Stephanie Peters

Over the summer, I painted a mural on the recreation center, in Elliston, Newfoundland, Canada. While I was there for other reasons, the recreation committee asked if I could paint a 115ft long mural on their building and I couldn't say no to that challenge.

The wall is facing a community park they had recently improved and they thought a mural would be a nice addition. They requested that the mural be community friendly and colorful but I was free to paint what I wanted. (Of course my sketches were approved by their committee before I began.) 

I wanted to make a mural that related to their community, and their history. Elliston is located on one of the northern peninsulas of Newfoundland, and historically it was a big  fishing community. Like most of Newfoundland, after the cod industry was eliminated in the 90's, Elliston struggled to stay alive. But 20 something years later, after the community got together to promote tourism, Elliston is a tourist destination known as the Root Cellar Capital of the world, with a strong tight knit community at the core of it. It is an incredible place to watch whales, see icebergs, and plenty of sea birds (puffins, gannets, and razorbills included!) Thousands of tourists visit Elliston for their location, natural features, and even for their festivals like the Puffin Festival, and Roots, Rants and Roars - a fall event that brings chefs from all over the world to Elliston. 

With all of this inspiration to work with, it was easy to come up with a composition that highlights what Elliston is proud of: their relationship with the sea. So I drew up a composition that started with Puffins flying off an island and then flowing into the life at sea. I included a variety of sea birds (Northern Gannets, Herring Gulls, Kittiwakes, Black-back gulls, Razorbills, Double crested cormorant, Black guillemots, and Atlantic Puffins,) a fin whale, a humpback whale breaching, a humpback with calf, a minke whale, a school of cod, a school of sculpin, a gray seal, a crab, lobsters, squid, capelin, an iceberg, seaweed and a root cellar - to highlight all that is Elliston. 

The mural took ten days to paint, and thankfully, a few community members came by to help during the ten days.

Here is the finished mural:  

And a gallery timeline of the project:

And so after 10 days of painting, the mural was complete...

I have painted murals before, but this was my biggest mural to date. I really enjoyed painting it, but what I enjoyed the most about this project was the enthusiasm from the community. This mural is theirs. Some of them painted it, but many followed the progress along on Facebook or stopped by to say hi while I was painting. I wanted to make something that they will smile at when they see it, something that brought a little color to their world, and most importantly, adds a little joy to their everyday. 

I was so lucky to have this opportunity and I cannot thank the Town of Elliston enough for giving me the opportunity  - and I'll never be able to thank those who helped enough.  

If you ever find yourself in Elliston, Newfoundland. Take a look at the mural, it's across the street from the Home from the Sea Sealing Memorial Interpretive Center. 

The annual Puffin Festival celebrates the puffins, root cellars, and various other cultural gems found in Elliston. During our summer stay here in Elliston, we met some of the people who run the festival and they asked us if we had any ideas for this year's festival. Since I'm a big fan of public art and getting people outdoors, I suggested a puffin scavenger hunt of sorts. We could create large painted wood puffins and put them around town for people to find. And people could take pictures with them if they wanted to. 

Thankfully they liked my idea, so I came up with 6 different puffin designs and created templates for them to be cut out of wood. Once they were cut out, Neil and I primed them, then we painted various designs on the puffins. 

Most of the designs were of course inspired by Newfoundland and well puffins. After they dried, they were installed around town. Here is each puffin, and where it was placed: 

These puffins have been up around town since the Festival and I hope they make an appearance every year. But if they do or don't, at least they brought a little goofy fun to the town for a weekend :)