The Making Of The Murals

It has been a real joy to work with the young artists of Hamnavoe Primary School. We are sharing a behind the scenes look at how the 3 large collaborative murals came together.

STEP 1: Making the artwork

Gaada’s artists met Hamnavoe’s young artists at the school for a series of outdoor workshops. The brief given to Gaada by the School was ‘the murals need to reflect the interests and personalities of the bairns at the School’. Through a series of drawing workshops, the heart of the school came through loud and clear. The young artists found beauty in the bluebells, fun in the loose parts play area and fascination in the frog pond. They made drawings that reflected their lives outside the school too - walking dogs with friends, going off on their boats, cycling around Hamnavoe and playing video games.

STEP 2: Creating the composition

Hundreds of drawings came back to the Gaada Workshop in Bridge End, where we carefully selected and cut them out. We kept a well-checked list of everyone’s drawings and names to make sure everyone’s art was included in the final design. Vivian then set to, scanning every image before layering and arranging them on Photoshop to create a composition.

STEP 3: Prepping the boards

Gaada’s Artists became frequent visitors of the paint shop at the Toll Clock, where the expert painters advised us on the best primer and paint to use in Shetland (where the idea of making a long term artwork that needs to live outside in the elements can be daunting). We primed the boards, then painted them in a fresh blue ready for the young artists’ artwork.

STEP 4: Projecting the Images

Due to the huge size of the boards, we packed up our paint brushes and moved to the big, open space of the Hamnavoe Public Hall. We projected the compositions that Vivian had created onto the boards and Amy and Vivian spent days painting each artwork in bold colours, going over them again and again until the colours popped and were lovely and opaque.

step 5: Varnishing and mounting the boards

The final step was varnishing the boards. During the school holidays Vivian and Daniel varnished the boards in the school hall, and finally, joiner and parent Drewie hung the artwork outside the school.

Step 6: The Celebration

The school pupils gathered in the playground with their teachers, a Shetland Times photographer, a Radio Shetland interviewer, and Vivian from Gaada. The murals were covered by large white sheets and after speeches from Gaada’s Vivian and Helen the headteacher the murals were unveiled to the chorus of a countdown!

Of course, there were many peerie steps in between that went undocumented. Headteacher Helen arranged for new wooden frames to be mounted to the wall to attached the boards to. There was the organising of the press to come along to the open event, arranging a projector loan from Islesburgh, and the many lists that were made to ensure that every bairn had a drawing on the board. Choosing the perfect paint colours and paint with the help of The Paint Shop in Lerwick, the list goes on…

If you would like to see this fantastic artwork, the murals are avaliable for the public to view outwith school hours at the Hamnavoe Primary school.

The next phase of the Hamnavoe Safe Haven project is taking place over the next couple of months. Artist Jono Sandilands is creating a Welcome Wall Mural, alongside digital workshops with the bairns. You can read more about the project here.