Situated at South Highway West, Whitianga, it is longer than a large blue whale (and then some) and taller than four of basketballer Steven Adams (ok with his arms down!).
Dave Fowell used his painting experience of colour and perspective on small canvas and enlarged it forty times!
Dave’s mate, Herb has a fish factory, and he commissioned Dave to paint a mural on the outside wall of the factory.
“I told him I could design and paint a large canvas but had never painted anything longer than three metres,” says Dave. “I added, he would have to find someone else to complete the project but that I could help with a design.”
However, when Dave had finished the design, he had become so invested in it that he couldn’t let it go. “I couldn’t give up my baby to another painter.”
The Brief:
Feature divers collecting kina underwater surrounded by sea life, and bringing them up to the boat with birds and sky and islands in view. It had to be seen from Whitianga airport 300 metres away. it had to be Herb’s boat and because he and his crew are very experienced divers, the fish had to look like real fish!
How to convert small to huge?
“I paint in oils,” says Dave; “So the first problem was that the Resene acrylic dries very fast, so blending colours was virtually out and I had to find colours that matched the oils I was used to using.
“For instance, I blend yellow ochre with a touch of venetian red and11d white to make skin tones, but what is the equivalent colour in acrylics?
“How much of each colour do I need? It’s a sea scene so plenty of blue is a no brainer but I still
had to go back and buy four more litres. Doing a mock up first made it easier. All I had to do was multiply the amounts by 40! But still it was lucky the Resene shop was just down the road.”
Converting the smaller painting to a large wall also had its problems. Originally, Dave thought he would just project the image on the wall which was ok at ground level but at eight metres it was near impossible, so he used a grid system – squaring off the smaller painting and drawing larger squares on the wall and sketching inside those.
Then the problem of how to get to those dizzying heights?? He started with a scaffold on wheels but could only reach to five metres and, with the benefit of a small community, sent out a cry for help from local avocado orchardist Graeme Morcom and he responded with a hydrolada.
This was a game changer.
“It was brilliant going up and down but driving it!,” exclaimed Dave. “ The left pedal goes forward right and the right left, except when you are going backwards which is vice versa….. Sorry about the blue paint Graeme!
“My biggest concern was finishing it within budget. I could spend days making every fish perfect for example but it would take me to 2030, so I had to learn to represent the fish that would then look perfect at 20 paces and I had to smack my hand when I wanted to go back and ‘fix’ things up.”
So, in the end at 40m x 8m, Dave was happy with the speed he maintained, helped enormously by lunch lady (and sweetheart) Dianne with fresh homemade pies and choccy biscuits.
