Bird mural to grace Opawa site
BY ANGELA CROMPTON
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A giant pukeko is taking shape beside the Opawa River to increase the area's visual appeal.
Moenui artist Rick Edmonds is responsible for the striking 300 square-metre mural to grace two walls downstream from Blenheim's riverside amphitheatre. He designed and is now painting the mural.
The Marlborough District Council's Safer Communities manager, David Johnson, said money to employ Mr Edmonds and pay for several hundred litres of paint came from the Ministry of Justice.
The mural was commissioned as part of the ministry's "stop tagging" initiative, Mr Johnson said.
Mr Edmonds' mural will provide visual appeal and historical links to the area – an appropriate focus as Marlborough celebrates its 150th year as a self-governing region.
Work on the mural started last month. It will cover two exterior walls of the Blenheim Gymnastics Clubrooms. One side already completed shows a pre-European swamp scene.
It is covered in flax with endemic (and now extinct) kaoriki (little bittern) and pukeko birds peering out between the leaves.
The second wall will show scenes of old "Port Blenheim", with workers on the riverside wharf and the Echo, currently in dry dock at Picton Marina, sailing up the river after a Wellington voyage.
Creating images on a gigantic scale was a challenge, Mr Edmonds said.
"I go up the ladder, drawing as big as I can. Then I go down and stand back and look at what I've done. I'm up and down scaffolding; up and down ladders; it's totally different from working in a studio." He sketches the pictures on the walls with chalk and daughter Hilary and sons Josh and Sam have been helping him do the painting.
"They are very good. It's not paint-by-numbers. They have the ability to catch the vision."
He expects to have the mural finished before December. "But if it rains you can't work, and if there's a really strong wind, the paint blows off the brush!"
- The Marlborough Express
