The three parts of the Dunedoo Men’s Shed Mural feature aspects of Dunedoo history and environment. On the north side is an homage to renowned local rider Val Warburton, show jumping at Dunedoo in 1956. On the southern façade is a sunset landscape designed and painted with students from the Dunedoo Central School Art for Youth program.
The western wall (shown here) features a creative interpretation of a record-breaking wool load that travelled through Dunedoo from Mendooran to Mudgee around 1908. The horse team had 14 horses, carrying 102 bales of wool, and with a nett weight of 15.4t - an event of significance to the members of the Dunedoo Men’s Shed.
Production
The surface must be prepared to construction industry standards. If the site is not suitable for direct painting, sheeting material is prepared to receive high opacity artist quality acrylic polymer paints. The materials for free standing murals are 20mm compressed fibrous cement sheet. These are 120x240cm sheets and may be used in multiples. For less exposed urban areas such as commercial or civic buildings, Alupanel is used. This product is a sandwich of 1mm aluminium on either side of 3mm solid PVC, a highly stable building material in similar sized sheets.
Once the primer coats are applied, the line-art from the community-approved design is projected and drawn onto the surfaces. This creates a “colour map” enabling participants of all skill levels to paint the mural. The paint used is non-toxic high performance Low Sheen Acrylic, which is de-canted into small pots for ease and economy of use. At the close of the workshops, the artist outlines and details the images if necessary, before applying 2-3 coats of protective clear.
The painting process takes place in a controlled, supervised environment, whether on site or in studio, facilitating safe, creative working conditions.
