Much progress has been made on the construction of St. Peter Chanel Church, Roswell, since The Georgia Bulletin reported on the raising of the walls in July 2007. Including the choir loft and cry room, the new 33,000-square-foot church will seat 1,200 people. St. Peter Chanel’s estimated time of completion is August.(Photos by Michael Alexander)

Alan Hattermann paints one of the approximately 5,000 stars on the ceiling of St. Peter Chanel Church, Roswell. Hattermann was one of four painters who spent three weeks of 12- to 14-hour days covering the 18,000-square-foot ceiling with stars. In describing the process Alan’s father, senior partner and fine art painter Andrew said, “The process we use for creating the look of a blue fresco ceiling is to start with a blue base color, then apply a wash of another blue to give some texture and depth. This is meant to look like the decorated ceilings found in Renaissance-era churches of Europe. After the glaze has dried we lay out the star pattern with random-sized stars and paint them with gold metallic paint.”

Andrew Hattermann stands under the starry ceiling at St. Peter Chanel Church. He and his partner Robert Hill make up the Peoria, Ill., family-owned fine art painting group Murals by Jericho. They are best known for their fine art murals of sacred imagery, but they also do decorative painting and traditional interior design and decorating for Catholic churches. Hattermann said a large fine art mural is also planned for the sanctuary at St. Peter Chanel.