Friends of Serenity Mural

I was asked a while ago if I would help with the refurbishment of a room at the Birth Centre at Burnley General for the Friends of Serenity. My friend Jo set up the charity when she unfortunately lost her baby and has been campaigning to get a second suite for all those other families that are dealing with the loss at birth. She has successfully raised enough money to refurbish a second suite and asked if there was anyway of painting a mural on the wall in the bedroom. 

I did a selection of 5 designs which went to a select group from the hospital, charity and friends who chose their favourites. It was a cross between the two designs above. Using the formation and moon phase from one with the butterfly designs of the other. Once the room had been painted with two shades of a pale green we were ready to get in there and get going on the design. 

I say we, I had help from Carl Hazelden an artist from Colne who has been picking my brains about applying for an arts council grants lately. Part of his proposal is to work within the community to create a mural with a participants essentially expanding his practice as an artist. I asked if he would like to help and get some hands on experience with working on a commission but of course for no money as we were not being paid. . First steps were to blow up the design from the A2 size to well wall size. We drew out the design using blown up photocopies of the butterflies to help with placings and also cutting them out with a knife which left us with the perfect stencils to white out the wall for the deisgn. 

Doing this helped the colours to be brighter against the soothing herb green wall colour.

The paint was donated, specially mixed coloured paint from the Velspar range from B&Q Blackburn.

We used the designs loosely based on actually British Butterflies. They are very stylised with Carl blocking out the colours so that I could painting the detail keeping an overall uniformity to the pieces as we both have very different painting styles.  we also added a paler brimstone to lift some of the darker areas. 

We dotted them around the suite from the entrance hall, kitchenette, and bathroom. With a small tortoiseshell hiding in the corner as you turn around to leave the en suite. 

The finished main wall.........Just waiting on the new furniture and we will have a fully functioning suite.