SINCE last year's Laneway Festivals, many of Warrnambool's blank walls have been slowly becoming colourful works of art.
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But turning such a huge canvas into a masterpiece is an imposing task for any artist, no matter how experienced they are.
South-west arts collective F Project is hoping to boost the confidence of wannabe mural makers through a new initiative that will add more colour to the city’s walls while teaching artists new skills at the same time.
Half of the wall outside the front door of The Artery – F Project’s Timor Street headquarters – is being turned into a permanent piece of art by local artists Jim Sargent and Nathan Pye, but the other half will become a training ground.
F Project president Emma Charlton said the South West Community Foundation and the Eileen Cogan Trust had provided a total of $6000 to pay for six artists to have a go at mural making over the next 12 months.
Pye will mentor the artists, with each artist’s work to stay on the wall for two months before the one gets to take their turn.
“It’s an opportunity for people to do a large scale mural under mentorship,” Charlton said.
She said that the initiative was about harnessing the interest in public art that came from the Laneway Festivals, graffiti workshops, and murals painted at TAFE and the old woollen mill.
“We’ve had a couple of applications already but we would like a few more,” Charlton said.
The $6000 covers Pye’s mentoring, paint and materials for each artist, and a small public event to coincide with each mural.
Pye was responsible for the giant fish mural in Patloch Lane, which was created during last year’s Wunta Festival, and also contributed to the repainting of the Lake Pertobe maze.
He and Sargent’s new piece outside The Artery will serve as a sign to help people locate the F Project headquarters and workshops.
“We’ve had a lot of feedback from people saying they don’t know where we are,” Charlton said.
Expressions of interest in the mural mentoring initiative can be obtained by emailing f4u@fproject.org.au or by downloading the forms at fproject.com.au or the F Project Facebook page.
