It was a visit to her home town Kalangadoo in late 2022 that enticed visual artist Wendy Dixon-Whiley to check out her old primary school.
As she was looking around it occurred to her that it could use some more colour.
Upon returning to Adelaide she contacted school principal Alison Whibley and pitched an idea to her to create a collaborative mural the students could have an input into.
It just so happened they had been considering the possibility of commissioning a mural at the school so the timing was perfect.
“The colourful creatures on the mural are the creations of the students.
“They participated in a workshop to create ‘mindful monsters’ and they were to consider what they might look like as a ‘monster’ and they really took to the task,” Wendy said.
The mindfulness element was to create statements regarding how they like to practice mindfulness and create an ongoing reminder on site to be present.
Once the students had completed their creations Wendy took their work to scale it up digitally.
The task was then set to start the painting.
“It took me a total of 35 hours all up to paint the 14 metre x 2.4 metre mural,” she said.
“It was a great experience.
“Children of primary school age are so naturally creative and think completely outside the box, coming up with novel solutions to problems that just would not occur to most adults.”
A sudden cold snap became a bit of an endurance when painting but fortunately thermals kept Wendy very comfortable.
Wendy, who has a studio in Hahndorf, is well known in the art world and has completed many other murals.
“These are the bread and butter of my work,” she said.
Wendy has been commissioned for murals by the Adelaide Fringe festival, Mount Barker Council, as well as a number of businesses including Prancing Pony Brewery, Route 9 Distillery, Wolf and Wren Tattoo studio and Sector 7G Design.
She has also completed illustrated commissions for businesses such as Pirate Life Beer, Vinteloper Wines, Rubberside Down, Mobius Farms, Hayes Wines and the Arts Industry Council of SA.
There will be an official opening of the mural, hopefully at the end of May at which Wendy is hoping to attend.
