We had such a fun time coming up with the mural designs for all four of them. The owner of Chilli Farms , Uma, has a great sense of humour and wanted to show a bit of his fun character in his beautiful restaurant.

The first mural was a huge charcoal wall which I painted nine elephants on in the nine different colours of the chillies in his logo. It completely transformed the whole restaurant and got so much attention that Uma decided he needed some more.

The second mural was of three Chilli Chefs. These crazy characters greet you as you walk in the door with a really family friendly vibe.

The third mural is a bit of a secret one. We thought we needed something funny on the way down the corridor to the toilets so I designed two cartoon elephants who had possibly had too many mango lassies and needed to urgently get to the thrown.

Finally, the forth mural was a real eye catcher. On my last day painting the other three murals, feeling a little sad to be saying goodbye, Uma pulled me aside and told me “We need one more elephant!”. He had elephant fever! I think we all did! They’re such amazing lovable animals. So I painted a huge 3D elephant head that seems to pop out of the wall to grab your garlic naan.

Uma, his wife, friends and staff were all so welcoming. This was a really special job. Uma even invited everyone who was involved in the restaurant renovations to come back in for a free lunch where he thanked us all for our help and fed us with an amazing banquet of his restaurant’s delicious food! Thanks again Uma for making this a really fun experience for everyone.

For a chance to win a buffet voucher for two at Chilli Farms Indian Restaurant visit their Facebook Page to enter the competition to name the 12 elephants.

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At first, looking at the wall I was to paint, I was a little worried about the pipe and post getting in the way and not ending up with as good a result as I had wanted, but they actually did the complete opposite! I decided to paint the bottom of the pipe as though it were a tree trunk and then I realised that by  painting the flowers on the posts and behind them as you walk around getting different perspectives it actually makes it look like the branches are moving. Also, unlike most 2D murals you can view it from the side as you walk out of the house. Another perfect moment of artistic serendipity!

To see more images of this mural along with others please click here.

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Drawing Workshop

The drawing workshop was great. I had some really lovely ladies come and join me on a sunny Saturday afternoon in the beautiful Art Space Collective workshop room. I was so impressed with what the ladies turned out.

We worked on portraiture so everyone brought in a photo to work from and I gave them some tips on how to make the best of their pieces.

I’d definitely run another workshop in the future. I’ve learned so much from this last one about what people struggle with and how to explain techniques better. I’ve been talking to Art Space Collective about it and we’ll probably set up another one at the beginning of next year some time so stayed tuned. I’ll let you all know as soon as we’ve worked out an official date.

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Fern Goddess in New Zealand

So, because I’ve been painting like a maniac I haven’t had much time to update my website or anything so I’ve FINALLY edited all the mural photos. Sorry that some are a bit blurry. My camera’s not great …nor my photography skills.

The mural I did for my Dad was New Zealand themed and because he lives in a beautiful place in the hills of Whanganui, the window opposite the mural has a beautiful view of my Dad’s garden and rolling green hills behind it so I really wanted to reflect the natural aspects of New Zealand and give it a really calming feel as it’s in a living room. I ended up painting a lady who I’ve been calling “Fern Goddess” She has her eyes closed to give a calm, non-confrontational feel and she has native New Zealand ferns for hair and native New Zealand birds and butterflies living in among the ferns. She has a bit of a mother nature feel about her. I was really happy with how she turned out, especially being my first full mural and most importantly, my Dad says he loves sitting in that room now because he finds it very calming.

Mandalas & Zentangles at one40william

The second lot of murals that I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to do were 3 walls on the ground floor at One40 William. I was given a lot of freedom to do whatever I liked but was told to try to represent the restaurants and businesses in the complex and to brighten up the corridors and make them a bit more fun. My final idea for the walls was sort of a combination of mandalas and zentangles, using four pastel but still bright vibrant colours. Then to incorporate the businesses I put their logos in circles in black and white so that none of their logo colours would clash and they all became a part of the pattern.

The last lot of walls I did were two 12 metre long walls in the basement corridors of One40, where all the staff are constantly busy running around. I was given a brief to design some character to represent the people who work there and the hustle and bustle that’s always happening in those corridors. At first, I started drawing cartoon people but before I knew it they had turned into weird, furry monster/alien things so I went with it and luckily everyone else seemed to fall in love with them! In fact, everyone loved them so much that they asked me back to create some more! I started off with a few ideas for characters but as I got to know everyone working there they started inspiring me to create monsters based on certain individuals who work there and people started claiming monsters for themselves, saying “I’m this monster because I love riding bikes” or “I’m that monster because it seems cheeky, like me”. It was so much fun! Everyone down there was so welcoming and made me feel so comfortable, even with the freezing cold weather. It was also really satisfying to see a noticeable difference in everyone’s moods once there was a bit of colour and fun in their environment.

Monsters at one40william

Here are some of the photos. Click here to see more photos in the online gallery

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