For years now Powell residents and tourists alike have been treated to a large painting of the town’s founder, John Powell, sprawled out across the bean mill owned by Treasure Valley Seed on Coulter Avenue.

This past spring, Treasure Valley Seed’s mill received a new mural that highlights some of Powell’s natural landmarks and adds a splash of color to the town for passersby entering Powell.

The new mural, which features Heart Mountain at sunset with barley in the foreground, took nearly a year’s worth of planning by artist Jeremiah Howe.

“I knew I wanted Heart Mountain in the design because I couldn’t think of a better way to represent Powell without it,” Howe said. “I used barley in the design to represent the agricultural heartbeat of this community because it’s a large part of what makes the Powell area so beautiful. There’s nothing better than driving past a field of barley with Heart Mountain rising majestically behind it at sunset.”

The shaping of the bean mill posed a difficult challenge, since it is not a perfect quadrilateral, like a square or rectangle as most canvases are. The unique shape made the mural especially challenging. All of the design elements had to look natural in their positions.

“I knew I wanted it to be bright and colorful,” Howe said. “The high contrast of the text in the design was intentional in hopes that as the mural fades over time that the critical elements would remain clear and the text readable for as long as possible. Not knowing exactly what the limitations were in the reproduction of the mural, I tried to keep the shapes and overall design relatively simple.”

When painting the mural, Howe wanted to design something that would feel right to him and something that would feel enjoyable to people who call Powell home. Through the process, Howe would go on to state that he felt pressure to live up to the previous mural as he “certainly didn’t want it to be a bad sequel.”

Since the artwork’s installation this spring, Howe said he has been very proud of his work, with community members sharing the sentiment for the beautiful mural.