Achievement Unlocked: Mural Installed

Oh, just in case you thought the blog was just a bunch of boring travelogues and pretty pictures, here's... um... a bunch of pretty pictures!

I've been meaning to post this for a while; way back when I started the blog, I mentioned that I was helping finish off a couple of murals started by the mural painting group I used to work for. Well, one of the murals found an installation site (after the original site was no longer available) and is now ready for the world to see!

Okay, so it's not perfectly flat, in fact they had to fold it over the corner of a building to make it fit. But hey, everybody's doing 3D these days, why not a mural?
And there's a tree in the way, but it's not completely obstructed...
And there's a fence around it too... and hardly anyone goes around that side of the building -

Oh, never mind. It's UP, it's FINISHED, and it LOOKS GREAT dammit!

This mural, if you remember, was the one commissioned by the local Lions Club, to illustrate the history of the Moe-Newborough region. It's meant to look like a big wall full of historical photographs and memorabilia. (On one of the panels, you can actually see a picture of people looking at the actual wall!)



Depicted in front of the photo wall are a number of antique items, such as oil-burning lamps, clocks, photo frames and radios.



The images depict various parts of the region's history and important local landmarks, many of which no longer exist. There are also antique portraits and vintage advertisements among the displayed items.



The mural also pays tribute to the many social clubs and community groups who have lent aid to the region over the years.



The mural went through many changes and alterations during its creation, including the addition of an extra panel on one end! It was originally to be installed at a totally different site, but the deal fell through, and the mural's fate was in limbo until the current site owner agreed to accept it for permanent display.

Oh, if you want to see it in person, it's located within the Gippsland Heritage Park (formerly Old Gippstown), on the westermost point of Moe, Victoria. Oddly enough, the heritage park is itself represented in the mural; the Gippsland Motor Garage shown in the picture above can also be found inside the park!

To view the rest of the album, click here, and enjoy!

Yet More Mural Photos

Okay, so I didn't get a chance to actually paint anything last Thursday (that's what I would have done if I hadn't fallen ill), but I did manage to get more photos of the murals!

Once again, all images are courtesy of Andrew. I managed to get copies of the images directly from his PC, because attaching them to emails would have taken him about half an hour (even on broadband). I'd forgotten to bring a USB Flash drive for this purpose, but luckily my MP3 player also doubled as a data storage device! Ain't technology wonderful?

This first image shows how far we got with the History train mural the last time we were there. Trish had moved the panels to the downstairs gallery so we could work upright, and reach all the areas of the artwork.
(That's Trish standing in front of the mural in the second picture.)

We only did a little bit of work that time, but I managed to get all the nameplates on the carriages done (the little bronze-ish rectangles above each of the doors). Each plate lists one of the wars that Australians fought in, ranging from the Boer to the Gulf Wars.

There are other changes than that, though - among them, you'll find that Mr Big Blue Coat Guy has changed again, this time he's green and he has legs now:


Also, I managed to get a photo of the three new panels of the Lions mural.

I've painted about four sections on this new part, but the rest was painted by the WFTD participants and, of course, the people I'm currently painting with.

I've taken more, but you'll have to see those under "Dinkycam"...

Lions Mural

This is the second set of "New/Old" photos of murals taken last year, only these aren't for Boolarra, but for Moe! I wasn't working with Over the Walls at the time this commenced, but I understand that it was commissioned by the local chapter of the Lions community club for display in the CBD of Moe.

My involvement with this one is a little complicated. I had been away from the studio for quite some time while this had begun, and I only showed up to pay my friends a visit - but somehow, I got talked into painting "just a little bit" of the mural to help out. Well, that little bit turned into "a little bit more", then "quite a bit more", until eventually I was helping out with a few friends the day before delivery of the mural, frantically putting in details at the last minute!

This first photo shows how the finalised mural looked when we left it. It is meant to resemble a wall covered with various historical artefacts and images of the Moe-Newborough area, dating back through the past century.



You'll see in the bottom left corner a small white rectangle; this is a list of all the people who worked on the mural. Even though I was only a ring-in, I still managed to get listed!

These three pictures are details of some of the pictures I painted. The first is a copy of the old Shire of Moe building (which is now owned by Federation Health).
The second is of the Sunicrust bakery, one of the local businesses to have provided employment to residents for many years (my Dad included). Yes, I know the car looks dodgy. I don't do cars very well.





I only painted part of the third image (of workers tending to the railway line at the start of the century), but I've included it to see if anyone spots the mistake.

This image shows Krys and myself painting on the mural in the wee hours of the night, the day before it was due. Man, that was a loooong night... and an even longer morning afterwards. (thanks, Krys, thanks Andrew!)


And the worst part of all this? Despite all that work we put in at the last minute, the artwork wasn't collected. Instead, three new panels were added to it for the next round of artists to work on!
[sigh...]
(And yes, I did actually wind up doing more work on this one - more pix to come!)