Artist and pupils combine talents

The southernmost street artist has worked with many people throughout his 25-year career — but he was impressed with the talent of a group of Te Anau pupils last weekend.

South Sea Spray Festival founder and street artist Danny "Deow" Owen, worked with a group of 10 pupils from Fiordland College on a mural to celebrate Maori Language Week.

The group — aged between 11 and 17 — set a goal to execute a mural project after noticing a lack of diverse artistic expression in their town.

Deow, of Invercargill, was invited to work with the pupils and he spent weeks discussing the design and techniques until the work formally started in Te Anau last Friday.

"Predominantly [the mural] is based around the takahē because it’s a bird found in that region . . . it’s kind of an iconic bird for the area. They were really keen to paint that.

"We also portrayed the native fauna there, which is the red tussock, which is quite prominent when driving through Te Anau and you can see it — some kowhai and then we also incorporated the house colours for the school which are red, yellow, blue and green," Deow said.

The group worked on two murals — one the pupils helped Deow to paint and the other one that was totally made by them.

"To be honest their wall is better than mine, I think."

Deow said it was a great experience to work with the group as they were quite talented and he hoped he could pass on his passion for street art for the future generations.

"By the end of it, the kids were pretty exhausted but also pretty happy with themselves and they should be proud of what they did because they did an amazing mural.

"It’s so humbling just to be embraced . . . appreciated for the skillset I have, and be able to share with them. . .

"I think now they’re gonna have a passion for painting murals — maybe they’ll keep the torch burning and keep the ball rolling."