Clinton artist Janette Marvin has been designing and painting murals for more than 40 years. She’s behind the city mural in Clinton, another on Musgrove Street and just recently completed a mural in Cross Hill.
Years ago, the late artist Skip Shelton painted a train mural near Little River Park on East Main Street in Laurens, featuring the now closed River Tracks Café and Marvin had noticed it was quickly fading.
“My kids used to play in the park there. It was likely done to advertise the café but it was well done,” Marvin said. “I knew Skip. He was such a good artist and this mural really identified the location. I didn’t want it to disappear.”
Marvin has experience in refurbishing old murals and along with her daughter Kathryn Lee, got to work.
“It’s a rough surface to work on and we had to scrub the concrete to get rid of mildew and moss growing on it. It was quite the effort,” Marvin said. “It had faded so much it was really sort of a ghost mural. We could just barely see the outline to bring it back.”
The two ladies researched the area and located a few photos of the original mural.
They chose to add a sky to the mural; the more paint added prevents the moss from growing back and they are omitting the River Tracks Café advertisement but otherwise, they were able to complete the work very similar to Shelton’s original.
“We tried to get as close to the original as possible. There were spots we couldn’t make out the color even in the photos and it was so faded you couldn’t tell,” Marvin said. “Having known Skip and knowing that we have a similar style, I think I did something he would have approved of and we did the best we could. Hopefully, it cheers up that spot and adds something to the county.”
Shelton’s work is still displayed across the Upstate. In addition to the mural in Little River Park, Shelton painted murals on Dr. Steve Crow’s building, the train depot in Owings, at Westminster Elementary School in Westminster and many more.
Marvin’s work can be found at the Joe R. Adair Outdoor Education Center, Martha Franks Retirement Community, near the United Way of Laurens County’s community garden beds and more.
Her canvas work is currently displayed at the Clinton Art Gallery and the Artist Coop in Laurens. Visit https://www.janettemarvinstudio.com/ for more information.