Mural to come alive

Visitors to the Boorowa Irish Woolfest will be able to watch a new river mural take shape, with artist Blake Pollard painting beneath the Jubilee Bridge across the festival weekend. The mural will feature a local bush and creek scene, with a platypus as the central image alongside a superb parrot and lizard. Blake said the concept was developed from local photographs and ideas supplied by the mural committee. “They sent me over some sample pictures of the local area of photos that they liked,” he said. “Together with all that, I created a concept that’ll fit, hopefully, perfectly right under that bridge and it’ll just blend in with the rest of the landscape.” For Blake, making the artwork feel natural is central to the design. Blake Pollard at work on one of his large-scale murals. “It’s all about flow. Everything’s got to be consistent and it’s got to look natural,” he said. He will begin preparing the wall on Friday, before painting across Saturday and Sunday and possibly Monday, with the mural expected to be completed by the end of the long weekend. The project is one the committee has been working towards for several years, with the Boorowa River Walk seen as an important setting for a permanent piece of public art. Festival visitors are being encouraged to head down to the river area and watch Blake work as the mural develops. Blake said he enjoys people stopping to watch and ask questions while he paints. “I love it, how they like to engage,” he said. He said public art could add colour and character to a place, while each mural remained unique to the community commissioning it. “All the work I do is custom and unique to what they want,” he said. “It’s not a generic picture that you’re buying somewhere or a print, it’s got real love involved with it." For the committee, the weekend is also about drawing people down to the river walk and building interest in future projects planned for the area.