This is a portion of the massive mural painted by Andrei Krautsou, which is located across from the courthouse downtown.
One can't help but notice the huge horses, the train and Castle Rock painted on the side of a building when driving downtown.
The mural was a project the URA/Main Street Committee commissioned. Through an open-call process, the committee discovered artists Andrei Krautsou and his wife, Julia Yu-baba.
"As I know, the committee had a lot of submissions and they choose several semi-finalists," Krautsou said. "Everybody proposed a design. As a result, they chose mine and now this massive beautiful mural comes into life."
Prior to submitting his design, Krautsou said he researched Green River to find out about its history and what made it unique. He picked the train because that's the reason Green River founded, the Castle Rock was also selected since it is a focal point in the town and finally he added the wild horses. He also incorporated the Green River in a unique way.
"I decided to paint beautiful landscape with big sky and rocks. Wild horses running along with the train. That is important and a great part of the history of Green River," he said. "I included the configuration of Green River itself. You can see two blue lines going through the mural."
Krautsou was busy working on the mural for six days and was happy to finally get it completed. Krautsou said his wife was supposed to help, but she just had a baby two month ago and decided to stay home. Because of this, Krautsou had to complete the work himself.
Krautsou and his wife are originally from Belarus, which is located in Europe, between Poland and Russia. They moved to the United States and currently live in New York.
"I'm based in New York, but (I'm) always happy to travel to a new city," Krautsou said. "I have never been to Wyoming and this is my first time painting at this state. I'm very exited to paint at such a beautiful place."
"Sometimes I work with my wife, Julia Yu-baba," he said. "Together, we have done a lot of collaborative public artworks. Over six years, we specialize in large-scale murals and have already painted more then 80 murals in total in 15 counties."
Both artists have extensive experience with private and public commissions. They have also worked with curators, community representative and architects. They have traveled all over the world and participated in many art festivals.
"I love traveling and my job as a mural artist allows me to visit cities and counties," Krautsou said. "I'm glad that I have this experience to paint at such a beautiful place like Green River."
He said each mural captures the spirit of that particular area he is creating it for. No two murals are alike.
"I've never done the same mural twice," he said.
While Krautsou was painting the mural, several Green River residents stopped by to talk to him or bring him something to drink or eat. He said the residents thanked him for doing such a great job.
"I'm very excited to be here," Krautsou said. "I feel welcomed."
He said every town or city is different and every project has its challenges. For this one, the hot sun itself was a challenge. Krautsou said he was working from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day and had to keep reapplying sunscreen to make sure he didn't get sunburnt. However, that wouldn't stop him from coming back.
"All the people who came and speak to me have positive feedback about the mural. I heard a lot of good words, " he said. "It makes me happy. (I) hope to come back here again. I would be happy to paint more artworks here."
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