Painting

Artist David Heatwole hopes to install another large mural along another major thoroughfare in downtown Martinsburg. Heatwole said this week that he would like to install a multipanel mural painted on marine-grade plywood on the north side of a historic brick building at 301 N. Queen St. "It's a very eye-catching spot," Heatwole said. The city Historic Preservation Review Commission is expected to consider Heatwole's request  for a certificate of appropriateness for the project at their regular monthly meeting on Monday at 7 p.m. Heatwole's latest public art proposal for the former location of the First Look Photo camera store comes about two years after his "Put a Lid on It" mural project was installed at 404 W. King St. downtown.

Artwork by Andy Iverson Colorful, graphic paintings by Andy Iverson will be on display. Exhibit continues through Tuesday, Aug. 30. Washington County Arts Council, 14 W. Washington St., Hagerstown. Call 301-791-3132 or go to www.washingtoncountyarts.com . Art in the hallway Gail Cox will be the featured artist for August. Artists donate 25 percent of sales to the auxiliary. Meritus Medical Center, corridor between the medical center lobby and the same day services welcome, off Robinwood Drive, east of Hagerstown.

Andy Iverson is a painter with a vision. He wants people to engage with art and with the act of creation. “Art can be very therapeutic. It can heal. It can be a powerful force,” he said recently during a visit to The Herald-Mail. Iverson will pursue his vision at a new exhibit of his paintings, opening Friday, Aug. 5, with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Washington County Arts Council gallery. The public is invited. Iverson's colorful, stylized paintings are eye-catching.

Smithsburg Police are investigating graffiti that was found at Lions Club Park in Smithsburg on Friday, Chief George L. Knight Jr. said in an emailed release. The vandalism happened between 3 p.m. and 11 p.m. Friday, Knight said. Graffiti was spray-painted on every building in the park, including the bathrooms, dugouts and pavilions, he said. The vandalism was discovered by Officer Matthew Hudson during his normal patrol checks of the park. A Smithsburg Public Works employee covered the graffiti immediately after that, Knight said.

A fire that started in an aviation hangar paint shop Tuesday morning at Hagerstown Regional Airport was extinguished before it had a chance to spread, the owner of the business said. Austin Heffernan, owner of Royal Aircraft Services at 18335 Air Park Road, said workers were getting the hangar ready for a paint job when the fire started at about 10:30 a.m. He said the fire burned for about five minutes before it was put out by a combination of ceiling sprinklers, a foam fire suppressant and a hand-held fire extinguisher.

Randy Houston McPeak harassed and stalked Heather W. Harris in the weeks before he shot her, following her to and from work, entering her home and calling or texting several times a day, according to allegations in her handwritten application for a peace order. On Friday, days after the peace order was issued, McPeak phoned a friend. “I did it. I did it. She's dead,” McPeak allegedly told a friend by phone hours before Harris, with two gunshot wounds to her head, was rescued from her home at 1606 Dual Highway, according to the statement of probable cause filed by the Washington County Sheriff's Office.

The real estate agent marketing a foreclosed house on Northern Avenue just outside Hagerstown said he would arrange to quickly remove a swastika and racist graffiti that were painted on at least two of the exterior walls. John Orem, owner of John Orem & Associates LLC in Martinsburg, W.Va., said Thursday that he would contact the owner of the house at 640 Northern Ave. to fix the problem. The owner is listed as OWB REO LLC, according to the Maryland Department of Assessment and Taxation's website.

The lake at Pangborn Park in Hagerstown was drawing double takes from people Wednesday afternoon after the water took on a light, milky appearance. It turned out to be paint, according to a Hagerstown Fire Department spokesman. The water-soluble paint had fallen off a truck at 1234 Potomac Ave. near East Magnolia Avenue, fire and police officials said. Some vehicles were splattered with paint in the incident, which was reported about 2 p.m., according to a 911 dispatcher.

Maryann Ferro stopped by the small crowd milling about downtown Queen Street Monday wearing a purple sweater festooned with a small, blue button. Ferro, 65, of Martinsburg, was there in support of Main Street Martinsburg and its partner, Relay for Life, and their combined effort to bring public awareness of cancer and the Berkeley County Relay for Life fundraiser June 4 and 5. “I’m wearing purple for cancer and blue for autism, and my daughter, who lives in Las Vegas, is wearing blue for autism and purple for cancer out there today.” Purple is the theme color for a weeklong cancer awareness program that kicked off Monday with a proclamation from Martinsburg Mayor George Karos.

Special to The Herald-Mail "In painting the Grand Canyon ... I have to be full of my subject," the famous American landscapist Thomas Moran (1837-1926) told reporters in 1912. Something of a character but a learned one, Moran went on to reassure his fans that he was a scientist. He knew the geology of the canyon, the atmosphere that hovered over it, the torrents of the Colorado River far below and even the wildlife that inhabited the area. Tourism to the famous landmark had come into its own by the turn of the century, and Moran was the artist who assisted it. Born into a family of painters in Philadelphia, he fell in love with the American West after his first trip across the Mississippi in 1871.