Red house

 

I found this mural last week in our local town square, not sure who painted it, could be artist Mark Haldane but it depicts an old house in the bush, very reminiscent of West Coast historical miner's hut.

The explanation about the new blog name is based on one of my favourite songs - Blue Day by a band named Mi-Sex who were well known in New Zealand during the late 1970s and early 1980s in which the lead singer is named Steve Gilpin. Well thanks to the wonders of DNA and family tree research has shown me I am related to him on my father's side, so there you go.

For my Australian friends, I've just read the news this morning about the shooting in Sydney. I have Jewish ancestry on my father's side (hence my surname Franks) so this shocks me. War and fighting is stupid! Thinking of you there.

Linking up with Monday Murals.

Orange fish

 

This fish mural suddenly showed up on one of the bumps at the local skatepark yesterday. I have no idea who the artist is but it's nice to see some colour among the grey cement.

Linking up with Monday Murals and Mosaic Monday.

Happy or sad

 

At one of the local beaches in Cobden is this small mural on the side of a rubbish bin. The artist is Kieran Knutsford who was aged 11 at the time he painted this. I'm not sure what the story around it is but it looks like a child who is happy and sad when the parent is feeling the same.

Linking up with Monday Murals.

Flowers

I spotted this small mural on the outside of a door at one of the local water filtering buildings in Greymouth. The artist is Fi Ginivan who is a local artist.

Linking up with Monday Murals.

Fish

 

I discovered a utility box outside my workplace that has been painted with different coloured fish. Just down the road is the fishing port and various warehouses. The artist is Keilah Martin who hails from Palmerston North.

Linking up with Monday Murals.

Māwhera

 

There's a new mural on the side wall of one of the cafes in town. This one is named "Māwhera" which is a Māori word that means "wide spread river mouth" and that is pretty much describing the grey river.

It was painted by the local Grey District Youth Trust under the guidance of graffiti artists "Ikarus" and "Drows". 

Linking up with Monday Murals.

Ice creams

 

This mural has been painted onto another utility box outside one of the local takeaway shops, depicting ice creams it's perfect for our weather at the moment. Something nice and cool.

Linking up with Monday Murals.

Eyes

In a nearby suburb in Greymouth I've been watching the reconstruction of this house and last week I saw that someone had painted a very spacey mural on the outside.

 Personally I really like it - it's kind of weird. What do you think?

Linking up with Mural Monday.

Buzzy Bee mural

 

Another utility box seen on the outskirts of central Greymouth. Most New Zealanders and Australians will recognize this one. The iconic "buzzy bee" is a wooden toy with wheels that babies and toddlers grow up with and makes a clicking noise when it's pulled along. Painted by Mark Haldane aka Raja the toy was originally created by Maurice Schlesinger around 1939/1940.

This is the same toy that Prince William was filmed playing with during the royal tour to New Zealand in 1983.

More about the lightning strike we had the other night. Apparently our neighbour across the road had one of the power poles outside her house blow up due to being struck so it ended up damaging some of the internal wire. Being not far away from her we were lucky not to end up in the same boat.

Linking up with Monday Murals.

Cafe

This is something very weird I spotted over Summer earlier this year. the DP1 Cafe in Greymouth has this mural on the front window which looks like a person riding on the back of a rather large snail. Strange but very cool...

Linking up with Weekend Reflections, Mural Monday and the Weekend Roundup.

Another mystery machine

I spotted another campervan last week, this one is a different take on the last Mystery Machine that I found but this one is in shades of grey and orange.

Linking up with Mural Monday.

Railway Hotel Murals

On the side of the front wall of the Railway Hotel building is this mural in bits and pieces.

I can't work out what some of the creatures are but the others are a pirate ship, a duck and a crab on this wall.

And another pirate ship with fish on this wall. I don't think there's any particular message in it except that it's a bit of fun painted by local artist RAJA aka Mark Haldane.

Linking up with Mural Monday and Blue Monday. 

Mystery Machine

Outside my work recently I spotted this. Recognize it? A campervan was painted just like the van from the cartoon series "Scooby Doo" from the 1970s. Maybe many from my generation and older will know all about it.

Linking up with Mural Monday and Blue Monday. 

Taylorville mural

One of the few murals I've seen just out of town in the nearby suburb of Taylorville is this one on the side of what looks like a bus shelter is of a palm tree with a sunset behind it - the only information I have about it is that it was painted by someone named "Konni".

Linking up with Mural Monday.

Under the sea

Sometimes around town I see vans and campervans being driven by tourists that are covered in illustrations and murals. This one I spotted last week features what looks like an octopus and was painted by Kiwi artist Dan Mills who was born in England but has lived in Wellington, Mangawhai (my home town) and now is in Taranaki.

Linking up with Mural Monday.

Pukeko

Time for another utility box mural - this one is in Cobden, a nearby suburb was painted by artist Stacey Dunnachie saying "The design depicts 2 pukeko birds looking out for each other". If you don't know much about these birds, they are very common in New Zealand - they mostly scout around ditches and wetlands looking for scraps of food. They are coloured mostly blue and black with an orange beak and live in groups rather than by themselves.

Linking up with Mural Monday.

Speights Mural

We had lunch last week at the local Speights Ale House here in Greymouth, I will post photos from that soon but I spotted this mural on one of the walls next to the bar. I'm not sure who painted it, it could be a corporate thing as they have other restaurants around Aotearoa but it does what it's suppose to do...it looks old and historical to fit with the building.

Linking up with Mural Monday. 

Triangles

There's a new mural up in Greymouth on the side one of the buildings on the main street in town. This one was created by "Art by Fi" and all triangles symbolize green for the nikau palms, yellow for the sand, blue for the waves - these are common for New Zealand scenery.

Linking up with Mural Monday. 

Greymouth SPCA

Another local mural painted by Mark Haldane aka RAJA - this one outside the local SPCA which shows a mixture of animals next to a native Cabbage Tree. This is where we adopted our last 2 cats from - Floki and Tiger.

Linking up with Mural Monday.

The Coast

This mural is just around the corner and about 2 minutes up the road from home. Titled "12 Mile Beach" by Ivory Racho it shows the coastline around the west coast, in particular between Greymouth and Punakaiki.

Linking up with Mural Monday.