By Sara Beth Williams–
A long awaited “Welcome to Citrus Heights” mural was painted along a portion of a sound wall on Auburn Boulevard in Citrus Heights over the weekend.
The mural, which encompasses a couple dozen squares of a sound wall running along Auburn Boulevard, was first anticipated to be completed earlier in 2026 but was postponed due to several factors, including the annual planting of several flowers along the wall by a local resident.
The community mural was painted by 30 volunteers over two days, Citrus Heights Arts organizers said. Muralist Kim Gardner, who goes by the artist name Erse was in charge of the group of volunteers who showed up to paint over Saturday and Sunday. Gardner began painting murals during COVID and works on at least three to four large mural projects each year.
Gardner said everyone from toddlers to an octogenarian came out to help paint individual squares on the wall.
After each letter in “Welcome to Citrus Heights” was filled in with yellow paint along with sky blue for the background, another artist outlined birds, butterflies, flowers, leaves and grass allowing volunteer painters to fill in the details more easily.
Gardner said the pink hue was chosen so that the mural’s flowers would match the color of flowers planted along the bottom of the wall each spring.
Roughly half of the sound wall was painted Saturday and Sunday. Organizers said one of the managers at Home Depot in Rancho Cordova graciously donated many gallons of paint for the project.
This week, part of the project was shaded in with more details, such as shadowing and shading to give flowers, animals and letters greater definition, while some of the wall still requires more touch up details. An anti-graffiti coating is planned to be applied to the mural once it is fully completed.
Gardner said the response from the community was great and he anticipated painting the rest of the sound wall in the future. Citrus Heights Arts Executive Director Gigi Rayford agreed but said she did not have a timeline for when the second half of the wall would be painted.
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