Organizers held a Mural Launch Celebration on Tuesday, September 13 to mark the completion of the mural on the side of the Bayfield Arena.
Bayfield was one of six Huron County communities to receive funding from Huron Economic Development for a mural and the Bayfield committee, led by Bayfield Centre for the Arts President, Leslee Squirrell, chose artist Meaghan Kehoe, from Oshawa to paint the mural. Kehoe says when she arrived in Bayfield, Squirrell showed her around the village and fortunately the weather cooperated that day.
“We went out to Pioneer Park, saw the lake and just got to see those sail boats cutting across the water and the beautiful sky overhead and she was telling me about the sun sets here, how famous they are and then the marina,” Kehoe said.
Keohoe shares that she used the sites she saw that day as her inspiration for the mural.
“So I started with a colour pallet reflecting the sun set colours and then sprinkled in local indigenous characters like the Blue Heron, the Sweet Pea, the sail boats within the sun, behind the Heron and then, of course, your Bayfield sign,” added Kehoe.
Also, Kehoe says the paint had barely dried before people, who had seen the mural on Instagram, drove out to have their pictures taken in front of the mural, so she says social media has been her friend and she was very pleased with that reaction, as she was with the village of Bayfield.
