The Mural Gallery Artists At Work

Photo by Chelsea Haines from Atlanta, Georgia who was staying at Art School Waihi for a week and came to see myself, Bronagh and Chiara working on the Mural Gallery.

Various Murals. enquiries: johnmulvay@gmail.com

Nelon Mural Tutorial

'Temptation' by Nikki Romney and friends

I was invited to Nelson to teach some artists all the little tricks and tips of  large scale exterior painting.  

Nikki Romney, above left, a brilliant portrait artist who works in oils was the instigator of this project and with many emails back and forth she found some funding for me for the travel expenses and a wall and worked up a design.

We screened her unfinished (!) design up with my overhead projector early Friday morning and Nikki had her first taste of working in acrylic. 

We were joined on Saturday by Betty Salter, an animal portrait artist mainly who can paint anything.

On the Sunday we were joined by five other artists and that was stressful but fun.

Karin Fruehauf, above right, was one of those five and she came back Monday too which was my last day on the job having allowed 4 days to impart my knowledge and experience and get it up and running and the final design worked out and with my three new artist mates onto it and confident.

Great to be working with other artists.

Street Art 14 11 13

1925 Grocery Mural, Waihi, New Zealand

This mural I have been working on sporadically for a year. It is almost finished and is the most ambitious painting I have yet done. Old people love it as all the products in the store are from 1925 or earlier although I used a little artistic licence in that some products are from a little later. It contains references to World  War One, the British Empire, the 1919 flu epidemic, the great age of Radio and products readily available over the counter include gelignite, ammunition, strychnine and whale oil. Politically Correct? No. God save the King....

Billboard Sculpture Installation

This was carved from one big block of polystyrene and was fixed to a billboard in central Auckland for a year. It was an advertisement for a new middle of the road radio station- more excitement in the middle of the road was the wording...
I was back at Hungry Creek Art school for a short time of study and Andrew Ventor, the Director of the school, had a son who owned some billboards in the city and had a client who wanted this on a billboard. Andrew and I went 50 50 on the job, he had the contract and setup money and the business acumen and I had the talent.
We figured out how to do it, how to frame and fix it and where to get the materials we needed and posed  Andrew's son and girlfriend in a photographer's studio that had a chaise longue and I took a ladder and a camera along and the couple embraced while I took a dozen or so photos of them from every possible angle.
Then began a frantic week of sculpting to a deadline while the Andrew made the mounting and fixing bits and pieces. It was a lot of fun and good money for an art student as I then was..

The Mural Artist Mural

At last, a new mural. Been ages since I painted a mural. A self portrait?
Could be, Would be, Should be like that -
'Cause Horton was faithful, he sat and he sat -
I love kid's art and kid's literature...

The Plunket Mural, Warkworth, New Zealand

Sandspit Wharf Mural

Waihi Murals