Hambrough Primary School and Nursery

The mural is finally finished. I estimated it would take 20 days to paint and that is exactly how long it took.

Once I had finished painting a majority of the mural some of the children made stencils of leaves, flowers butterflies and bugs that they held in place for me to spray onto the wall.

The entire mural was coated with anti-graffiti varnish to protect it for at least 20 years!

The entrance wall is also based on the children's design ideas featuring pupils holding hands around the world with a big welcome sign and the school badge.


Children from all of the years made stencils that were sprayed onto the mural. Even the nursery children enjoyed making stencils of their hands that were added to the rainbow wall on the far right.

Still going

Well the weather has been glorious these past couple of weeks and I'm getting a bit of a tan working outside! The mural is looking close to completion and I'm getting lots of positive feedback from all the children and teachers at the school, not to mention all the parents and members of the general public as they go past!

Everyone agrees that it is a big improvement and makes the school entrance so much brighter and colourful. I've been working on this for 14 days now and as you can see, I've completed all the major details in the mural. I still have a few more things to add and the children have yet to add their bits. They will be making stencils of various shapes that will be sprayed onto the wall next week. I've also painted the right end wall with a rainbow. The left hand wall leading to the entrance is yet to worked on further.

It's taking a little longer than I expected to complete but this is probably one of the roughest wall surfaces that I have painted on for a long time. It also doesn't speed things up when I keep stopping to talk to people who comment!

School Holiday Peace

It is week 2 at my Southall school and it is the half term holiday so there are no children about and very few teachers. Only a short 3 and a half day week this week as Monday was a Bank Holiday and Friday the caretaker wanted to shut up early as there was no-one around. I still managed to get a fair amount done, though.

As you can see, I have started on the left and have been painting the major objects in the mural one at a time. It's slow going painting onto brick as the irregular surface means that you can't do grand sweeping brush strokes but I am really enjoying painting this one as I'm getting lots of positive feedback from the public that walk by.

Tuesday this week was interrupted for most of the day by heavy rain which meant that the main front wall couldn't be worked on so I started on the left hand side wall leading into the entrance.

Painting a mural in public

I started a large commission this week, painting an outside wall of a school in London. The infant and junior school is situated in the Southall area of London and is right on the High Street, so the mural that I am painting is attracting lots of attention!

As you can see it started off as just a plain brick wall. It measures approximately 10ft high by 30ft long. Around the left hand corner it continues up to the main entrance for about 12 feet which shall also be painted and also the small wall to the right will be included.

I spent the first two days this week cleaning the brickwork and then painting it white to act as a primer. Having a white undercoat also makes the top coat colours brighter and more vibrant. The door was also stripped, sanded and then primed ready for painting.

After week one I have got most of the basic design marked out and started on the background colours and a few of the higher details. I like to start at the top of a mural and work downwards if possible. It's quite rare that I drip any paint these days but starting at the top eliminates the problem of dripping onto previously painted areas. The best thing about this job is the enthusiasm of the children who all seem really excited to be watching the mural develop!

VAT or not to VAT

I'm starting work tomorrow on a large mural for a school in Southall in London. A curious thing occurred, they contacted me just a few days ago with concern that I wasn't registered for VAT.

I explained that although I do pay tax and am registered with the Tax man I earn below the annual threshold (currently £68,000) and choose not to charge VAT. I thought that customers would be happier if I didn't have to add an extra 15% onto the bill but I was wondering if others below the threshold find it beneficial to charge VAT.

I suppose it does give a more professional image when you charge VAT.

Additions to a wolf mural

This is a Wolf mural that I painted a few weeks ago. Since I finished it the customer had seen an adorable picture of a White wolf cub and asked if I could add it to the painting which I did yesterday. I also added a few more rocks and suchlike in the foreground.

Creating a simple pattern

A nice simple mural to paint today. It's more interior décor than mural if I'm honest as it is just a simple leafy pattern in a bathroom.

It's painted solely in black. I started with a simple wavy line running from the floor to the wall by the mirror and then I added leaves and extra stalks.

It's all painted freehand and only took a few hours to complete.