Murals

The Great Dandy Mural Project evolved from Norwich Dandy’s co-director, Eloise O’Hare, setting up Eloise’s Isolation Art School on Facebook during the first lockdown in April. This showed how things found at home can be used for art projects. Among the concepts was to paint on windows with water-based (the paint comes off easily with a scraper and soapy water). After the first lockdown Eloise joined up with her Dandy co-founders Christina Sabberton and Dugald Ferguson who were then commissioned to paint windows for Sinsin’s Love Boutique to support Norwich Pride, and the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital for organ donation week.

In 2021 The Great Dandy Mural Project was born! This was an Arts Council England and Co-op Local Communities Fund supported arts & wellbeing project. We painted a series of large murals in the communal areas (inside and outside) of six day service / community centres around Norfolk. Working in creative consultation with clients and staff of these centres to devise a permanent mural design that the Norwich Dandies painted on site. The designs incorporated the artistic ideas of the service users by collecting drawings from the users to be replicated within & inspire the creation of the overall design. Over the project we’ve had demand from more organisations wanting a mural for their venues and communities so watch this space…

Venues for The Great Dandy Mural Project 2021 were NANSA Day Service, Lingwood Care Farm, Stepping Stones Project, Hamlet Children’s Centre, Silver Road Community Centre & Equal Lives. In addition Sinsins Love Boutique and Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital commissioned us for murals and also Cromer Green Spaces commissioned us to paint a mural on the outside of their new headquarters painting footage from which was used in our first Dandy Doc film Norfolk ’n Bees.

If you would like to commission a mural for your organisations please contact us to arrange a chat / site visit

Stepping Stones

Founded in 1989, Stepping Stones is a project for adults with learning disabilities, based in Norwich UK.

Cromer Green Spaces

Cromer Green Spaces aims to make Cromer a better place for wildlife and people.

The Norwich Dandies with Beki, who helped paint the mural, and Trevor from Cromer Green Spaces.
Half painted wild flowers on the Cromer Spaces building. The building is a monstrous square construction with a flat concrete roof.
The left side of the mural, which features wild flowers and a seagull.
The painted right side of the building, with lots of flowers and a metal shutter door with an Artists At Work sign.
The side of the painted building. The mural has wild flowers going all the way round the building.
Chrissy, Eloise, Beki and Dugald taking a selfie in front of the finished mural, with paint splatters all over their white overalls.
The main side of the building. It has wild flowers in the front and the skyline of Cromer in the background (including the pier and Cromer Church).
Chrissy, Eloise, Beki and Dugald proudly posing in front of the finished mural.

Lingwood Care Farm

Lingwood Care Farm provides therapeutic opportunities for people with disabilities of all ages.

The finished mural. It is painted on the inside of a wooden shelter used by volunteers and visitors. The mural features a landscape with trees, a pond and animals found on the farm.
The shelter has two walls which have now been painted.
A view of the mural from the ground, with bits of grass and a couple of daisies.
A close-up of a painted lamb.
Another detail from the mural. This image shows a large pink pig with black blobs.
And another close-up, this time of three chickens.
A view of the mural through bean vine canes (there are beans growing just outside the shelter). There is a peacock sitting on a fence in the background.
The front view of the mural, showing the largest wall. The landscape features a tree, turkeys, horses and the chickens and pig.

Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital Foundation Trust

Two swans in a river that flows across a large window of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. The mural is drawn with chalk pen.
A chalked message on one of the windows that thanks those who have donated organs. There is a parking ticket machine in the foreground.
A wide image of three large painted windows. The window in the middle reads 'Organ Donation Week 2020'.
A close up of the painted text '#organdonationweek'. Each letter uses a different colour.
A close-up of a tui bird. The bird is native to New Zealand and brings a bit of tropical paradise to Norfolk.
A close-up of a swallow, painted on the large West Atrium window.
Another detail from the murals, seen from the inside of the hospital. It shows the text '#organdonationweek' and the Organ Donation Week logo (a pink heart). Outside the window is a parked ambulance.
A close up of three fishes swimming in the large mural.

The Hamlet

The Hamlet is a charity in Norwich which enriches the lives of children and young adults with disabilities and complex health needs.

Here we see one of the day users of the Hamlet Charity in her black electric wheelchair looking at a section of the mural with a big smile on her face and her arms held out wide like she wants to hug it. The section of the mural she is responding to has beach windmill flowers in the long grass, an oak tree that is covered in golden bells ringing, an old piano that is covered in flowers on a vine and just behind her an upside down horn that is sprouting blossom. All around there are busy bees gathering nectar.
This lovely group photo shows a group of 3 kids and their 3 carers posing in front of the musical meadows mural painted for the Hamlet Centre. There backs are to the golden bell covered oak trees and to both sides and above there are musical instruments and flowers all growing together, dark blue musical notes dance through the light blue sunny sky. Different coloured origami birds fly through the sky. In front of the group are colourful outdoor toys as this mural was painted in the outdoor courtyard area where the kids can play at break times.
In front of the middle section of the mural we have a mid-length body shot of Chrissy and Dugald having just finished painting the mural. Chrissy’s hair is short and a bright fire engine red. She is wearing a black dress top with grey leggings and blue protective gloves. Dugald has on his warm wooly hat he knitted in turquoise, teal and white yarn. He has white but very paint splattered dungaree overalls covering a black sweatshirt. On the mural between them we see the upside down horn sprouting blossoms and fisher price toys inspired, different coloured records that are part record part daisy growing out the ground.
Here we have a close-up of Dandy artist Chrissy painting the golden bells on oak trees. They are a mixture of traditional bells and the small round bells you get on reindeer and sleighs. In the background Dandy artist Dugald is painting dark blue musical notes. Both Chrissy and Dugald have masks on as this mural was painted in the early days of lock down being finished in England but with many necessary safety measures in place. The turquoise of Dugald’s hat and the bright red of Chrissy’s hair look great together in this photo.
Here we see a close-up of an ornate, broken, old piano covered in pink vine flowers. The piano sits in the long grass. The flower vines are wrapped around its legs, underneath the bottom and growing up over the top covering parts of the piano keys and the raised lid. The piano is a black grand piano still with music rest. The black piano is highlighted with strokes of gold paint to catch the light.
Here we have a mid length shot of Dugald and Chrissy painting different parts of the mural. Dugald is in his paint splattered, white dungarees and his black sweatshirt. He is painting the small white blossom that is sprouting from the orange and gold upside down horn. The idea for the blossom came from the Hamlet Charity’s sensory room where the managers had made lovely looking white blossom flowers out of paper and card. Standing on the dandy scaffold ladder is Chrissy painting the top part of her oak trees.
Here we see the very nearly finished full mural. Dugald is just putting a finishing touch to the top very left hand corner of the mural. The mural covers one full wall of the kid’s outdoor courtyard lunchtime play area. The theme for the mural chosen by the Hamlet Charity was musical meadows so the dandies painted a whimsical meadow scene with instruments and flowers growing all over the place. Also in the mural are ideas offered from the kids and staff that are also reflected in other areas around the Hamlet Centre. The dandies painted honey Bees gathering nectar all over the mural just like they have set up in their sensory room. Origami birds are painted flying in the sky up the top which is reflected from the hanging decorations in the reception of a thousand paper cranes inspired by the Japanese kids story.
Here we have a detail shot of a section of the mural. The main focus is the big upside down orangey gold horn that is sprouting white blossom. In the sky around and behind it we see dark blue musical notes dancing through the air. To the right of the horn are painted foxglove flowers in a different pink tones. In front of the horn we can see a couple of the colourful record flowers. The horn is sat upside down on the meadow grass and there is a bee buzzing around it looking for nectar.
Here we see another full shot of the mural taken this time with a wide camera lens rather than a panorama effect so we don’t have a distorted widening in the middle of the shot that a panoramic effect creates to what point is closest to the camera. On the middle left and right two windows poke out of the meadow. The scene is a large meadow scene with long grass at the front and bell covered trees, the old flower laden grand piano, the blossoming horn, a pool shaped like a bass guitar with water lilies growing in it. There are loads of different colours throughout the mural added by all the flowers, instruments and animals. The sky is a light blue slightly darker at the top graduating to lighter towards the horizon like on a sunny day. The meadow fields are all different sorts of greens getting lighter as they go back to the horizon to meet the sky.
Here we see a process shot. The mural is only about half way done so the base colours are in and some of the larger details but not the smaller finishing details. To the left of the picture we have our work station set up housing all our paint, brushes, thermoses, palettes and cleaning rags. Dugald is mixing up some more colours. He is working on a flower that when he is finished for the day and comes back the next morning he will decide to repaint making the flowers different coloured fisher price record daisies rather than an unconvincing heart shaped red lily flower. This is one of the helpful joys of painting! If it doesn’t work you can paint over it and fix it. In the back of the photo Chrissy is looking round at Dugald and they are both laughing.
Here we see one of the Hamlet Charity users’ and their carer right next to the new mural. The child is holding a long, thin, green plastic thing that can bend with both of his hands. He is wearing a dark turquoise hoodie top and black and grey striped t-shirt with grey trousers. His carer is wearing the Hamlet uniform which is a cobalt blue t-shirt with black trousers. The blue of the t-shirt tones very nicely with the lighter blue of the mural’s sky in the background. They are both standing nearest the oak trees covered in golden bells. Near their knees are some beach windmill flowers which were inspired by some of the kids drawing them in their art classes.
Here we have a very happy picture of Gabriel, one of the day service users of the Hamlet Charity and his carer. He looks very happy in his black electric wheelchair. He has his hands close together by his chest and is smiling. He is wearing a maroon jumper and white trousers. His hair is short and dark brown. His carer is standing slightly behind and to the right hand side of him. She is also smiling wearing a face mask and a black headscarf. Her uniform is a cobalt blue t-shirt with black trousers. Behind these two on the left are the golden bell covered oak trees and to the right the blossoming french horn and record daisies. Above them flies a pink origami bird.

Colofon

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