“Before I begin my blog, I would like to acknowledge and pay respects to the traditional custodians past and present of this land where I live, work, and explore, the Ballardong, Wilman, Kaneang, Koreng, and Njakinjaki people of the Noongar Nation.”
Newspaper article circa 1933 reads: MAPLE LEAF CAFE MERREDIN. This is a scene outside TOMMY LAKE’S Maple Leaf Cafe, on the opening day of ice cream season last year, when a Quirt’s Cultivator was installed and over 500 iced fruit blocks and ice creams were distributed during the afternoon by Mr. Lake to celebrate the occasion. The Ice Cream Season opened last Saturday and as anticipated, there was a large demand for these summer delights, which include Pure Fruit Ice Blocks, Fruit Salads and Ice Creams.
Let’s travel back in time to the 1930s and take a northerly stroll up Bates Street, Merredin in Western Australia. Bates Street during the 1930s was a busy shopping precinct where town folk would meet and greet one another, whilst running their daily errands. The Post Office which was originally exposed red brick stood on the southwesterly corner of Bates and Barrack Streets, and presently today still trades as a Post Office. Further up the westerly side of Bates street was the grand, Duff’s Hotel, named after the proprietor, Mr. Thomas Duff. The Duff’s Hotel was the largest hotel outside the Metropolis of Western Australia and accommodated up to 100 guests. It contained seventy bedrooms, seven bathrooms, two dining rooms, two large bars, and a billiard room. Altogether there were over one hundred rooms in the hotel. The hotel was beautifully furnished throughout with solid Oak and Jarrah furniture predominating in the dining rooms whilst nearly every bedroom had a complete Oak bedroom suite. It was at the Duff’s Hotel people would meet for a social chat whilst enjoying a nice meal, cold beer, or a lemon squash if you were a kiddie playing outside in the beer garden. Adjoined to the hotel was the Duff's Arcade with eight offices and three shops facing easterly towards Bates street, including the Economic store where people would shop for drapery items. Across the road from the Duffs Hotel to the easterly side of Bates street was R. Hansen, Hairdresser and Tobacconists, and F. Whitfield’s, Tailor and Outfitter. Located next door in the Maple House Building, was the Holmsen’s Shoe Store and upstairs was a High-Class Accommodation Boarding House. The Tommy Lake’s, Maple Leaf Tea Rooms was located next door to Holmsen’s. If we wander further northerly, up the dirt road of Bates, we would find banks, a fire station, and the Merredin Service Station proprietor, Mr. Hornby.
Sadly, the Duff’s Hotel was demolished after the 1968 Meckering earthquake. Here’s a little poem about the Duff’s Hotel which was published in the local Merredin Mercury Newspaper on Thursday 22nd January 1925.
“Tom Duff is at present here.
Prepared to sell Swan or Emu Beer.
If this should fail to make you merry,
Try his whisky, gin or sherry.
Tobacco he keeps of fragrant brand,
Cigarettes and cigars are at your command;
Therefore be known and understood
That in Merredin they like something good;
And so I think it is not a sin
To have a drink at Tom Duff’s Inn.”
Merredin became home to me in 2008 when my son, Clayton, and I packed our belongings and relocated from Kalgoorlie. Even though I lived in the historic town of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, I have never been much of a history buff. That changed when I was employed by Meridian Regional Arts, as an artist in residence to create a historic streetscape mural. After much community surveying, conducted by Meridian Regional Arts, it was realised that people from the Merredin community were passionate about embracing the history of their hometown. My given brief was to create a semi-photorealistic interpretation from an old sepia photograph of Bates Street Merredin, circa the 1930s. I have to admit, I was a little hesitant at first as I had not much experience with painting perspective buildings and proportional figures. But then I thought, this would be a wonderful opportunity for me to set myself a challenge, learn and expand my art practice. I also wanted to give to my community in some way and for me, creating a mural to brighten our town and reflect pride in our history was my way of doing so.
So as an Australian would say, I gave it a crack. I studied old photographs and listened to historical stories which were told to me by the Flockhart family of Merredin (who are history buff’s by the way) and before I knew it an interest in the past history of Merredin sparked within me. I visualised in my mind how I would like the mural to present. I sketched a drawing of the proposed mural design. The mural would resemble an old sepia photograph with spot colour, much like an old postcard illustration. Deciding on the colour palette was my next step. I visited the Wattyl paint website and searched through the available colour hues. The first hue of choice was Aerial Blue to reflect our amazing blue sky backdrop. I needed to focus on all the light and dark values within the sepia brown photograph, therefore my chosen dark hue was good old-fashioned, Mission Brown. I thought about how appropriate this hue was as I’m sure back in the day there were many fences and posts painted with Mission Brown. I chose the following hues of Cinamon Quill, Warm Beigh, and Antique White for the mid-to-light values. Then it was onto the chosen spot colour hues which were, Persimon (red), Pea Soup (yellow), lovers Blush (pink), Alfalfa, and Tuscan Poplar (greens). With these nine chosen colour hues we were set to paint the mural.
Original pencil sketch of proposed mural by Jessie Spring.
Drawing the enlarged light projected image onto plywood panels.
Learning the process of painting a large-scale mural has been a rewarding experience for an artist such as myself who usually works small-scale. It was great to get out of my comfort zone and my studio and learn new skills. The first stage of creating a mural is getting the scale correct by ensuring your design image fits within the space. The enlarged image is either hand-drawn or light projected onto the space. For the Meridian Regional Arts 2022 mural, I was not to paint directly onto an existing wall but onto five large plywood panels which would later join, much like a zigsaw puzzle. Meridian Regional Arts wished to encourage engagement within the arts by inviting people from the community to assist with painting the mural. This was something we felt was important as it would give a sense of participation and achievement to everyone involved. The question was, how do I make a photorealistic mural not complex for the community to paint? The solution was to break the design down into simple block shapes of colour for the community to paint and then later I would complete with the detailing. I drafted a black line drawing of simple shapes found within the mural design and then scanned the image and converted it into PDF format. The image was then light projected onto the panels and drawn up with black markers. To make it easy for people from the community to know which colour to paint where the individual shapes were numbered in accordance with each paint colour.
Painting a figure of a girl crossing Bates Street. It was when these two panels joined the illusion of distance in the street scene was created.
The community mural paint day was a rewarding experience for all. It was humbling to see people from the community from all walks of life and ages pick up a paintbrush and a pot of paint and have a go painting our mural. The youngest participant was a six-month-old baby who put her marks on with assistance from her Mother. My Mother and Father and my close friend of thirty years, Steve who caught the train from Kalgoorlie to Merredin was there to help paint our mural. Two lovely ladies, Alanna and Hannah from Regional Arts WA also came along to see what was happening, and while they were at it put some marks on our mural. I describe the mural as ‘our mural’ because the mural is not only my achievement, but it is also the achievement of the community and the hard-working committee members of Meridian Regional Arts who wrote the grant applications that funded the mural. I would have to say it was obvious by the smiles, laughter, and conversation that a community mural paint day brings much enjoyment to all involved.
Painting the finishing details of the telegraph poles. It was decided to paint just a faded suggestion of powerlines.
To withstand the weather elements, an external mural must consist of four to five coats of quality exterior paint. After the community paint day, my dear Mother, Gail assisted with putting some extra coats of paint on the large sky area, foreground, and a few other colour shapes. Thanks, Mum! My deadline was, to complete the mural for it to be installed for public display at the annual Christmas Gala Night, street festival. I had already been traveling up Northern WA for five weeks and was committed to part-time employment at the local hospital, therefore I had to get cracking and get the job done. I spent the next few weeks working from the Meridian Regional Arts Shed, where they conduct various art and craft workshops with the community. This space became my second home, where I spent four days a week creating the mural. The shed was situated next to a granite outcrop with natural bushland, therefore it was a peaceful place to create whilst listening to many birds singing around me. When I wasn’t listening to bird songs, I had my music blaring from the shed. Aussie rock band, ‘The Saints’ helped me paint that mural! Working from a selection of old photographs was the biggest challenge. These were photocopies of photographs taken of old photographs if you get my drift. The quality of certain elements in the photographs was somewhat subdued, making it difficult to decipher what was what. I had to do plenty of suggestive painting, concentrating on areas of light and dark contrast. I painted the entire mural by eye and paintbrush, using these photographs as a reference. I had to regularly stand back from the mural to see how it was viewed from a distance. We also did a little bit of research along the way to decipher the typography of signage. We discovered the word ‘accommodation’ on the Maple House sign was incorrectly spelled, ‘accomodation’ with a missing ‘m’, therefore it was decided to keep it that way, to keep the mural as authentic as possible. I had to sharpen up my skills in perspective painting to create a sense of depth and space within the street scene and to ensure elements such as figures of people, and telegraph poles were in proportion. As the mural progressed I decided to add certain quirky little elements such as the Crows and a nest in the tree. Although the mural is to be viewed from a distance, I also wished for the viewer to walk up to the mural and explore small details which tell a story. The little ginger cat following the lady down the street was inspired by Julie Flockart’s pet cat who often visited me at the shed. The car number plate, MD 27 was the original plate number of Mrs. Atkinson’s vehicle, the original owner of the Atkinson’s building where the mural is now placed. The reference photos were taken from different time periods, therefore I altered the clothing and hair styles of the figures to be reminiscent of 1930s fashion. Never have I lived in a town where people love their pet dogs as much as Merredin, therefore including a few dogs within the scene was a must.
Signing the completed mural.
The mural was meticulously installed by, Kevin Joss, registered builder and, Isacc Clarke, building apprentice on Tuesday 13th December 2022. It is situated on the east-facing wall of the Atkinsons shop building in Barrack street, Merredin. Much thanks and appreciation goes to Mr. Barry and Mrs. Lesley Smith, the owners of the building who wholeheartedly supported the project by allowing us to install the mural on their wall. I would like to thank John Flockart for his assistance with transporting the panels and setting up the community mural paint day. I would like to thank Chloe and Julie Flockart of Meridian Regional Arts Inc for their support throughout the project and for making it possible with all their hard work in writing grants. These two ladies are strong community-minded people and passionate about the arts. I would like to thank the Merredin Shire who supported this project through the Merredin Shire Community Grant which helped fund the materials such as the paint, panels, and installation channels. Thank you Lotterywest and DLGSCI for your generous sponsorship which allowed Meridian Regional Arts Inc to employ me as an Artist in Residence to create the mural with our community. It’s organisations such as this that help create fantastic opportunities for people within many communities. I would like to give thanks and gratitude to the people of the Merredin community who helped paint our community mural and to those who have supported the project with their likes and kind comments on social media. I would like to thank my Mother, Gail Law for her encouragement and help to get those extra-base paint coats on and for bringing me cold drinks. Last but not least, thank you to my Father, Max who always believes in me and encourages me to keep doing my best.
The completed mural on the east facing wall of the Atkinson’s building, Barrack Street, Merredin Western Australia.