Over the past week, the Waitaki artists have been combining their creative talents to transform the Friendly Bay toilets into a public work of art.
The group first worked together last year to create a mural as part of the Waitaki Arts Festival.
When they were approached by the Waitaki District Council about creating a new look for Oamaru’s Steampunk playground toilet block, they jumped at the chance to work together again.
They started preparing the toilet block for the mural last week, spent most of the weekend on their masterpiece, and were putting the finishing touches on it this week.
They went for a Steampunk theme, but had toned it back from "skulls and fire", opting for something a bit more child-friendly, and in tune with the harbour area. Mr Wicks came up with the initial nautical concept, and worked with the others to incorporate all of their different artistic skills and ideas.
"Working with these guys, they’re all incredibly skilled at what they do, so it’s great to have a team like that where you can come down, share your idea, and then they go, ‘Oh how about this?’, ‘How about that?’, and by the end of it, you’ve got something a little bit different than what you maybe initially imagined, but in a good way," he said.
They learned a lot from their first mural, and there was no "standing around feeling like we didn’t know what to do" this time, Mrs Crossan said.
"We eliminated that completely this time, and it was just all go," she said.
The harbour was a hive of activity at the weekend, as families made the most of the warm weather at the playground and the beach, and the area hosted the Oamaru triathlon and duathlon.
Their work attracted a lot of attention, and they enjoyed giving people an insight into the mural process.
They were all passionate about street art, and bringing more of it to the streets of Oamaru — and were pleased with how it had turned out.
"The end goal has always been to have more of this stuff around town," Mrs den Dulk said.
