Part two of ‘A Giant Leap from the Trapeze’

The week after I left school I began putting together a portfolio of my work so I could approach schools and the council about mural work. My plan was to turn up, tell them they needed a mural on a certain wall and that I was the one for the job. A glance at my portfolio and they would be instantly convinced to say yes. That was the plan anyway.

It wasn’t totally out of the blue. I painted my first mural at the school my Mum worked at when I was 14, then another at the school my aunty worked at. Two more followed during school holidays that were from word of mouth. I loved painting on a large scale outside, I enjoyed the interaction with the public and the challenge of fitting my ideas into a brief. Up until then I had only painted with water colour. I was pleasantly surprised that a lot of my techniques could be applied when using Resene acrylics on almost any surface.

Painting a Kohanga Reo, I would start at the top and work my way down.

To design my murals I would take over the kitchen table with my huge picture book and adventure magazine collection. I would open them all up to pages I liked regardless of the subject matter and let myself be inspired. I would doddle away until an idea formed then I would draw it to scale with coloured pencils. To transfer it onto a wall I had my drawing copied onto a transparency sheet and would go at night with Dad and Mum’s overhead projector from her classroom and shine it onto the wall. Dad would help me trace all the important lines and in the morning I would add anything we missed.

I used some of my left-over mural paint to paint my favourite beach, Wharariki on canvas. It turned out great and I still think it has the best clouds I’ve ever painted. I was so inspired by the vibrancy and size I could paint when using acrylics that I went out and bought some expensive artist brand tubes of all my favourite colours. I hated them. I couldn’t get them to do what I wanted and felt like all my skill and knowledge of painting had disappeared. So back to the Resene paints it was and I’ve never looked back.

I think I rang, emailed or visited every school in Christchurch over the next month. There were a lot of rejections as you can imagine but also many kind words and encouragement and a few jobs. I painted 13 murals in total between the age of 14 and 19, the biggest and most public being the Sumner Surf Club at 110 square metres. There were some unique and interesting briefs such as an indoor pool. I painted a tropical island and shipwreck scene so it looked like you entered the ship when you went into the changing rooms. A roll down down for a surf school and a lot of wildlife and habitats from New Zealand and around the world.

As much as I loved the freedom of turning up to a wall with my paints and my dog and spending the day painting and talking to the public I was lonely and I craved the adventurous life that I saw my outdoor friends living. So, over the next few years I completed a certificate in adventure leadership which was a four month course, I went to Outward Bound for a month, I worked at Wainui YMCA Camp and went to Camp America. In between those things I painted murals, climbed, skied and went roadtripping around New Zealand in my very unreliable Nissan Pulsar.