When we first bought our casita, one of the things that we liked best about it was all the outdoor living space. We had an outdoor bathroom complete with toilet, sink and shower, an outdoor wash sink and a large patio. One full length wall had a mural painted on it that was old and faded but it gave us a great idea. We thought, why not repaint the mural in a design that is very "Nicaraguan" to go along with our new pool, new awnings, and new driveway we are putting in?
When we were decorating our casita, we met a local artist, Pablo Latino, who does bright acrylic paintings of typical Nicaragua themes: volcanos, beaches, ocean, sunsets, toucans, monkeys, turtles, iguanas, parrots, and all the other things that are typical to living here in Nicaragua. We really liked his style and we liked him so we negotiated to have him re-paint our mural.
First we had him sketch a design for us, and then we tweaked it here and there until we got all the local themes that we wanted. Then he and his two helpers (his brother and his son) began the work. They sanded and prepped the wall, and then applied several base coats over the old tired mural. Then they sketched the design on the wall in actual size (look closely at the white area below and you can see the sketch).
After painting a full day, it became obvious that the color brightness was just too much for us, so we had them start over, with the same design but making it lighter. The entire mural took four full days to complete and we thought the result was perfect. It is exactly what we wanted.
When it was finished, Pablo's wife uploaded photos of the mural to social media and he has since been hired to paint two more murals as a result. Now while we are hanging out by the pool, we have our own private Nicaragua art gallery to enjoy.
