Carterton Fire Site Mural

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This project is a collaboration between myself and Pippa Keel

We were asked by Carterton District Council to beautify a space on the main street of Carterton that served as a sad reminder of a fire that burned down a big area of buildings.

Carterton and it's surrounding area of the Wairarapa is known for it's flowers and in particular, the yearly daffodil festival held in Carterton each year. Due to covid, 2022 would be the first festival held in 2 years so, our aim was to create a bright floral mural that would be ready for this event and make the space a much nicer one to be in.

Pippa and I first sketched up our ideas into digital prototypes to present to the client. Once approved we then got to work on this mammoth wall, base coating and then freehand sketching out our giant florals.

This was one of the most challenging yet rewarding projects I have ever worked on. The sheer size of the wall meant we were painting in almost every weather imaginable. We also had to learn very quickly how to adapt to the different weather and how to make our florals look beautiful and detailed at such a huge size. This required a lot of climbing off the scaffold and walking down the road to be able to stand back and analyse our work.

The time we spent in Carterton also meant we got to know the locals really well and we felt so welcomed into their little community.