Peter Stewart; Endangered Species Muralist

Peter Stewart, 41, a muralist who highlighted Southern California communities with his bold images of endangered animals, rain forests and Vietnam veterans. A veteran, Stewart in 1995 directed a dozen homeless veterans in painting a 26,000-square-foot mural on an underpass for the Veterans Administration Medical Center in West Los Angeles. His other projects included murals of endangered animals and the Amazon rain forest at the Amazon Bar and Grill in Sherman Oaks, the Irvine Ranch Market in Newport Beach and the Emerald Forest Restaurant on Balboa Island, and the names of 2,273 soldiers unaccounted for in Southeast Asia on a brick wall of a bus yard in Venice. A California native, Stewart said he began painting murals after the war when he was hired to paint houses and “one thing led to another.” Stewart was active in Orange County People for Animals, the Fund for Wild Nature, the Rainforest Action Network and the Jane Goodall Institute. On Feb. 6 on Balboa Island after a short illness.