Sunrise/Súilrise: Mural Painting
I painted my first outdoor mural last weekend. It was something I wanted to do for a while and it took me a good few hours over the course of two days to paint. The site was one of the 2 metre x 2 metre walls of the old pumphouse in our back garden. I’d say there are quicker way of doing this (!!), but I mapped out the design on 18 A4 sheets, then cut out the design, stuck it together and drew around it on the wall. The design started as an A3 poster design prompted by the call-out by Damn Fine Print for St. Patrick’s Day entitled Awakening.
The title of this piece is called Sunrise/Súilrise: Awakening to Wonder. The inspiration for the design came from my baby boy (and muse!), Remy. I became a mother last September when Remy was born at 5.54am, just before sunrise on 3 September. Becoming a mother has been life changing. It feels like the dawn of a new phase of my life and a totally new way of seeing the world. Seeing Remy’s eyes light up when he smiles is honestly the most beautiful thing I have ever seen! He is awakening love in my heart and I hope to see the world more like him, with wonder and appreciation for the beauty all around.
I chose the colours yellow, pink and red as they feel warm and like the colours that can be seen in the sky when it’s a beautiful sunrise. The eyelashes have been exaggerated to symbolise the rays of the sun and the shape of the eye is childlike and round - I actually traced around a photo of Remy’s eye to give a wide-eyed-in-wonder feel. I’m really happy with the design and I think I might do a limited edition run of prints of it.
I really enjoyed the process of mural painting. Although it was only a week ago, I am feeling nostalgic about those lovely two days already - outside in the morning, with the radio on, drinking coffee, mixing paint, birds singing… (I suppose it helped that it was springtime and sunny). It was fun to paint in a much larger scale than usual and to work outdoors. And now that it’s on my radar, there are so many other walls in our back garden that seem to be emerging as mural-potential!
Photographs by Liam O’ Sullivan.