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Silvana W I R E P A
The mural on the eastern wall of 56 High Street, the new home of Harcourts Wauchope, has been extended with the addition of a beautiful skyscape taking in Bago Bluff and a striking Wedge-tail Eagle. Chrissy Jones chatted with the artist commissioned for the job, Silvana Wirepa. ow did it come about that you painted the top half of the mural in Bain Park? I met Chris Bowser, the owner of the building in Wauchope, some months back. He asked what I did and invited me to restore a smaller mural on the side of the Three Little Birds building on High St. When he saw my work at the studio gallery, he asked me to extend the mural on the Harcourts building. He felt the mural was important to keep for the people of Wauchope. I was taken aback by the size, having not done anything on that scale before, and enlisted Richard McLeod to help with the prep and background work. I didn’t realise it was the Werribee National Park when I included the Bago Bluff. I stretched the artistic license a lot (lol). If you look closely at the original (lower) section, you will see a koala, wallabies, even a dingo running through the bush. It appeals to both the young and the old, to people of all walks of life at various distances. I am grateful for the opportunity to create something interesting for the community and would love to see more around town. Walcha is fantastic for its sculpture, and the 50 murals in Kurri Kurri are just amazing. Were you given any guidelines on what to paint? I did a small scale mock-up in photoshop, which Chris approved. He wanted the mural to extend the original. The Wedge-tail Eagle was intended to be much larger; however, it works between the windows. I love the uplifting nature of the bird and wanted to impart that feel of soaring within the clouds. I have some acreage in Ellenborough, and if I am lucky I get to see a pair of Wedge-tails
playing in the updraughts ... It’s magnificent than others. Architecture can be like creating to watch. I didn’t realise they are only slightly art in three dimensions, like the work of Frank smaller than the American Bald Eagle. Gehry. I have always had a passion for fine art Tell us about the process ... Were many in and am motivated and inspired by it. I have the Wauchope community involved? recently joined with the Port Macquarie Arts I got progressively ill with the flu from and Crafts Centre, as well as the Hastings the first day of painting and really struggled Valley Art Society. Seeing others create is very physically. What you see is the culmination motivating. of three days’ work. I was still painting and Do you have any formal training? framing for my exhibition, so I couldn’t lend My background is in architecture and anymore time. I gave Chris a crash construction management, but course in detail painting, and I also have a Fine Arts thankfully he lent a hand Diploma from Hunter towards the end. St College of TAFE in g Sharon Griffiths from Newcastle in 2013, I love the upliftin rd Hilberts was really studying under nature of the bi part that gracious by providing Brandon Snape and wanted to im in the ith feel of so aring w e acre age the tinting and even for sculpture. I m clouds . I have so some of the paint studied the use I , and if in Ellenborough e a pair gratis. Extending a of organic oil se am lucky I ge t to ing painting can be more painting using ay of Wedge-tails pl ... It’s difficult, because you the methods ts gh in the updrau atch .” have to carefully match of the Flemish magnificent to w colours. Van Ecyk brothers Tell us about yourself ... (14thC) and gestural Both my mother and my life drawing with Peter maternal grandmother (Alice and Lankas, as well as the Max Mary Gundry WiRepa) were artists. My Meldrum method of portraiture grandmother’s grand uncle was accepted with Pablo Tapia. I have just completed into the Royal Academy of Art in 1850. I an artist in residency program with had to get building out of my system before Muswellbrook Regional Art Centre. That being able to paint and sculpt full-time. I am a program culminated recently in an exhibition figurative painter, but my sculptures are quite of 50 small and major works, portraits of the abstract and totemic. I am also writing and people of Muswellbrook. illustrating a series of children’s picture books. What do you love to paint? Some of the characters are based on local Mostly portraits, but also landscapes, people here in the Hastings Valley. streetscapes and still life. At the moment What inspired you to be an artist? I am enjoying mixing the primary colours I always knew I would be a full-time artist with black and white and working the tones one day; however, I chose architecture initially for portraiture. I am attempting to create - because it was a practical career, closer to art my own paint, further purifying and ageing
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walnut oil with pure pigment, that I hope to market some time soon. I am moving towards acquiring and crushing my own colours. I am particularly interested in faces that show character and definition - bearded faces that show age. I have modified a school etching press to take a 900 x 300 mm print and am working on a series of etchings currently of my life in pictures titled pain and joy. You have a shopfront in Wauchope. Tell us about that ... I have this fantastic space at 42 Cameron St, Wauchope with a saw tooth ceiling and exposed steel trusses with natural light. It’s called Top Hat Gallery. It has been a terrific space to paint within; however, I feel it will be equally successful as a working gallery. I would like to teach what I have been lucky enough to learn and try to impart that knowledge to the Hastings Valley community, given the opportunity. The first exhibition opened the 25th November, titled Two Chisels and a Brush. It’s a joint exhibition with Henry Field and Warwick Saxby. It will showcase both portraiture and sculpture, and I encourage anyone with an interest in painting and sculpture to come along and view it. Entry is free and will be open from Wednesdays to Saturdays, 10am to 4pm. We hope to have painting and sculpture classes during the week and life drawing/ painting for both artists and hens’ parties on the weekends. All are very welcome, including any Hasting Valley artists who would like to exhibit, and we can always do with more portrait and life models. All enquiries: 0467 700 307. Thanks Silvana. greater port macquarie focus. 91