Chase on a red field

A new addition to the Mural Gallery in downtown Waihi

Mural Gallery Artists at Work

A photo by the American artist Chelsea Haines who was staying at Art School Waihi for a week and captured me, Bronagh and Chiara at work on our respective murals..

The Mural Gallery

 The current project, could be a few weeks on this one. Eight or nine murals, five or six different artists..

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

Forest Mural

 This mural is 22 metres long and is painted on 18 panels screwed to a suburban fence in Mount Roskill, Auckland. It is removable, like a circus tent. It is unusual in that it contains some species of small, parasitic creeper plant life and several grass species never before seen. I made them up, playing God just a wee bit. Eat your heart out Darwin...

T

Mobile Mural Studio

Spring is here at last and the 1925 Grocery mural is being painted again after much time off due to inclement weather. The focus now is on stocking the two display windows. Still got all the shadows to do in the interior of the store. This particular mural is a nightmare of detail and seems to be a hundred or so paintings all arranged to make a whole and the work is getting tedious except the close study of Edwardian and 1920's advertizing styles and colours is interesting. Another interesting thing is the local people who stop for a chat as they are walking or driving by.

Painting Murals in Winter

Painting outdoor murals in Winter is a slow process. The work is not vigorous, energetic and getting the blood pumping. The work is contemplative and the physicality of it involves tiny careful movements of the hand with the brush keeping the whole body still and all the while the cold breeze keeps one very cool.

Not cool like an awesome hey look at that fabulous person cool but cool like fuck I am so bloody cold what the hell am I doing here I must be mad.

This particular Mural is a 1925 Grocery store and is fully stocked up with masses of detail, has two different light sources and is a complicated exercise in perspective drawing so the slow and cold pace is OK. The frequent days off doing other things like keeping warm and snug allow me the time needed to think the composition through. The passersby don't seem to mind, they tell me they enjoy looking to see what is new on the mural and seem to enjoy it coming slowly, piece by piece.

Mural Painting: Waihi Junction Stores 1925

The exterior architectural design and colour scheme is done, the interior layout and shopfittings have been designed and drawn up and now I am engaged in the task of stocking my 1925 Grocery with all the essentials of the day as well as some goodies and advertizing.