Cattle, flying foxes, farming, stilt walkers, Akoostik Music Festival - these are all things that locals and visitors to Wingham alike have come to associate with our town.
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Now we can add murals to that list of associations.
Work is now progressing on the newest, and without a doubt the most colourful, mural in Wingham yet.
Renowned children's book author and illustrator Stephen Michael King and his wife and partner in crime, Trish Hayes are currently painting a mural that is approximately 25 metres long by five metres high.
Stephen's mural graces the alleyway alongside Wingham Newsagency and takes up the entire length and height of the building.
As the author and/or illustrator of more than 80 children's picture books, Stephen is creating the mural in his own distinctive whimsical style, while incorporating the very aspects Wingham is known for.
There's a flying cow, a boy with bat wings on stilts, some flying foxes hanging from the top of the building, a farmer holding a steaming cup of coffee looking out over the countryside with his dog, characters dancing and playing musical instruments - and more.
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"I was thinking about what I should give to the town. I previously wrote a story about a girl, Milli, who I've drawn in the mural, who colours the town and allows herself to be colourful and I thought I would put her in," Stephen explained. "The rest of the characters are all just randoms.
"It's an alleyway that people walk through; some people would feel comfortable, others not. I just thought I'd make it as happy as I could - everyone's smiling, everyone's dancing, everyone's moving."
I just thought I'd make it as happy as I could - everyone's smiling, everyone's dancing, everyone's moving.
- Stephen Michael King
Reaction from passers has indeed been happy. Apart from one.
"I saw a grumbling man, but everyone else seems really happy," Stephen laughed.
He even had one visitor, a little girl, who told him she likes to paint bees. She then went on to draw a bee for Stephen in the dirt in front of him.
Stephen started on the mural on Monday, March 18, spending the entire day drawing the mural on the prepared wall, drawing the rough shapes of the higher sections with pencil attached to a length of bamboo. Painting started on Tuesday.
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"I gave myself a foolish week to finish, but I think a hopeful two weeks. It's all dependent on weather. Certainly we hope to have it looking pretty good in a week to 10 days, except I'm away all of next week," Stephen said.
This is not Stephen's first mural.
"We got invited to Tumut and did a mural in the library down there. I did the children's section in Taree Library. Somewhere in Port Macquarie I did a mural."
However, the mural in Wingham is Stephen's first outdoor mural, and we doubt it will be his last.
"This one has so much detail and so much colour, but I think you can do really beautiful things very, very simply. I'd love to do one very simple character, three stories high," Stephen said.
The mural is a project of Wingham Chamber of Commerce's Place Making committee, with funds from the $50,000 grant from MidCoast Council in the State government's Future Towns Program.
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The paints cost around $2000, with the money coming out of what Stephen himself is being paid to complete the mural.
"We got the best outdoor paint we can," he said.
"I think the important thing about a mural is that it's allowed to fade and it's allowed to degrade. And once they do start to fade and degrade, then it's almost an invitation for other artists to come and paint over it.
"Or if I pass away and my artwork is worth a fortune, you can restore it!" he laughs.
Julia Driscoll
Julia Driscoll has worked as a journalist for the Wingham Chronicle and Manning River Times for seven years. She values the deep connection with community that being a rural and regional journalist brings. Career highlights have involved environmental stories - bringing the plight of the little known endangered Manning River helmeted turtle to the attention of the public, resulting in wide-spread knowledge in the community and conservation action; and breaking the news of the Manning River ceasing to run for the first time in recorded history.
Julia Driscoll has worked as a journalist for the Wingham Chronicle and Manning River Times for seven years. She values the deep connection with community that being a rural and regional journalist brings. Career highlights have involved environmental stories - bringing the plight of the little known endangered Manning River helmeted turtle to the attention of the public, resulting in wide-spread knowledge in the community and conservation action; and breaking the news of the Manning River ceasing to run for the first time in recorded history.
