By Megan Ma

Ray Loughlin, owner of Los Altos Painting & Decorating of Mountain View, and muralist Jan Meyer are the artists responsible for Los Altos’ murals on downtown benches and buildings. Joe Hu/Town Crier

If you’ve been out and about downtown recently, you may have noticed Los Altos mural painter Jan Meyer touching up details on the six concrete sidewalk benches on Main Street.

Julie Rose, Chamber of Commerce president, approached Meyer about retouching the 1994 bench paintings at the suggestion of friend and downtown business owner Mary Prochnow several months ago.

In keeping with her popular whimsical flourishes, Meyer has added a few extra touches. Outside the Bank of the West, the bench displays a checkbook and cover of a fiction book about Los Altos Hills’ Westwind Barn.

The Los Altos Pharmacy bench on Main Street pays tribute to the former Kahn’s pharmacy, with a shopping bag brimming with the essentials: Pepto Bismol, prescription bottles, Advil and toothpaste. A powdery strawberry shortcake adorns the bench outside Satura Cakes.

“The benches mean a lot to the city, and the children love them,” Meyer said. “They bring attention to the charm of Los Altos.”

A woman once told Meyer that she bought her house in Los Altos partly because she loved the benches so much, Meyer said.

Meyer retouched the benches in 2001, but said the process was slightly different this time around. She asked friend and colleague Ray Loughlin, owner of Los Altos Painting & Decorating of Mountain View, to encase the benches in a longer-wearing formula. The two painters had determined that the existing coating was in poor shape.

After Meyer retouched her painting, Loughlin sealed the surface with concrete sealer. Although Meyer, officially retired, enjoys sprucing up the beloved benches, she hopes her services won’t be needed again for at least 10 years.

The chamber raised the $3,600 necessary to complete the refurbishing and pay the artists for their time, Rose said.

Local businesses such as Le Boulanger, Washington Mutual, Starbucks, Satura Cakes, Los Altos Pharmacy, US Bank, GL Ross Construction Inc. and Abigail Co. contributed funds for the restoration and some custom details for benches near their businesses.