The process of producing a community mural involves three distinct phases. The first and most important is engagement with the community and participants. The second is the production of the mural, and the third is the celebration of the mural. The more care and time taken with the first stage, the more sustainable and rewarding the project becomes.

Apollo House Community Centre Dubbo. 2014

“When we sat down with Jack Randell, the artist, and talked to him about it, we thought this guy is crazy. Because how can you put peoples pictures (on a building) and how can you include children in painting those pictures?”

Aunty Michelle Doolan, Apollo House, Dubbo

Engagement

Consultation with workshop participants, residents, businesses as well as funding and civil agencies related to the location of the proposed mural is critical to the endorsement of the project. The artist will meet with as many of these people as possible, seeking approval, ideas and commitment as partners in the process. The artist may conduct a show-and-tell session with examples of previous projects displayed and explained. The effort in consultation at this stage is underwriting endorsement. This ensures cultural investment that will feed enthusiasm for the mural, and to provide vigilance around its ongoing meaning after the activity is complete.

A call-out for image or thematic ideas, will inform the artist what the mural should depict. The most applicable style is “pop” with high key colours. The image ideas are drafted and digital mock-ups showing the scaled mural proposal in-situ are distributed to all the parties for comment and feedback. Adjustments to the artwork are made and the mock-ups are circulated again. On final acceptance materials are ordered and painting workshops scheduled.

The three parts of the Dunedoo Men’s Shed Mural feature aspects of Dunedoo history and environment. On the north side is an homage to renowned local rider Val Warburton, show jumping at Dunedoo in 1956. On the southern façade is a sunset landscape designed and painted with students from the Dunedoo Central School Art for Youth program.

The western wall (shown here) features a creative interpretation of a record-breaking wool load that travelled through Dunedoo from Mendooran to Mudgee around 1908. The horse team had 14 horses, carrying 102 bales of wool, and with a nett weight of 15.4t - an event of significance to the members of the Dunedoo Men’s Shed.

Production

The surface must be prepared to construction industry standards. If the site is not suitable for direct painting, sheeting material is prepared to receive high opacity artist quality acrylic polymer paints. The materials for free standing murals are 20mm compressed fibrous cement sheet. These are 120x240cm sheets and may be used in multiples. For less exposed urban areas such as commercial or civic buildings, Alupanel is used. This product is a sandwich of 1mm aluminium on either side of 3mm solid PVC, a highly stable building material in similar sized sheets.

Once the primer coats are applied, the line-art from the community-approved design is projected and drawn onto the surfaces. This creates a “colour map” enabling participants of all skill levels to paint the mural. The paint used is non-toxic high performance Low Sheen Acrylic, which is de-canted into small pots for ease and economy of use. At the close of the workshops, the artist outlines and details the images if necessary, before applying 2-3 coats of protective clear.

The painting process takes place in a controlled, supervised environment, whether on site or in studio, facilitating safe, creative working conditions.

Blake Browning (trainee muralist) with John Murray. Macquarie Home Stay Mural Dubbo. 2020

Clearcoat, Macquarie Home Stay Mural. 2020

Macquarie Home Stay Mural. Facilitated and produced by FishdogJack, featuring 4 invited artists, 3 support arts workers and workshop particiaption by local schools and community centres. Over 100mts long this sound barriers adjacent the Golden Highway has story images on the public side and a hedge image on the accomodation side. Commissioned by Macquarie Home Stay and sponsored by a local Lions Club, the brief was to reflect the medical client base for this subsidised accomodation for people from across the Western Region from the mountains to the plains.

Macquarie Home Stay Mural, western end. Dubbo. 2020

Celebration

Whether painted on panels and professionally installed, or on painted directly on site, all equipment is removed and made ready for a public launch. ( Press releases are sent out along with invitations to community Elders and other leaders. Participants, community and the media are invited, and a party is held to celebrate the new community voice. The stories, colours, images and themes bring new spirit to otherwise silent and forgotten spaces, leaving a legacy of cultural and community goodwill.

Fong Lee’s Lane Mural, Wellington NSW. 2019

Commissioned by Wellington Arts for the Fong Lee’s Lane Festival this work was to speak to the historic connections between the First Nations and Chinese communities. In consultation with community Elders a montage of historic images was created and approved as representative of this neglected interwoven history.

200 plywood squares were numbered and temporarily mounted to draft a line-art “map” of the image. With a suggested palette, the tiles were number scrambled and randomly distributed to 4 schools in the town to be painted individually by students with supervision by the art teachers.

On return, the artist and members of Wellington Arts glued the squares like tiles, in the ordered sequence, onto a permanent panel, clear-coated and mounted the mural at the entrance to Fong Lee’s Lane for its unveiling at the 2019 Fong Lee’s Lane Festival.

Lincoln School, Orana Juvenile Justice Mural Dubbo. 2010

This 2.5 x 8.5mt mural was commissioned by TAFE NSW for an internal wall of Orana Juvenile Justice Centre. Facilitated by the Lincoln School within the centre, students were engaged in every aspect of the process from ideation to installation. The students gathered ideas, prepared a digital mockup and site impression before converting the design to a full scale line drawing on prepared aluminium panels. From there the 7 panels were painted one at a time in a studio environment. After final stage touch-ups and changes, the panels were top coated with 3 coats of clear gloss acrylic then fitted to a concrete rendered wall inside the compound alongside a basketball court.

The first time the students saw the mural in total was when the panels were assembled temporarily in the basketball court before installation. This was their celebration point after weeks of collaborative effort, where Centre management and school staff were invited to paint a small part of their design. Photos were taken for the internal school newsletter, and pizza from outside was ordered.