The creation of the West Wallsend Heritage mural

 The mural is going to go on the front of the Workers Club building under the West Wallsend sign. I am painting it at home on panels. It will then be carried down in pieces , reassembled on site and attached to the frame that will be screwed into the buildings facade.


Murals are slow work! So far all we have done is make the frame to hold the panels and put half of it up.
I'm  coming up with a concept and I've sent one through and made a change and sent another idea back. Once the concept is approved I can then get permission to use some photos reference from a book and go take any extra photos I need . Once I have all the photos I will do a small colour version to nut out all the design and colour problems and have that approved.
Although it takes a lot of time to do a smaller version it's much easier to change something on a small scale than on the wall! Once I start painting the mural I'll know exactly where I'm going.

 My partner made the frame one weekend inside the garage. Lucky he is helping as no way could I have done that ! Now we have bought it outside and placed it in position against the back of the studio.

Above -  This gives a better idea of the size of the mural.

Last weekend in June -
Below- The frame is attached to the wall. He  made brackets to hold it in position on the wall so I can paint. Everything has to be square or when the panels are attached they will be uneven and warped.

Hopefully this weekend we can attach the lot and put the panels on. I then need to prime the exposed frame and panels. Once that is done I do all the indoor planning with the small version and then trace the small version and project it onto the panels. I can then start to paint! That will probably be a month away.

The local school children are to help with some of the mural so I will have to unscrew a panel or two and take it down to West Wallsend for them to paint and then bring it back rescrew it and continue.

 This  is the concept for the mural.
West Wallsend was built on mining so the poppethead in the RHS symbolises that.
 The LHS top image will be the war memorial with a lighthorse rider in front.
 Below that are grasstrees. They grow only a few inches a year and the large ones are 100's of years old. There are many on the top of Mt Sugarloaf and the grasstrees were used and had special significance for the aboriginal people of the area.
The main image is the Coop store of the area. The bird in the sky will be an Eagle which is the totem for the Awabakal people of the area.
 The town sits below the Sugarloaf range and Mt Sugarloaf so that links the whole mural.I'm still getting permission to use some of the images but hopefully that will go ahead and I can start planning the small colour version. 
 Assuming everything is opk using the Co op image I have to organise a photo shoot for the Lighthorse and take some photos of the monument. The horse doesn't have to be near the monument. It can't stand in front of it anyway as there are steps. I am going to use artistic liscense there.
 I also need to go and take photos of the Suagarloaf range from the town so it is a bit more accurate.It will be more of a design feature than realistic but I do want the shapes to be recognisable. I also want to go to the top of Mt Sugarloaf and take Grasstree photos and go to Kitchener and take photos of the Mine Poppethead there. 

Sat 6th July - A good days work today. The frame is finished and primed and the panels on! Now I just have to prime the panels and get the smaller colour version sorted out.

Priming the frame in my sacrificial clothes..

  All up and ready to prime. The panels are quite heavy so I will need to help to move and take them down for the schoolchildren. I might start another thread from now on as this one is getting a bit long.