Photo by Julianna Leopold

PEACHTREE CORNERS—Bruce Hayes banged his hammer against the metal struts to bring down the scaffolding frame, opening the two new sanctuary murals to views from the pews. 

A crowned Christ was visible now above the altar. 

 The larger-than-life murals featuring the Blessed Virgin Mary beautify the sanctuary of Mary Our Queen Church following the installation.  

“It’s so much better in person than in pictures,” said sacristan Jeannine Baylot, who paused to admire the work while delivering communion wafers to the sacristy.  

Baylot has worshipped at the parish since 1998 when the community prayed in a much smaller and more modest church that resembled an office building. 

“The church was beautiful to start with. But Father Byrd’s enhancements have been phenomenal, is the word I would use,” she said. “He elevates the level of worship we have here.”  

The church was dedicated in 2019, designed in a neoclassical style. Unique in the Archdiocese of Atlanta, it repurposed iron gates, the altar, stained glass windows and other church treasures from a century-old Catholic church in New York that was closing. The curved apse behind the altar was left blank. In response to a 2022 parish survey, the community commissioned Pennsylvania artist Neilson Carlin to design the murals.  

Nathan Taubert unrolls the 22-foot-tall canvas by Pennsylvania artist Neilson Carlin, featuring depictions of Mary. The sacred art was designed to work with the architectural features of the building, using the existing woodwork to give viewers a perspective of “seeing through into another world,” Carlin said. Photo by Julianna Leopold

Carlin painted the images on canvas that would be attached to the walls. The sacred art was designed to work with the architectural features of the building, using the existing woodwork to give viewers a perspective of “seeing through into another world,” Carlin said.  

Painting in a style of classical realism, Carlin said sacred art has a dual role to be educational and contemplative. His goal as an artist is to inspire people to prayer, leading them from thinking about the church building to the spiritual. 

The murals are scheduled to be dedicated by Bishop Joel M. Konzen, SM, on Aug. 23, the weekend of the parish feast day. 

Father Charles Byrd became pastor of the parish in 2021. He found a sanctuary, with historic church furnishings, but with little to link it to the parish patron.  

Shortly after, in response to a parish survey, the community started installing paintings and icons of saints on its walls. The new murals are the next stage of that process, he said. 

“These murals make it abundantly clear that our patron is the Queen of Heaven. And we are so proud to be under her prayerful gaze.” 

A reminder of the ‘Communion of Saints’ 

The parish’s first mural, installed in 2025, depicted five queens, two mentioned in the Bible and three who became saints. The women are Queen of Sheba and Queen Esther, along with St. Clotilde of France, St. Elizabeth of Hungary and St. Margaret of Scotland.   

Carlin designed the murals as trompe-l’oeil (“to deceive the eye”) to suggest marble niches and columns. He even added birds native to the Holy Land in the work to “complete the illusion and connect the artwork to the biblical world.”  

The canvas of Mary being welcomed into heaven lays between pews, ready to be mounted onto the walls of Mary Our Queen Church. Painting in a style of classical realism, artist Neilson Carlin said sacred art has a dual role to be educational and contemplative. He hopes the pieces together lead people to prayerful frames of mind. Photo by Julianna Leopold

The two newest large murals fill the shallow curved walls, floor to ceiling. One shows the Annunciation when the archangel Gabriel announces to Mary that she would conceive and bear a son. The second mural is the coronation of the Virgin Mary by Jesus following her Assumption into heaven. An anonymous donor paid for the work. 

Jeff Armbruster is a parishioner of nearly 30 years who in addition to being a lector and eucharistic minister, takes on carpentry projects. 

There is a “very definite pride of ownership” among the parishioners, said Armbruster. “The beauty is still another way, just like prayer, of praising God.”  

He said another parishioner admitted to him how once she saw the art she felt “uncontrollably in tears.” 

Father Byrd said the church has a legacy of supporting the arts, which both encourages prayer and helps people see themselves in the church’s story and in the saints. 

Decovin Norwood stands next to the tabernacle to prime the walls where the canvas will be installed.Two new murals at Mary Our Queen Church fill the shallow curved walls, floor to ceiling. One shows the Annunciation when the archangel Gabriel announces to Mary that she would conceive and bear a son. The second is the coronation of the Virgin Mary by Jesus. Photo by Julianna Leopold

“Catholics are devotional by nature. Our churches should encourage prayer but also devotion to the saints,” he wrote in an email. “Seeing images of the saints depicted around us reminds us that we are in the Communion of Saints, and moreover, sacred art could and should reflect who we are in the pews.” 

As part of this program, the parish is taking part in a month-long preparation for Marian Consecration. 

In the artist’s studio  

The size of the murals required Carlin to construct false walls in his studio to hang the canvases. Measuring 11 feet wide and 22 feet high, the longtime artist said he had to ensure the paintings looked complete from any spot in the church.  

Carlin has painted for churches across the country, but it is his first work in Georgia. He is known for art in the classical tradition. 

Because of the size, Carlin said there was “no room for error” once the painting was started. He first sketched out the design.  

Workers from Empire Beauty Studios installed the four sections of the mural by applying a special adhesive to the walls and unrolling the canvases to ensure it was lined up correctly.