HARTLAND — Steve DeLaitsch teeters on a 10-foot ladder leaning against a building on the corner of Johnson Street and Broadway Avenue. Paintbrush in hand, he adds paint layers to the mural he’s working on, which is composed of old photographs of Hartland scenes.

DeLaitsch was commissioned by the Hartland City Council to paint a mural on the side of the Olson Excavating building, 615 Broadway Ave., as part of a beautification project for the city.

The photos he is using show scenes of agricultural Hartland in the late 1800s and early 1900s. One is a photograph of men pulling a horse and carriage. Another shows a farm scene with hay and a tractor. Another still is of what downtown Hartland used to be.

In the early planning stages with city officials, DeLaitsch said he thought “Gee, we should do Hartland scenes if we can.” The people who first contacted him had old-fashioned images, some of which were hand-tinted, and he said he wanted to incorporate them in the mural.

Many photographs were chosen — the mural will have 10 or 12 — to “have a much more dynamic piece,” he said. The images vary in size and their composition resembles a page out of a scrapbook. DeLaitsch said he might even include the old photo corners used to keep photos in place on a page.

For the Hartland mural, DeLaitsch copied the antiquated photos to create the size he wanted and scaled them to the wall. He then attached them to a board in the same way he wanted to arrange the images on the mural.

When painting, with some of the images he used a grid system and some he did freehand. DeLaitsch painted with rollers to get the base and went back in with his oil brush for details. The brick on the building, he said, had a glaze that made it difficult to paint, so a primer was needed.

Up close the images seem blurred with globs of paint, but as the viewer steps back to street level the shading and details come together — reminiscent of a Monet painting. He used black and white with sepia tones and some color for depth.

DeLaitsch was not quite halfway complete with the mural Friday morning. He said he hopes to be done by the end of August, but that depends on the weather.

As of Friday, he said, he solved the composition and arrangement issues and how to handle the materials. Now, he said, the rest of the mural should go smoothly.

Since he started in June he has worked four to six hours a day. The coming weeks could bring eight to 10 hour days so he can finish up on time.

Painting out in the open automatically makes it a communitywide process, DeLaitsch said. People often stop by to chat or admire his work, especially since it’s on such a visible corner. Visiting with passers-by is part of the process.

“I’ve gotten honks and thumbs up,” he said. “It’s public art. I accept those challenges.”

A native of Owatonna, DeLaitsch has been painting for more than 30 years. He has a shop and studio in New Richland and resides in Waseca. After graduation, he attended the American Academy of Art in Chicago.

DeLaitsch said he has traveled the area a lot and has been commissioned to do some large scale pieces. He does a variety of art with many different mediums — from sketches to watercolor and oil. Through his office in New Richland, he also provides design and remodeling services.

He has done murals in the State Bank of New Richland and the First National Bank of Waseca. DeLaitsch also worked on a tile mosaic on a building in Owatonna.