Local Talent on Display

Next time you’re walking or driving through Penrith’s City Centre look out for a vibrant new artwork that’s being installed on the new construction fencing surrounding the 7,000 sqm City Park site.

Featuring vivid portraits of native birds set against a lush green backdrop, the artwork perfectly captures Council and the community’s vision for City Park - a natural retreat in the heart of the city centre located on the corner of Henry and Station streets. The talented creative mind behind the striking artwork is Christine Huynh, a busy mum of six (yes, you read correctly, six!) children from Londonderry.

As the artist behind several murals found on water tanks across Londonderry, there’s no denying Christine has a passion for large-scale artworks and when Council put the callout for local

Penrith artist, Christine Huynh, bringing life to temporary fencing artists to submit an original artwork for the City Park hoarding, Christine wasted no time responding. The process of painting the artwork proved more difficult than anticipated after the city was plunged into lockdown and she was faced with home schooling six kids and meeting the looming October deadline to finish the artwork in time for the start of demolition work within the site.

"It’s definitely been a juggle,” said Christine.

My wonderful mum usually comes and helps care for our family when I have a big mural to paint. That couldn’t happen this time, and with six kids aged from 2 to 15 running around, things were a bit crazy, so I had to do most of my painting at night.

Despite many disruptions to her routine, Christine has perfectly captured some of Penrith’s most vibrant and much loved birds including the cockatoo, magpie, kookaburra and rainbow lorikeet seen every day in backyards and parks across Penrith.

I was inspired by the native birds and flowers we are surrounded by every day here in Penrith. I hope these birds and flowers will be frequent visitors and residents of our beautiful new City Park.

Penrith artist, Christine Huynh, bringing life to temporary fencing

A group of children happily playing in the water fountains is another feature of the artwork, which Christine says reflects the cooling aspects of City Park and celebrates Penrith’s diversity.

Watching the joy that mist fountains bring my own kids inspired the imagery of the young children on the mural, and it was also important to me that these children represent the diversity of cultures we have in Penrith.

The construction fencing and artwork is due to be installed in late October. Find out more about the City Park project with our story on page 22 and at penrith.city/citypark. If you’d like to see more of Christine’s artwork, head to her Facebook page

@ChristineDorothyHuynh.