Here's Stephen Bryer hard at work on his "Origins & Legacies" mural of roses -- his most recent mural project -- on a commercial building at Hale & Wesley Streets in Wheaton, IL. Scroll down for a rose photo, close-up...
Stephen Bryer can spot an outside wall that needs a mural a mile away! With an artist’s vision for large scale art, Stephen is currently painting one of his signature rose murals, “Origins and Legacies”, at the northeast corner of Hale & Wesley Streets in downtown Wheaton, IL on the west-facing, 420 square-foot wall of a commercial building.
“I like painting in public for the positive interaction it generates,” Stephen explains. “Public art is vitally important in powerful ways to society. I’ve painted murals in California and other visible places where people stop and take photos of themselves in front of them. It’s a profound art form that can touch people’s hearts and minds.”
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Stephen spent his formative art and design years in the Western states but was born in Wheaton and has returned to the area to help his aging parents. His family has deep roots here since both parents are Wheaton College alums where they met as students and then married.
The preparations and preliminary work he's done so far on the local commercial building has been extensive, including stucco, sand paint and base coats. He then continued on to grid the wall, draw the petals and paint the first layer of the two-toned color that defines the floral forms. This prepares the way for the coming elaborate process of painting each petal with a full array of color to give the work exceptional depth and impact. The petals are meant to have such intense drama as to stop a passing person in their tracks and consider this larger-than-life work of art.
Stephen, who is also a skilled home and garden artisan, has a passion for growing roses as well. When painting them he only uses his own photographs taken in public gardens around the country, but some of them originate with roses he has grown himself. In fact, his rose photo gallery is extremely extensive and now numbers around 15,000. He has developed a unique method for photographing them that he brings to his artwork.
Why roses?
He says, “Truly, I didn’t choose to focus on roses, they chose me…and once they did, I made them my artistic emphasis for their exceptional divine beauty and healing expression directed towards me as well as those who experience my art.”
Despite the countless hours he has spent searching and capturing the perfect display of complex petals, he never tires of the process and finds their endless varieties, wide ranging colors, and ever-unfolding blossom patterns completely captivating. Scrolling through his photo collection with this writer, he repeatedly noted, “The beauty of the rose is just otherworldly!”
Stephen, who studied art at California State/ Long Beach is available for commissions, both photographic and painted.
Right now, he needs a “little help from his friends” to complete the mural. As a result, he has set up a funding site at: http://spot.fund/ImBM1n
More of his work can be seen on the following social media platforms: Instagram (stephenbryercollection) and Facebook (Stephen Bryer). He can be reached directly at 949 309 7250.
One of Stephen's stunning rose photographs from his extensive photo gallery.
