A community painting is pictured in front of the Gilmer Chamber of Commerce on Monday. With the help of a local artist, community members contributed to the painting to commemorate the solar eclipse, the third such project the chamber has hosted. (Jordan Green/Longview News-Journal Photo)

GILMER — Monday’s total solar eclipse will live on in photos — and thanks to a Gilmer artist, on a canvas.

While people stared toward the heavens to watch the moon block out the sun’s light that afternoon, Brandon Clark helped local onlookers and out-of-town astronomical enthusiasts alike leave their mark on a community canvas.

Clark set up in front of the Gilmer Chamber of Commerce, painted a picture of a solar eclipse on a small canvas and let people add to it by painting various objects, from flowers to frogs and everything in between.

“Doesn’t matter your age, your level of experience — we welcome everybody,” Clark said as he stood beside his easel. “So, yeah, it’s pretty cool.”

The eclipse artwork was the third community painting project the Gilmer Chamber of Commerce has hosted, said Gloria McLuckie, the chamber’s executive director. Local artist Laurie Parish, chairwoman for the local Artwalk committee, saw the idea somewhere and wanted to bring it to Gilmer.

The chamber had a painting project at an Artwalk event around Christmas, McLuckie said. The next was at a chamber banquet. People painted it as they walked in, and she said it was the “highlight of the night — for real.”

“I had said this would be perfect for today because it’s historical,” McLuckie said Monday as she sat in her office. The painting was outside her window, allowing her to see the amateur artists as they came by.

Clark got in touch with McLuckie and offered his services.

“It’s awesome to be able to help out my community in a way that I’ve loved and I feel passionate about,” Clark said.

The feeling is mutual.

“We love him,” McLuckie said. “He’s been in our Artwalk since the beginning.”

She said she expects the chamber will have more community painting projects in the future.

“I think it’s quite a hit,” McLuckie said.

On Monday, those who painted the solar eclipse canvas entered for a chance to win it and take it home. Between 40 and 50 people, many of whom were children, picked up a brush and slapped some paint on it, Clark said.

Clark painted orange and red hues near the top of the canvas to symbolize the sun, leaving room below for people to paint the pictures of their choice. In the center of the black moon, he wrote the work’s title: “2024 SOLAR ECLIPSE.”

The painting had more than one representation of a sun — or a Son — on the painting. In the top left corner, Clark rendered a small, black cross, a testament to Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.

“I believe in God,” Clark said. “The eclipse — in Greek, it means ‘abandonment.’ But at the same time, there’s a rebirth and renewal with the eclipse. So I feel like it’s getting to see the sunshine again. It’s just replenishing.”

Hearts, glasses, birds, flowers and more painted by community members filled the lower half of the painting. Some items were a little easier to recognize than others.

But art isn’t about making something that’s perfect, Clark said. It’s a therapeutic way for people to express themselves — something he wants others to learn through future painting projects.

“I hope that’s what everybody else gets out of it,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who you are. You can come into this at whatever skill level and just let loose.”