Training Mural Artists in Nelson

 I was invited to to teach some Nelson artists the many and various methods of  painting large scale in public places.
Funding was found for me, a wall and a design and off I went on the long drive down the North
Island in my mobile mural studio, like an Art Gypsy, to the Inter Island ferries at Wellington and then 
'Baby let me take you on a Sea Cruise' to Picton at the top of the South Island.
Over the bush clad hills along Queen Charlotte Sound and on into the lovely small city of Nelson.
The sometimes controversial and brilliant portrait artist Nikki Romney was the instigator of this project
and we started at 5.30 the next morning, a Friday, screening up Nikki's design with the overhead projector, in the dark. There and then the scale and sizes of the design elements were fine tuned and painting began.
Acrylic paints were new to Nikki, who works in oils primarily.
The mural tutorial project was widely advertised and other artists wandered in to help over the weekend;
there were eight of us on the Sunday, the place was packed, standing room only, by Monday we were down to a tight and efficient team of four artists, myself, Nikki, Betty Salter and Karin Fruehauf and each of us with our own style and areas of the mural to work on. It was fun and I made three new friends.
My Son and grandson live in Nelson and I stayed with them which was lovely and I also took there one of my antique table top etching presses for the Nelson print maker Esther Remnant to try out and it worked perfectly and she bought it.
Altogether a very busy time, especially in the lead up to it all, planning, booking, fine tuning Esther's press,
packing etc. I gave them four days on the mural and left behind three new mural artists and one mural being finished off.
On the way home I had the opportunity to visit the talented mural artist Janet Collenette in Palmerston North with whom I had been communicating by email for a year or so. Mural painting can be a lonely job and it was great to meet so many other like minded people in one week.
I'm still buzzing from it all. Good times...

 Nikki, Betty and Karin

 

 Temptation' by Nikki Romney, Johnny Mulvay, Betty Salter and Karin Fruehauf