If you take a walk through the Rose Kennedy Greenway and meander towards Dewey Square, you might notice the mural that overlooks it is being taken down. That’s because a new masterpiece is being prepped to take its place. Come September 23, Remanence: Salt and Light by Matthew Ritchie will be replaced by an abstract work courtesy of Shinique Smith.

Smith, who’s currently being featured at a Museum of Fine Arts exhibit, will use her piece Seven Moons as inspiration for the 70-by-76 foot Dewey Square mural which will take about seven to ten days to install and be on view for a year.

To help you better get acquainted with Smith, her style and the mural that we’ll all have the pleasure of enjoying, here are five fun facts about the Greenway’s latest piece of public art.

22 gallons of paint

As aforementioned, the mural will be painted on a 70-by-76 foot wall so you can imagine the immense amount of paint needed to complete it. To be exact, Smith and her team will use 22 gallons of the high-grade, oil-based sign paints that will be carefully hand mixed in order to match Smith’s exact specifications and original artwork.

20 days

How long does it take to splash 22 gallons of paint on a mountainous facade? About ten days. But it will also take about five to ten days to bring down the current mural. So, assuming Smith and her team put every last minute to good use, in 20 days time we’ll have a new mural.

Photos, pouncing and painting

In order to install the mural, Smith isn’t going to be slathering paint in a freestyle manner. In order to get the mural up, a high-resolution photo of Seven Moons is digitally traced which, according to the Greenway, identifies key color changes. This photo is then overlaid with a grid, projected onto paper and traced by burning small holes in it with electronic equipment, a process called pouncing. The pounced paper is then fastened to the Dewey Square wall and an outline is formed using micro-ground charcoal dust. With that outline on the wall, Smith and her team will hand paint the mural.

The team

I’ve referenced Smith’s teams multiple times so you’re already aware that she isn’t working on this project solo. Though she’ll be coordinating all of the logistics and doing some painting in her own right, she’ll also be aided by a number of specialists. New York City-based Overall Murals will lend their expertise in large scale mural painting to the project and Arch Painting out of nearby Woburn will take care of all the prepping and priming.

Party

Once all of the hard work and heavy lifting is complete, the Greenway is throwing a celebratory bash. On the day of the mural’s opening, September 23, the Greenway will host a free reception with featuring live music by Boston’s own Debo Band, displays interactive art, and, of course, food and drink. The gathering is slated to take place from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and should be one hell of a time.

Screenshot via Rose Kennedy Greenway