The mural painter as an artist

01 Oct The mural painter as an artist

Historically in ancient cultures there would have been mural painters from caveman painting
wild buffalo and Roman artists painting frescoes and Egyptians adorning tombs but in the
middle ages usually woven tapestries were preferred to decorate the cold stone walls of castles.

The renaissance changed all that but in those times there were no specialist muralists, only
artists who painted murals, most famously Tiepolo with his use of perspective in ceiling murals
and of course Michael Angelo with the sistine chapel.

That stated many of the paintings commissioned by the church were some of the greatest of murals and the artists working on
them used methods that we still use today.

In contemporary times it is more usual for muralists to specialise even though muralists are of
course artists. Probably the first to make this distinction were the Mexican muralists notably
Diego Rivera in the 1920s using this large format of mural painting to get his social and political
views across more effectively.

Interestly his wife Frida who went on to eclipse him as a canvas painter and was his student never worked in large format.

In the 1980’s in London the decorative arts were very much in fashion and romantic murals very
much the ‘rage’ and for aspiring artists at the time this gave a realistic opportunity to make a
living from painting.

The decision was made easier for me in that I was very much inspired by luscious Roman
frescos and how an interior can be transformed using rich Tuscany palettes of Umber’s and
Sienna’s. Into the 1990’s tastes began to change into a more minimalist style and by 2,000 we
had a revolution in art with young British driven by Saatchi taking the arts world by storm.

With these changes I felt inspired to work on canvas and create more challenging work
incorporating social and religious commentary. This work eventually was exhibited and
continued alongside the decorative and mural work changing in subject matter over time.

Latterly I have chosen to paint ‘Fallen Angels’ as a vehicle for humour and social commentary
and during the pandemic lockdown I painted a series of ladies with masks incorporating historic
references of plague doctors with contemporary steampunk fashion.

Both these series have been exhibited recently with the masked ladies in the winter exhibition
last year at Encounters Arts Space in Brighton and the ‘Fallen Angels’ as part of Brighton
festival in May 2021 also at Encounters Arts Space.