The Lansdowne Vineyard 1900 mural. PHOTOS/SUPPLIED
ELISA VORSTER
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Three artists who created a mural depicting the first vineyard established in Wairarapa have won Resene’s Mural Masterpieces competition.
The mural, which can be found on the wall of Lansdowne Sammies on First St, was adjudged best in the professional mural category.
The project was a collaboration between Viv Walker, Max Baylis and Jane Giles, who are all Wai Art group members.
Sandy Ryan, from Lansdowne Residents’ Association, applied for a grant from Connecting Communities and was “delighted” to have the mural displayed on the First St shop.
“I was approached by Connecting Communities to undertake the mural, but felt it was such a big job [three panels 2.4m long and 1.2 m wide each] that I preferred a collaboration,” Walker said.
“So I asked Max Baylis and Jane Giles from my art connections from Carterton and they agreed to help me produce it.”
All three artists have made their mark in the Wairarapa art scene.
Walker was involved in painting three of the Chorus boxes in Masterton, Giles helps run Gallery 23 in Carterton and Baylis has a background as an illustrator in advertising.
Baylis said he was the last of the trio to get on board, but he was keen on doing the mural with Walker and Giles.
“They asked me if I was interested in giving them a hand so we got together and did a few scribbles,” he said.
The brief was to depict an historic subject in keeping with the Lansdowne shop’s heritage style improvements.
After consulting with Gareth Winter from the Wairarapa Archive, they settled on the Lansdowne vineyard design, as they felt it was historically suitable to the area.
The mural has a limited palette of colours which has warm russet tones and red wine colours.
The artists painted the mural on to aluminium panels offsite, but it took several months to complete due to various interruptions.
The mural was later entered in Resene’s competition, but none of the artists expected to win.
“I normally work much smaller as a book illustrator and designer, so doing very large works are a challenge for me, but we were all pleased with the result,” Walker said.
Masterton’s St Patrick’s School won first prize for its interactive mural.
