ARTWORK LOCATION: Laneway 2/105 River Street, Ballina 

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY:

Tom Gerrard is an Australian painter whose works focus on suburban life and nature. His style developed through his prolific international output on the streets, and he incorporates contemporary techniques such as spray paint and airbrush.

Gerrard’s works compress space through bold flattened colour schemes, employing a signature black outline which frames his graphical forms. Observation is key to Gerrard’s practice; the architectural elements, nature and domestic objects are taken directly from his environment, both at home and through travel.

Gerrard has exhibited in Los Angeles, Barcelona and Tokyo, and his works have been acquired by the National Gallery of Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria. He is an active international muralist, having been commissioned in London, Berlin, Quito and Rio de Janeiro.

ARTIST STATEMENT:

Painting murals gives me a chance to get to know the people of the region and also study local and relevant subject matter to inform the mural. I chose the subject matter and colours in this mural to bring lightness to the laneway and I wanted the mural to be tall enough to tower above the viewer as they walked past it.

It was fun to learn more about the local flora for this mural. I've been drawing a lot of it in my sketchbooks over the years but have not known the names and info about each plant. There were also others which I had never seen before and painting them gave me some new forms and colour combinations to play with. It was a lot of fun to paint this mural. I'd like for people to take in the colours and individual character of each plant and to really just enjoy the painting.