Art Mural 

This mural was one of my early pieces, and lit up my bedroom for several years. Although I have improved as an artist, this still remains one of my favourites, just because of its vibrant colours and sentimental value.

Sunflower mural

This mural is in my own home. The idea here was to break up the awkwadness of the angular stairway. This large bare wall runs almost from the bottom of the stairs to the top and was, in itself, a canvas waiting to be painted. Due to other commissions it is currently about three quarters finished, with most of the remaining work required on the stem and leaves; however it already dominates an otherwise dull space.

Chinese landscape mural – Work in progress 

This is my current project, and definitely my biggest challenge so far. The customer has a garage wall at the end of her garden and wants to extend the depth by creating an illusion. The mural will follow the Chinese theme of the garden, with the plants in the mural serving as a continuation of those in the garden itself. The circular brick frame (made with real tiles) will border the mural and help add the three dimensional quality to the image. The key to this murals' success is its size and the vanishing point. At 6.5ft x 5ft it will not be something that you would need to stoop under in order to enter, and the continuation of the grey floor bricks going into the scene has to be exact, so as to create the feeling that you can really walk into the scene.

For this mural, the customer had a good idea of what she wanted, but to ensure she gets exactly what she envisioned I painted three draught versions, and a template (representing the garage and brick border) to be placed over each of the three images. She liked aspects of all three so the final mural will be an amalgamation of all three.

Other aspects to consider for this particular commission were materials. Since the customer wanted the mural to be painted onto a smooth surface I could not paint straight onto brick, and plastering can prove problematic as it can crack and fall off, so I opted for marine plywood, a strong pre-treated wood made to resist bad weather. The sheet will be primed with a white outdoor matt emulsion, the mural will then be painted on top in acrylics, and finally coated with acrylic varnish to add longevity to the piece.