OCALA, FL (352today.com) – Located on the wall above the shopping carts, there’s a new indoor mural highlighting the Horse Capital of the World at the Walmart on Southwest Highway 200 near On Top of the World.
It’s part of the Walmart Community Mural Program, which aims to celebrate the diversity of communities across the country. But even though this is a national art program, Ocala’s new mural was painted by an artist here in Florida.
Kierra Amaral is a digital artist based in Tampa who designs and paints unique watercolor pieces for the program. She’s painted a total of six so far. Most of her murals are located across Florida, like one in Jacksonville and another in Weeki Wachee, but she has also designed a mural currently on display in Yorktown, VA. She’s also the designer behind the new Highway 200 mural entitled “Equine Enchantment.”
The process behind designing a mural is a collaborative one, according to Amaral: the store reaches out to the curator, NOW Art, with some ideas they would like to include in the design. Amaral then follows up with her own research about the location. The Ocala Walmart, for example, wanted a focus on horse farms and the World Equestrian Center, and Amaral added her own touch by highlighting the beautiful springs and forests of the Ocala area.
Amaral then creates the paintings in Photoshop. She spends days meticulously layering watercolor brushstrokes over her reference images until the design is ready, and she sends it off to the client to be put up on the store.
Amaral recently graduated from the University of South Florida (USF) with her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree with a focus in character design and animation. Outside of her murals, she also creates intricate digital paintings and 3D models. Her whimsical work is inspired by artists like Tim Burton. Amaral’s portfolio describes her art as lively, colorful, cartoonish and detailed.
Despite both her work and education being based in Florida, her artwork has been featured in galleries across the country. Her 2019 piece “Lunch Lady” was featured in a student exhibition at the Community College of Rhode Island. She also created the triptych “Dolli’s Diner” in 2019 for the “Imago” exhibition in Newport, RI. This year, Amaral’s animated short film “At the Copa,” which cleverly illustrates the story of Barry Manilow’s song “Copacabana,” premiered at the 2023 USF BFA thesis exhibition.
Amaral’s most recent artwork is a detailed painting entitled “River Romance: Adelaide and Oliver,” which blends a beautifully realistic background with cartoonish animal characters. More of her work, including character designs, animations and sketches, can be found on her portfolio website.
Apart from the artists and animation studios who inspire her, Amaral is driven to create by her family. She thanks her sister and mother for encouraging her to draw.