By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com

Thirteen years after the “Bucyrus, Great American Crossroad” mural was finished, artist Eric Grohe has returned to Bucyrus to make a few touch ups to his painting.

The downtown mural was in need of touch ups after the mortar in the brick wall began cracking from moisture over the years. The paint however has withstood the weather which Grohe attributes to a tip from the chemists who work for the Sherwin Williams paint company. The chemists advised Grohe to use a multi-pigment paint which has kept the paint in great condition since being painted.

To achieve the 3-D effect, Grohe said he is using drawing principals from the 1400’s explaining, “Two Italian architects codified, or wrote down, the principals of perspective drawing. Until that time people were doing drawings and paintings sort of in perspective, but there was no given set of rules or guidelines  to go from and understand how that worked. And so I’ve got 600 years of people’s efforts making use of it and finding new ways of making it work on behalf of the outcome of the image.”

Grohe, who has been painting since 1962, has spent the last two years at his studio in Seattle, Washington painting a canvas work for Coca-Cola which was recently installed in Atlanta. With all the accolades that he receives Grohe explained, “My wife Cathy foes the real work she does a lot of the business side of things. She is a great graphic designer in her own right, and I owe everything to her.”

Glenn Grohe, Eric’s father was a painter as well. The elder Grohe is famous for the “He’s Watching You” World War II poster, as well as doing the artwork for covers for magazines such as Saturday Evening Post, and Field and Stream.

With little touch ups to do over the mural, Grohe is unsure how long it will take to complete. Before leaving Bucyrus, Grohe plans to look at the “Liberty Remembers” mural and possibly touch up where water damaged the painting from flooding.

Both “Bucyrus, Great American Crossroad” and “Liberty Remembers” murals were funded completely by donations.

More of Eric Grohe’s work can be found online at http://www.ericgrohemurals.com/