer and bears can be found in the woods, spawning salmon in the water and Mount Ida can be seen in the background.
For the McGaugheys, the imagery painted on their walkway, stairs, retaining wall and fence is everything they hoped it would be and more.
"We wanted this to represent Salmon Arm so we said we鈥檇 like to see the animals that live here," explained Mitch of the sprawling mural. "So we鈥榲e got fish and, well, we have a yeti, and we have bears which are in our yard all the time and we鈥檝e got deer鈥� This is far more than we could ever dream. We did not expect to be getting this."
"And we're really happy we got this," added Ellie, who says Salmon Arm is home to some of the most talented artists in the country, including Becky Luth.
Luth and a student of hers, Rachel Unger, recently finished the mural, having worked on it throughout the summer.
Mitch and Ellie chose Luth as they were familiar with her art and her family. The McGaughey's rented their Raven home to them before moving to Salmon Arm for retirement.
"When we heard Becky is in town鈥� we called her up and said, 'Becky, would you consider doing a mural for us?'" said Mitch. "We were thinking just a mural on the wall, we weren鈥檛 thinking a fence and all of that. But the more we talked, she said well, what is it you want? We said we want it to represent our neighbourhood, we want it to represent Salmon Arm, we want it to have animals in it鈥�"
When speaking with the Observer, Ellie noted Luth was very busy and initially hesitant on having her name included in the story. But Ellie wanted to make sure she and Unger were recognized, and suggested that others thinking about home improvements consider how a local artist might transform part of their home into the "talk of the neighbourhood."
"So many people are saying you know, this might be good for our neighbourhood, maybe other people will start doing little things like that to make this neighbourhood special," said Mitch. "We love it here. Since we retired and moved here we鈥檝e just fallen totally in love with this place. It will take a pry bar to get us out of here now."
This is located at a private residence in Salmon Arm, BC
鈥� Becky Luth (@bekisart)
Thank you to everyone who has commented and encouraged us in this process! It has been a big learning curve to paint this large and around so many edges and corners and different view points!
