Rural Missouri - May 2024 - 30

RM | NEIGHBORS
MASSIVE
MURALS
New Haven painter brings big-scale
art to walls across Missouri
by Sara Schafer | sschafer@ruralmissouri.coop
W
hen artist Ray Harvey sees a blank wall in a
small town, he has a big goal. He wants to
paint a mural so memorable it becomes as
iconic as the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. " Every
small town needs an Arch, " Ray says. " You want something
that makes people proud of their town. "
For three decades, Ray has been transforming blank
walls into tourist destinations. His murals capture historical
moments, noteworthy people, beautiful scenery and
more - the one common dominator is the size. " I do big,
bold stuff, " he says. " If I'm going to paint an apple, it's
going to be 14 feet tall. 'Big' is my trademark. "
Ray, who lives with his wife, Paula, in New Haven, is
a self-taught painter. His professional career centered on
illustrations for the advertising industry. As that industry
became technology-focused, he knew he could put his creative
talents to work in a different way.
" I found myself working with interior decorators, " Ray
recalls. " I saw some of the murals they were paying for,
and I thought they were awful. The reason was they were
done by house painters who were trying to be artists. I was
an artist, so I just needed to learn how to paint large-scale
murals on walls. "
That's just what he did. Since 1990, Ray has painted
more than 600 indoor and outdoor murals mostly in Missouri.
His paintings are found in public spaces, restaurants,
homes and commercial buildings - he says he has
painted more public murals than any artist in the state.
30 RURAL MISSOURI | MAY 2024
If it's a sunny day in the spring, summer or fall, the
odds are high you can find Ray on a scissor lift in a small
town. His murals start with a community leader contacting
him with an idea. The two talk through the concept
and potential location. Once those are firm, Ray gets to
work. He'll take any inspiration photos and tweak those
in Photoshop to solidify the design. Then Ray watches the
weather forecast for a tranquil week to paint the mural.
For instance, Ray spent a week in Marshall this past
August painting a mural on the side of Truman Title.
The vibrant mural features a local farmer, Bill Hisle, who
farmed more than 1,100 acres in Saline County. Bill lived
to be 96 years old before he died in 2017. The mural also
includes the Missouri River, the historic Miami bridge,
fields of lush corn and the title, " Farmer Proud. "
" The mural is an ode to all Saline County farmers, "
says Sandy Hisle, Bill's daughter-in-law, and a member of
the Marshall Cultural Council, which supports the arts in
Marshall. " We've got lots of great murals around, but this
one is the biggest. Our hope is it will attract people to our
downtown area. "
The mural in Marshall took seven days and was funded
by the council. On his first evening in town, he used a mini
projector to illuminate the wall with his design, which he
sketched out with a pencil. " The projector is the most foolproof
way to work when you're doing a big-scale mural, "
Ray says. " That's how you get the correct proportions.
Then it becomes a glorified paint by numbers. "
Ray blocks out certain portions of the mural to tackle
each day, allowing for paint to dry in between. Those
Rural Missouri - May 2024

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