Splash of colour to liven up Sumner Coastguard Station

This is what the Sumner Coastguard Station will look like after artist Emily Quane and others in the community transform it.

The computer-generated design will be brought to life over the next few weeks, but Quane is still on the lookout for people to be part of the painting process.

The Redcliffs artist came up with the idea of the mural while working at the community hub in Sumner.

While brainstorming ideas for community events, she suggested a mural at the coastguard station, where she is a member and husband Blair Quane is president.

“We were looking at doing some more community events and we put in to get some funding from Creative New Zealand, Creative Communities to do a mural.

“We thought the coastguard station would be quite a good spot to start a mural and do something where the community could get involved.”

The design for the mural was created after meetings with the station, Mt Pleasant artist Oli Aikawa and Quane, taking inspiration from all things coastguard.

“We’ve included the three boats that they have. So they have a jet ski, they have the big boat, which is called Blue Arrow, and a medium boat.

“There’s a surfer and then also just a bit of the local landscape, to show exactly where it is.”

Preparations for painting started earlier this week, with water blasting of the wall being done on Tuesday and Quane projecting the image and outlining it yesterday.

Community groups and schools have been recruited to assist in painting, but Quane is searching for children and parents to take part in a community painting day on Sunday.

“It’s going to be a paint-by-numbers type thing, so it’ll be quite easy. Even if they’ve not got any art experience on them, it doesn’t matter. They can find the section that they can paint and go from there.”

• Anyone interested in taking part in the community painting day can register via the Art at Sumner Hub Facebook page.