{"id":876578,"date":"2026-10-09T18:06:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T18:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/876578\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T18:06:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T18:06:18","slug":"artist-patrick-kirwin-starts-his-biggest-mural-yet-in-alexandria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/876578\/","title":{"rendered":"Artist Patrick Kirwin starts his biggest mural yet in Alexandria"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.alxnow.com\/category\/news\/\" class=\"block px-4 no-underline mb-4 text-sans text-md font-sans font-semibold text-posts\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">News<br \/>\n\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\tPublished October 9, 2026 at 1:45PM\n\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_6232.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"Older man wearing glasses sits on yellow scaffold painting a red brick wall with a paintbrush and roller while blue siding is visible nearby.\"   title=\"Muralist Patrick Kirwin is working on a new piece behind The Birhmere in Arlandria, Oct. 2026 (staff photo by James Cullum) | ALXnow\"\/>\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Muralist Patrick Kirwin is working on a new piece behind The Birchmere in Arlandria, October 2026 (staff photo by James Cullum)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_6237.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"Two workers repainting the exterior of an orange brick building; a blue patch is being painted above a doorway, with paint cans and scaffolding on the ground nearby\"   title=\"Muralist Patrick Kirwin is working on a new piece behind The Birhmere in Arlandria, Oct. 2026 (staff photo by James Cullum) | ALXnow\"\/>\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Muralist Patrick Kirwin is working on a new piece behind The Birchmere in Arlandria, October 2026 (staff photo by James Cullum)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_6230.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"Outdoor art project: a large mural of a brick building taped to the ground with blue painter's tape; painter's tray and brushes in the foreground.\"   title=\"Muralist Patrick Kirwin is working on a new piece behind The Birhmere in Arlandria, Oct. 2026 (staff photo by James Cullum) | ALXnow\"\/>\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Muralist Patrick Kirwin is working on a new piece behind The Birchmere in Arlandria, October 2026 (staff photo by James Cullum)<\/p>\n<p>Muralist Patrick Kirwin is at it again in Alexandria.<\/p>\n<p>Kirwin recently started work painting a large new mural behind <a href=\"https:\/\/www.birchmere.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">The Birchmere<\/a> (3701 Mount Vernon Avenue) in Alexandria\u2019s Arlandria neighborhood. The work will feature generations of builders in the city and was commissioned by <a href=\"https:\/\/rust-construction.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Rust Construction<\/a>, a fourth-generation, Alexandria-based home remodeling firm.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTheir concept was to show three guys working in the Revolutionary War-period, a World War II guy and a contemporary worker,\u201d Kirwin told ALXnow. \u201cI\u2019m not exactly sure of the dimensions, but this is the biggest mural I\u2019ve ever done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With help from his assistant Gely Amaya, Kirwin started the mural this week and expects to finish it later this month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s exciting and fun to work on a project like this and for people to see it,\u201d Kirwin said. \u201cIt will go well along with the other murals in front of The Birchmere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The mural is expected to be finished later this month, and Kirwin said that a ribbon cutting will soon be announced.<\/p>\n<p>Kirwin is married and has two children and moved to the area in 1984 to get his master\u2019s degree at The George Washington University. He also taught at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.corcoran.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Corcoran School of Art and Design<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/smithsonianassociates.org\/ticketing\/studio-arts\/?utm_source=SEM&amp;utm_medium=OA&amp;utm_content=StudioArts-B-KWDS&amp;utm_campaign=CAP22Q1&amp;promo=258457&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQiAxc6PBhCEARIsAH8Hff1Bo_RGkWlh3_OjUPjTF5ylZ_2qgy5SV581Tk6_8ViP4LgojihIu34aAqo3EALw_wcB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Smithsonian<\/a>, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.workhousearts.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Workhouse Arts Center<\/a> in Lorton.<\/p>\n<p>Kirwin\u2019s other murals in Alexandria include the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alxnow.com\/2021\/04\/16\/dogs-of-del-ray-mural-to-be-finished-next-month\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Dogs of Del Ray<\/a> mural (2309 Mount Vernon Avenue), a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alxnow.com\/2022\/01\/28\/local-muralist-patrick-kirwin-had-to-lower-his-prices-then-offers-started-flooding-in\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">mural of George Washington<\/a> outside Union Street Public House (121 S. Union Street) in Old Town and pet portraits at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.headtotailspa.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">From Head to Tail Spa<\/a> (430 Hume Avenue) in Del Ray.<\/p>\n<p>                                                                                                                                                                                                                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/new-alxnow-logo-square-alx-only2.png\"  class=\"multiple_authors_guest_author_avatar avatar\" height=\"80\" width=\"80\"\/>                                                                                                                                                                                                            <\/p>\n<p>Reporter James Cullum has spent nearly 20 years covering Northern Virginia. He began working with ALXnow in 2020, and has covered every story under the sun for the publication, from investigative stories to features and photo galleries. His work includes coverage of national and international situations, as well as from the White House, Capitol, Pentagon, Supreme Court and State Department. He&#8217;s covered protests and riots throughout the U.S. (including the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol), in addition to earthquake-ridden Haiti, Western Sahara in North Africa and war-torn South Sudan. He has photographed presidents and other world leaders, celebrities and famous musicians, and excels under pressure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"News Published October 9, 2026 at 1:45PM Muralist Patrick Kirwin is working on a new piece behind The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":876579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[344499,1029,228,226,227,229,88,30101,3,368776,13937,368777],"class_list":["post-876578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arlandria","tag-art","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-mural","tag-news","tag-patrick-kirwin","tag-public-art","tag-the-birchmere"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}