Laguna Beach murals

How this page differs from public art

The public art page covers the city’s sculptures and the Art in Public Places requirement. This page covers painted and sculpted walls. Most of them sit on business buildings, so you see them from the sidewalk, the street or a parking lot.

Where murals are listed

Visit Laguna Beach publishes a guide to 20 murals, grouped by area. It gives each mural’s artist and address but no years, and it carries no date. The walls below are the ones a news report or the artist’s own foundation also places. A wall can be repainted, covered or removed, so check an address before you build a trip around it, and use the city’s Cultural Arts Department for questions about a particular work.

The arts district, Laguna Canyon Road

Visit Laguna Beach calls this area the Hive, also known as the Arts District. It lies between the Laguna Art-A-Fair and Sawdust Art Festival grounds, and Laguna College of Art and Design has studios and classes there. Visit Laguna Beach suggests a short walk from downtown along Forest Avenue.

In June 2018 OC Weekly reported on Summer of Color, a project that covered walls in the district between 777 and 891 Laguna Canyon Road. The paper said the Arts Commission granted the project permission. It described these works:

• A mural by Faith47, with the words Creatio Continua behind a line of animals, on the west-facing wall of the Fuse Building.
• A mural by Beau Stanton that wraps around the Laguna Beer Co. tasting room in the Hive Center. Visit Laguna Beach titles it Spirit of Laguna.
• A charcoal-pencil mural by James Thistlethwaite behind the Hive.
• Bear Named Pa’u by Chad Hasegawa, near the Thistlethwaite piece.

Visit Laguna Beach’s guide lists more walls in the same stretch. Many of these walls belong to businesses, so view them from public space and respect posted limits.

Forest Avenue and Ocean Avenue

• A Day in the Life by Randy Morgan, also called The Waterman’s Wall. The Laguna Beach Independent reported in 2013 that the sculpted mural spans a sidewall of the Hobie store at 294 Forest Avenue, on the Beach Street side. The paper said the Arts Commission approved it in 2010 and that it was privately financed.
• Daytripper by Jo Situ Allen. The Laguna Beach Independent reported in October 2019 that the mural was going up at Ocean Avenue and Beach Street, paid for by two local shops, with an unveiling at the November Art Walk.

Coast Highway beside the Hotel Laguna

The Whaling Wall is the oldest of these. The Wyland Foundation says Wyland dedicated his first Whaling Wall, Gray Whale and Calf, on July 9, 1981, on the Hotel Laguna parking lot wall at 509 Pacific Coast Highway. In July 2019 the Laguna Beach Independent reported that the original had been painted over and that Wyland was recreating it on canvas in its original spot, beside his gallery and the hotel. In February 2025 the paper reported that 70-mile-per-hour winds had partly destroyed the mural and that Wyland had restored it.

A temporary mural at Alta Laguna Park

Super Natural Bloom by the artists DabsMyla is a documented example of the city’s own process. The Daily Pilot reported that the Arts Commission put out a call for artists, reviewed proposals and funded the work, with Cultural Arts staff facilitating the installation. The mural was dedicated in September 2023 on a wall behind the dugout on the baseball field. The Arts Commission approved it to stay one year, with an option for one more. Both periods have passed, so ask the city whether it is still up before you go.

How a mural gets approved

Section 25.54.024 of the Municipal Code sets the rules. Under it:

1. Permit application. A mural permit application goes to the city’s community development department with a site plan showing the lot, the building and the mural’s location; a scale drawing and color photo of the building showing the mural’s size and placement; a colored drawing of the mural; and a maintenance schedule.
2. Arts Commission approval. The Arts Commission reviews and approves all proposed murals. If a design includes words, logos or images that identify a business, the commission decides whether it is a mural or a wall sign, and wall signs follow the sign rules.
3. Historic buildings. A mural proposed on a building on the city’s Historic Register goes to the Heritage Committee for a recommendation first.
4. Downtown appeals. A planning commissioner or council member may appeal a proposed downtown mural to the Planning Commission.

The code limits an artist’s signature to two square feet, asks that lighting keep glare off the street and neighbors, and requires the mural to be maintained on its approved schedule. Murals that are part of an Art in Public Places project follow that chapter of the code instead.

The city’s Cultural Arts page adds the forms. For a work of public art outside the Art in Public Places requirement, it asks for the Arts Commission Application (B), emailed to the city’s art address, with the same kinds of drawings and a maintenance schedule. The Cultural Arts Department’s contact details are on the city’s Public Art page, which lists 505 Forest Avenue. The forms can change, so download the current ones from the city.

Seeing murals on foot

A walk along Forest Avenue links the arts district with downtown, and Coast Highway leads on to the Whaling Wall. For parking and the trolley, see the parking guide and getting around. Murals pair easily with art galleries and, on the first Thursday evening of the month, the Art Walk. They cost nothing, which also puts them on the free things to do list.