Murals put up to replace stained glass at vandalized Newport Beach church

Where there were stained glass windows before, new murals of coastal scenery now temporarily decorate a part of Christ Church by the Sea.

The paintings were rendered in June by Diana Hensley, her grandson, Aiden, and a group of other volunteers looking to help beautify the church that made headlines in April after a vandal caused an estimated $100,000 in damages by smashing all the stained glass windows that faced the street. Many had been donated by residents and former congregation members that had since died.

After the damages were reported and the suspect was caught, the church successfully raised $18,745 in its online GoFundMe effort and Rev. Paul Capetz, a senior pastor at the church, said the windows are now on their way to being restored. The work is expected to be finished this fall.

Volunteers help paint murals on the doors of the Christ Church by the Sea. The church’s stained glass windows were shattered in April.

(Courtesy of Diana Hensley)

Hensley joked that when the church initially asked her to do the paintings she hadn’t backed away fast enough.

“They didn’t really like to have just the raw wooden boards there because it looks like the church is boarded up,” Hensley said in an interview on Friday. “I’m a retired school psychologist, but I also do watercolors a lot. But, I thought, ‘Oh my God, how am I going to reach [the height of these boards]?’”

As luck would have it, her 6’3” grandson was in town.

So, after consulting with muralist Michael Howard, Hensley and her grandson rounded up a few other helpers to paint the murals directly onto the boards. The murals took inspiration from Hensley’s own artwork and were done in acrylics. She said with a laugh that she specifically taught her grandson how to paint the skies because of his height. The process took about five hours on June 10.

One of the volunteers was Bob Bradtl, who said he’s part of an organization that meets at the church regularly. Bradtl said he’s familiar with Capetz and other church staff along with the preschool. He thought it was a tragedy when the windows were smashed and that he was ready to go when Hensley called. He, a friend, Bradtl’s son and his son’s girlfriend all turned out to help paint the murals.

“We had a community effort going. I think it’s a beautiful thing. I really do,” Bradtl said.

He said he knew that the church had received donations from all around Newport Beach and its immediate congregation, describing those efforts as a great “outpouring” of support that he was heartened to see.

Volunteers help paint murals around the Christ Church by the Sea. Many of its stained glass windows were shattered in April.

(Courtesy of Diana Hensley)

“We also had a good time doing it and when they take them down [to replace the stained glass], people want the paintings,” Hensley said.

She has been attending the church since the 1970s when she moved to the Balboa Peninsula to work as a school psychiatrist in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District. She chose coastal scenery for the mural project instead of something like flowers because of the church’s proximity to the beach, which is less than a half-mile away.

“We were delighted,” Capetz said of the murals. “We want to encourage people to come back and do that sort of thing for us in other respects as well. We need a lot of help and we welcome community participation at every level.”

Nicolas Alexandro Briones, who is accused of one felony count of vandalism resulting in damage of $400 or more and one felony count of vandalism of religious property related to the Christ Church by the Sea incident, was expected to appear in court at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana on Friday, but the hearing was postponed to July 18 for a pre-trial settlement conference.