A painting has replaced the damaged portion of the greenhouse area at Aunt Millie’s Restaurant on Routes 5 and 20.

SILVER CREEK — On Dec. 2, a pickup truck accidentally damaged a significant portion of the dining area of Aunt Millie’s restaurant in Silver Creek. While the building is under repair, a large piece of plywood serves as a wall in the dining room, and while it serves its purpose of keeping the area usable, the staff at Aunt Millie’s wanted something more aesthetically pleasing, and decided to make the best of a bad situation.

That’s where Kelly O’Connor, a baker at Aunt Millie’s, came in.

In just six hours of work, O’Connor turned the ordinary piece of plywood into a spectacular work of art.

“Our GM came up with the idea,” said Emily Cornwall, daughter of the Aunt Millie’s owner and restaurant employee. “We knew Kelly was an artist, and instead of having an ugly piece of plywood, we should have Kelly paint something. We gave him some ideas of what he wanted and he did the rest.”

Given the inspiration of a winter scene, and wanting a creek in the finished product for a local tie-in, O’Connor’s artistic talent took over. Normally using his creative prowess on cakes and other baked goods for Aunt Millie’s, O’Connor’s talents were repurposed, and in this case, were repurposed for painting his first mural.

“He’s decorated our cakes and baked goods for years,” Cornwall said. “He used to work downstate in New York City and in Florida doing just cakes, but we know he could paint. It’s ridiculous how well and how fast he can paint.”

While the scene isn’t quite finished, it’s something Aunt Millie’s was certainly excited to announce.

“When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade!” Aunt Millie’s put in a Facebook post on Monday morning. “One of our very talented Bakers was up all night painting this beautiful scene in our dining room!”

In the long run, Aunt Millie’s will look to rebuild the greenhouse portion of their dining room, making the current location of O’Connor’s painting temporary, although that likely won’t mean the end for the scene in the restaurant.

“The owner said we can’t just throw it away after,” Cornwall said. “We have to figure out a way to keep it. We figure with everything going on right now, the painting will be a nice, calming escape.”