FSC - Colours, Critters and Collaboration
Artist Joseph Addison said, “Colour speaks all languages”, it does not differentiate between age or gender, or nationality… how true!
Now that the shapes had been cut, sanded, and arranged on the wall, it was time to think about colours in the First Steps Count building..
In the beginning of the project, I had jotted down some words the team had used to describe how they wanted the mural to feel, these were … vibrant, fun, playful, childlike, natural, flowing, soft, adventurous and calming.
…. I know, this could include all the colours right!
Luckily Monique, Mel, Annie, and Sue from the FSC board knew exactly what they liked and sent me pics of paintings and colour schemes, so I could compile some colour palettes.
We came up with a soft, neutral colour palette with a few brighter accent colours for vibrancy. Fortunately Bunnings came on board with a donation of 16 x 1 litre tins of paint for the internal wall murals… thank you Bunnings!
Then came the arduous process of painting and sanding more than 100 shapes.
I would like to say the biggest thank you to my dear friend Jill Watkins who volunteered to paint and sand shapes with me over many days in her spare time away from her aerial acrobatics at Circartus… you are such a treasure Jill, and I am so appreciative. Thank you to Sue, Andrew and Annie who also volunteered their valuable time to help me complete this stage.
With colour on the shapes, the next stage was to get colour on the walls to add depth.
Walter had told me that Shaun Clark… (who was contracted to paint the whole building) was also a talented artist and created works in his spare time. It was a natural and easy progression to contract Shaun to paint the design motifs on the wall as he understood the design process and he was a skillful and efficient painter.
We also featured some of Shaun’s poured acrylic art pieces throughout the mural.
The Biripi Women’s group under the guidance of Keisha, Monique and Mel added beautiful touches to the smaller shapes throughout the river walk section of the mural.
And children’s book author Stephen Michael King bought a touch of whimsy to the mural with little characters that bump and jump down shapes, hide under arches, and cuddle up in curves.
Having worked on many collaborative projects over the years, one of the most important parts of the creative process for me is sharing the story of how the different components came about and the unique contribution of each individual person or group.
So thank you for sharing the journey, stay connected for the final blog that outlines the gorgeous children’s mural and the construction of the design on the front of the building.
Thank you for sharing journey… the final chapter of the development of the artwork for Stage 1 of the First Steps Count Building is shared in Blog 5 FSC - Tiny Tots and Tiled Patterns
Ali Haigh x
