NORWICH – Local artist and Norwich High School senior Hannah Murphy has a new painting on display. The painting is a whimsical mural of the Biblical Noah’s Ark tale.

The painting wraps around the four walls of the nursery at the United Church of Christ, First Congregational in Norwich. The initial work on this project began last June as, working freehand, Hannah started to sketch out different scenes. Pictured in the final painting are sheep, giraffes, dogs, zebras, elephants, hippos, frogs, a boat load of other assorted creatures and, of course, Noah and an ark.

Needless to say, a work of this size took a considerable amount of time to complete. Hannah and some of her friends worked over the summer as their busy schedules permitted, painting the different panoramas, filling them in with color, adding splashes and shades of blues, reds and greens to the various characters depicted in the initial sketches. The final touch was put on the painting in October when Hannah signed the work near the door to the nursery.