Jim Fitzmaurice working on the mural at Juanito’s last month. Below, a detail. (Photos by Dan Natale. Click to enlarge)
By DAN NATALE
An outdoor mural near the Red Bank train station has been getting a wholesale freshening-up in recent weeks. And it’s not the first time.
Painter Jim Fitzmaurice of Rumson has been restoring the mural on the side of JuanitoÂ’s Mexican Grill, located at the corner of Monmouth and West streets.
Jim Fitzmaurice has also worked on other murals in town. (Photos by Dan Natale. Click to enlarge)
Though completion of the work, which depicts a woman looking out the window of hacienda’s arched stairway, was delayed by Hurricane Sandy, the mural was not damaged, Fitzmaurice said.
This is the third time that the mural has been re-done. It was initially painted by Jim Kobic, who loosely based it off of work by M.C. Escher, said Fitzmaurice. That work was painted over by “A. Flores” and “G. Flores” in 2006, according to signatures that remain on it.
The mural has to be occasionally restored because the walls of the restaurant experience efflorescence, a chemical reaction caused by the evaporation of water from the masonry that leaves behind salt crystals that wear the paint down, Fitzmaurice said.
Fitzmaurice is also adding a few new touches to the artwork, such as getting rid of an image of a guitarist and adding a few doors. He should have the mural done with in one or two more sessions, he said. . The rest of walls inside and outside Juanitos are being repainted as well.
This is not the only thing Fitzmaurice has done to brighten the landscape of Red Bank. He helped paint the mural at Riverside Gardens Park, and painted his mother into it.
“I brought my mom there,” he said. “She was 92 years old, and could barely see, but she knew it was her.”
He also worked on the mural on the wall of auto-repair shop Quick Fix It on Shrewsbury Avenue, abutting a pocket park at Drs. James Parker Boulevard.
Fitzmaurice is currently working on an exhibit at the Monmouth Museum at Brookdale Community College that is based on time travel and the history of the world.
