PITTSFIELD — To say the city’s newest mural is big would be an understatement.

It’s huge. The sprawling artwork takes up so much of the north-facing side of 7 North St. that it wraps around to another wall facing east, making it visible from multiple angles downtown.

It’s so big that Janson Rapisarda, the Wisconsin-based artist selected to paint it, admits that he’s been battling “a slight fear of heights” just to complete it.

But sometimes an artistic vision is so clear, you can’t settle for anything less.

Janson Rapisarda, a Wisconsin-based artist, flips through renderings for the mural.

“The original call actually called for this space right here,” Rapisarda said, gesturing to a smaller section of the wall on the mural’s left-hand side. “But I felt like it would mesh the architecture better… to just cover the entire space.”

He and his wife, Katie Batten — who’s been assisting with logistics — estimate the finished product will be roughly 65 feet tall and 120 feet across. Or, as Batten jokes: “Too big by too big.”

A celebration of the wildlife and outdoor adventure that’s abundant in the Berkshires, the mural depicts a landscape rife with the brilliant colors you might see unfurling around you during an ambitious hike. Against a backdrop of soaring mountain peaks, fiery sunsets and verdant foliage, there’s plenty of animals local residents might have glimpsed in their backyards: a bobcat, a red-winged blackbird, a black bear.

There’s also plenty of humanity, like a canoer paddling towards a waterfall and a pair of cyclists pedaling towards the horizon. It also includes a baseball player mid-swing, presumably about to crack a home run ball into the stratosphere — a nod to the city’s strong ties to the sport.

The artist’s personal favorite section of the mural is on the east-facing section, visible even from Park Square. It depicts a heron flying past a vivid orange sunset, gliding along on grey wings tipped with soft blue.

Besides the words “Welcome to Pittsfield” stretching across the piece, Rapisarda said he wanted the mural’s aesthetic to feel unique to the city’s history and energy.

“It's a huge mural and a lot of color,” he said. “So I really wanted to make sure that, if I'm going to be doing that, that it aligns with the area and really aligns with what people are interested in here.”

Downtown Pittsfield's latest mural, which spans the side of 7 North St., is the city's largest so far.

Expected to be completed sometime next week, the mural acts as a vibrant aesthetic jolt to the historic Berkshire Life Insurance Co. Building, which today houses apartment units, the District Attorney’s Office and several businesses.

It’s the latest project supported through the Let It Shine! Public Art Partnership, a mosaic of local organizations and foundations dedicated to funding public art projects. The mural was funded by Downtown Pittsfield Inc. and the Mill Town Foundation, among other backers, with money from MassDevelopment through its TDI Creative Catalyst Grant.

City officials and community members, including Let It Shine! partners, came together Friday to celebrate the mural’s debut with a ribbon cutting.

Janson Rapisarda, a Wisconsin-based artist, relies on a work van well-stocked with paint to produce his mural.

Born in Springfield, Rapisarda said he spent much of his childhood in the Berkshires and still returns often to visit family in the area. Though he’s completed over 50 murals across the country, he never expected to be able to return to Western Massachusetts for such an ambitious project — but he’s glad it worked out that way.

“It's really cool to come back,” he said. “And I think that was the biggest reason why I wanted to go so big, too. It's where I'm from.”

The project has also been a fun break for Rapisarda, who recently emerged from a stressful ordeal in his home state: after completing two large murals in Madison, Wis., last year, a delayed payment from that project’s developer put his family in financial turmoil until April, when he finally received a check.

“I'm trying to come out of that experience swinging,” he said. He’s been bolstered by the support of Let It Shine! partners, as well as local residents who have expressed enthusiasm about the work — and who have been patient as his equipment takes up some of their parking spaces.

The mural, yet to be titled, is the biggest one he’s ever worked on, Rapisarda said. Representatives from Pittsfield’s Office of Cultural Development believe it’s now the biggest mural in a city that already has over two dozen.

To paint a mural in downtown Pittsfield over 60 feet tall, artist Janson Rapisarda relies on a crane to lift him high enough to work.

Rapisarda has been tackling the painting solo since the beginning of May, hampered occasionally by rain that’s forced him to take a break. Before getting to work, he has to don a harness and attach himself to the basket of a crane arm so he can be safely lifted into the air to paint.

He estimates about forty different colors are used in the mural to bring the natural world to life, from the blood orange of a sunset to the soft gray of a bear’s fur. He uses the artist-grade spray paint brand MTN 94, which holds up well against the elements, to illustrate finer details. Larger shapes are filled in with Sherwin-Williams, a latex paint.

Creating public murals that are available to anyone, rather than hidden away in a gallery somewhere, is the more fulfilling artistic path for Rapisarda.

“I was really interested in graffiti and street art for a long time,” he said. “I always like the idea that in a public space like this, anybody has access to art.”