Church Welcomes New Mural By Local Artist
Easter included something extra this year for the congregation at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church.
Fort Wayne artist, Peter Lupkin, installed the final part of his oil painting mural on the wall behind the altar. That also marked the completion of Phase I renovations for the church, located on the city’s far southwest side at 10700 Aboite Center Road.
The painting’s new scene has 11 saints and venerated figures standing or kneeling in heaven and is the mural’s largest part, made of four sections extending a total 40 feet across. It averages 7 to 8 feet high, Lupkin said.
Pastor Fr. Terry Coonan. Photo by James D. Wolf Jr.
The mural’s first part, a crucifixion scene measuring 18 feet high by 8 feet across, was installed in May 2024 during Pentecost. The mural is the largest artwork Lupkin has done.
“It’s a very niche object.” he said. “It’s not every day that somebody needs a full altar piece.”
Previously, his largest artwork was two 14 by 7 feet murals at in the sanctuary of SS. Peter and Paul Parish in Huntington, he said. His other work includes paintings of Stations of the Cross for a South Bend church, a painting of Our Lady or Lourdes for an Indianapolis church, and art across the state and country.
For this mural, he worked with St. Elizabeth Ann Seton’s Pastor Fr. Terry Coonan to decide which figures would be in heaven, and Coonan also surveyed the church to see what members wanted. The idea was to have a range of ages from different times and places and include local holy figures, Coonan and Lupkin said.
Mother Teresa is a 20th century saint, and Blessed Solanus Casey, not canonized as a saint now, resided at St. Felix Friary in Huntington 1946-1956. St. Kateri Tekakwitha is a Native American saint, and St. José Sánchez del Río was martyred in Mexico at 14.
While working, Lupkin used pulleys to roll and unroll the canvass over two years at the William L. Lupkin Designs studio at 1012 Broadway, where the ceilings are about 13 feet high. He painted on Italian linen with traditional oil paints and varnish to protect the work.
“If you’re making a piece like this for a church, I feel you have a responsibility (to use lasting materials),” Lupkin said. He also studied Israel mountains to get those right.
The mural includes “Easter eggs,” he said. In the crucifixion, St. John has his symbolic eagle, and St. Nicodemus and St. Joseph of Arimathea are in the background by the tomb. In heaven, St. Tekakwitha holds her symbolic box turtle, watchmaker St. Louis Martin Guérin has a fob, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton holds pencils and a catechism book. There are others, too.
Lupkin’s father, William Lupkin, helped paint the clouds, develop imagery (including the Ark of the Covenant angels) and find models of appropriate age and ethnicity with proper costumes, Peter Lupkin said. Their family business, which has been on Broadway 32 years, also created two new stained-glass windows for the church.
Coonan said the church wanted a classic realism in the painting instead of iconic figures, and church members were stunned and fell in love with the mural immediately. There’s no crucifix now, but the mural allows for other figures in the crucifixion scene, he added.
Plans for church renovations began about 12 years ago, before Coonan arrived. Parishioners wanted a bell tower, choir loft and other improvements for the church, which held its first Mass Sept. 8, 1990, he said. However, Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades said money raised should be used to make the school independent of the one at St, Joseph Catholic Church to the east.
When Phase I began in 2023, church savings covered inside renovations, Coonan said. Phase II plans include the bell tower, choir loft, main entrance improvements and a meeting room so far, and the church will need to raise about $3 million, he said.
Two parish members oversee the renovations, Chief Architect Mike Niezer and Architect Phillip Breckler of Design Collaborative in Fort Wayne.
Peter Lupkin already started his next project. A private individual commissioned a painting of St. Francis after seeing the Seton altar mural, Lupkin said.
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