Amarillo-area muralists recreate iconic Palo Duro Canyon mural after damage after crash

Well known Amarillo restaurant Blue Sky, located on the access road off Interstate 40 and Western, is recreating its iconic Palo Duro Canyon mural after the north side of the structure had been damaged.

According to the owner of the building and father to the restaurant's owner/operator, Rex Vermillion, on May 16 at 3 a.m., a young woman speeding from the I-40 offramp crashed her vehicle into the north side of the building, damaging the back half of the structure located in the area of the women's restroom. As a result, most of the iconic 19-year-old mural had been completely demolished. The woman was unharmed by the incident and taken into police custody.

According to Vermillion, renovations had to be made for the new wall, but the day after it was complete on Aug. 31, longtime artist and owner of the company School Graphics, Rex Wilt, began recreating the Amarillo staple with the help of his wife before recruiting the help of West Texas A&M fine art professor Michael Longhofer.

Vermillion said they tasked Wilt with the recreation for his involvement in the 2003 original mural, where Wilt assisted the mural's originator, a local legendary sign painter known by the trade name of "Jonas" who has passed away.

"The original was kind of a masterpiece so to speak, and we wanted to recreate that visual that everyone knows and has come to love," Vermillion said.

Today, Wilt and Longhofer work together to combine their unique styles and recreate the iconic visual, by utilizing a large-sale, computerized paint-by-number technique based off a photograph of the original. The muralists said they know it will not be exactly like the original but plan to give the location a new, very similar mural from which the community will continue to create memories.

Wilt said some noticeable changes to the mural will include the addition of wildlife and the gradation of the original's solid blue sky with the addition of a few clouds.

"We are adding a few of our own touches, but it will be close to the original. In the original, the only animal is this one here (a small ram in the bottom left corner of the mural). We will add more wildlife to better represent the area. We want to include an armadillo, among others, with possibly a little lizard in the foreground on a rock," Wilt said.

Vermillion spoke about the importance of the mural to the location and the city over the past 19 years, and how the restaurant received its name and the mural received its theme that many Amarilloans have come to recognize.

"We were a part of another franchise, but my son said he wanted something of his own, so we sold our affiliations with the chain we were a part of and bought this building and created this place that could be his own. And on the day that we bought it, my son and I were standing outside, and I looked up and noticed the sky and how blue it was and I said, 'This is a blue sky kinda day ... hey we should name the restaurant that,'" Vermillion said.

Vermillion said that Amarillo's blue sky and limitless possibilities that come with a locally owned restaurant became the inspiration for the name, and they wanted an image of that iconic visual to follow suit.

"Lots of travelers come through Amarillo, stop to eat at Blue Sky, and many have been seen taking photos in front of the mural," Vermillion said.

According to the restaurant and the muralists, they hope that after the piece is complete within the next couple of weeks that many more memories will be made in front of the mural for years to come.

To see the painters in action or a enjoy a good burger, visit Blue Sky at 4201 W. I-40. For more information online, visit https://www.blueskytexas.com/amarillo .

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Amarillo muralists recreate iconic Blue Sky mural after damage