Local artist to create food-inspired mural The next stage of Orange's FutureCity Public Art project has begun with a local artist starting work on a series of food-inspired murals around a car park in McNamara Street.
Orange Based artist Tully Moore is one of four artists, whose work is set to emerge in the coming weeks during the first stage of the Public Art project. Canberra artist Yanni Pounartzis completed the first stage of another mural in McNamara Street last week.
Tully Moore is an established Australian artist who recently returned to his home town of Orange after many years living and working in Melbourne. He has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions in NSW, Victoria and the UK.
When he's not creating art, Tully Moore has a 'fruit and vegie' job just up the road from the McNamara Street mural site at a fresh produce wholesale business that services many local restaurants.
For his contribution to the Public Art project, giant images inspired by fresh food and food packaging are set to cover a 20 metre long wall on 'The Blind Pig' building, in a work titled The
Beginning, while on the opposite side of the car park, the final component is a complete wall and roof painting on the neighbouring public toilet, the penultimate stop on this gastronomic journey, titled The End.
Of the four artists involved in the first instalment of the project, two are locals:
- Yanni Pounartzis - Canberra, ACT
- Tully Moore - Orange, NSW
- Catherine O'Donnell - Blue Mountains, NSW
- Sandon Gibbs-O'Neill - Orange, NSW
Orange artists will also be among the next round of artworks to be installed later this year.
Orange Mayor Reg Kidd believes local residents will be pleased to see the latest element of the FutureCity Public Art project.
"Since the first artwork appeared on a wall in McNamara Street last week, there's been some good response from the Orange community," Cr Reg Kidd said. "This is what good art is all about.
"Good art will prompt a reaction. It will make you think.
"I'm looking forward to hearing the reactions of locals to the next work of art. Food is a key element of what makes our community tick. This artwork is having fun with the ideas of food and our local food culture."
Orange City Council's Employment and Economic Development Policy Committee Chair Tony Mileto said the FutureCity Public Art project was designed to create points of interest in the CBD to encourage foot traffic.
"We want as many people as possible visiting these locations and discussing the art and then noticing the near-by businesses," Cr Mileto.
"We have a number of projects happening right now to brighten up McNamara Street and make it more accessible to people to boost the economy in that area."
Orange Regional Gallery Director Brad Hammond said the artwork is a great example of Tully Moore's work.
"Tully is an exceptional painter whose work combines traditional painting methods with everyday subjects and graphic styles which we see all around us on food packaging and in magazines,"
Brad Hammond said.
"This work is a part of an ongoing series he is working on called A Country Practice."
"A standout feature of Tully's work is his use of an illusionistic style of painting known as Trompe l'oeil. "Trompe l'oeil (French: "deceive the eye") is an approach that includes hyper-realistic 3-D imagery that seems to come out of the frame towards you.
"Over the surface of the large mural there will be painted trompe l'eoil 'tea towels' which reference the cultural cuisines available in the string of local restaurants around the McNamara Street neighbourhood.
"One of the things our selection panel really enjoyed is the refreshing way Tully embraces humour in his work. This two-part public artwork will invite us to take a moment, and smile."
The process so far
Of the four artists involved in the first instalment of the project, two are locals:
- Yanni Pounartzis - Canberra, ACT
- Tully Moore - Orange, NSW
- Catherine O'Donnell - Blue Mountains, NSW
- Sandon Gibbs-O'Neill - Orange, NSW
The FutureCity Public Art project is a three year program of murals and art installations, to be positioned on and near public and privately-owned buildings.
During the first round, it's expected public art will be installed in 8 sites across the CBD before the end of this year. Blank walls in McNamara and Anson Streets are set to be among the first to receive artworks.
Earlier this year, fifty artists responded to calls for Expressions of Interest coordinated by the Orange Regional Gallery. From those, 12 were chosen by a selection panel to participate in the development of the public art program.
Under a timetable and as part of paid contracts agreed to by the artists, each has submitted concepts for at least two different locations in Orange.
The options for the proposed murals to be painted on each building were then considered by the building owners, business tenants and a selection panel, before final selections are made.
Selected artists then produced final mock-up designs for specific sites by the end of March.
The first of the new art-works are expected to begin appearing in locations around the CBD during May and June.
This is the first year of a three-year public art strategy and further works will be added in the second and third years of the program.
The list of artists involved in the first instalment of the project is:
- Julia Davis and Lisa Jones - Sydney, NSW
- Sandon Gibbs-O'Neill - Orange, NSW
- Tully Moore - Orange, NSW
- Kellie O'Dempsey - Brisbane, QLD
- Catherine O'Donnell - Blue Mountains, NSW
- Yanni Pounartzis - Canberra, ACT
- Liz Shreeve - Sydney, NSW
- Floria Tosca - Sydney, NSW
- WBYK - Orange, NSW
