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Works of art for Glastonbury Mural trail

Murals Painted With Thorndown Wood Paint

GLASTONBURY MURAL TRAIL

The Glastonbury Mural Trail opened for Somerset Art Weeks from 21st September to 6th October 2019. This ongoing community project will be added to as the years go by as a continuous celebration of some of the things that make Glastonbury such a special town to live in or visit. The interactive Glastonbury Mural Trail map shows the locations of all murals taking place in the trail.

The Glastonbury Mural Trail was put together by artist Kim von Coels of  The Krumble EmpireGlastonbury Town Council and the Glastonbury Chamber of Commerce and Tourism. It leads visitors through the colourful town, taking in the works of art that help make Glastonbury so unique.

Known for its individuality, Glastonbury is often a beacon for creatives and we are delighted that our Wood Paint is being used by artists in this incredible mural trail.

FAYE SUZANNAH

GLASTONBURY TOWN HALL MURAL

This stunning mural takes pride of place on a large feature wall in the main hall of Glastonbury Town Hall. Glastonbury Town Council commissioned Faye to design and paint the mural, using Thorndown Wood Paint, and her beautiful design and palette creates a calming atmosphere of wonder for all occasions.

A description on the wall in the town hall says “The design brings together decorative elements of the hall in a magestic repeat pattern that subtly incorporates iconic imagery and local flora and fauna. Small blossoms celebrate the abundance of local produce we grow and the horticultural history of the cider/apple industry in this area. The Hawthorn/Holy Thorn leaves illustrate the strong spiritual importance that this town has maintained for centuries for a broad spectrum of believers.”

The mural is an incredible piece of design and fills you with awe and wonder up close.

MURMATIONS MURAL

Faye beautifully encapsulated the wonders of the starling murmurations and gentle movements of the rushes in the marshes with this gorgeous mural on a garage in the outskirts of Glastonbury, surrounded by countryside.

She used our wood paint as a “beautiful navy blue base” then with a limited paint budget she used leftover paint that she had in her garage. Great for the environment and the results are wonderful.

SUNFLOWERS MURAL

It was an honour for Thorndown Paints to be a sponsor on the Avalon Marshes mural for the Glastonbury Mural Trail, supporting a fantastic event for the town and working with such a wonderful and talented artist, so much so that we ended up sponsoring another mural to be painted on a wall by the fabulous artist Faye Suzannah!!

Kim painted a base coat of Adonis Blue Wood Paint on the wall first, covering over the old purple and providing a fresh and pretty sky blue as a backdrop to the sunflowers. Although not specifically designed for masonry, our Wood Paint adheres well to masonry, terracotta pots, metal, uPVC and plastic. Normally we would advise using a multi-purpose primer if painting on these substrates to help the paint adhere but on this occasion our wood paint was painted directly onto the previous paint coating which will have acted like a primer.

Faye then used a selection of Wood Paint colours (Golden SomerLimestoneMoorland GreenSedge GreenSundowner Orange and Swan White) to create her stunning sunflowers, mixing colours together to create her full palette.

The transformation is stunning and her design cannot fail to bring a warm smile to anyone that looks on this beautiful piece of art. A sunflower even came out in appreciation of her design!

FRANK HARWOOD

Artist Frank Harwood paints wall murals with Thorndown wood paint 

Frank has a warm and uplifting style, creating characters with a cheeky twinkle in their eye that bring a sense of light and humour. You can see his works in paint and sculpture on his website FrankHarwood.com

PINK RHINO

This wall mural is based on a woodcut of a rhinoceros by German Rennaisance artist, Albrecht Durer in 1515. In those days not many people had seen a rhino and Durer created his from a brief description and sketch.

Frank recreated this rhino in glorious detail on the wall of the Crystals shop on the corner of Church Lane and Glastonbury High Street. The vibrant pink hues and purple perfectly suit the majestic mystical nature of the image, complete with a unicorn horn on its neck, as in those times some believed the rhino and the unicorn to be one and the same.

Emblazoned with a radioactive yellow energy field around it, it looks like the rhino is being re-energised, ready to leap out, charging up the High Street and onto the Tor.

ADAM & EVE

Adam & Eve is another incredibly impressive Frank Harwood murals, commissioned as part of the Glastonbury Mural Trail. This breath-taking mural can be found on St Benedicts Close in Glastonbury, adorning the end wall of a row of terraced houses.

Frank chose to use Thorndown Wood Paint again as he previously used it on the Waving Woman mural and found it to be very durable with strong colour pigments that are very fade resistant. Having worked in the paints industry himself for many years he was also impressed by the versatility of the paint, finding that it adhered really well to masonry and had a far greater vibrancy to the colours as opposed to masonry paint that can be limited and dull.

waving woman mural

Another mural Frank painted on the gable end of a building opposite the Chalice Well, is a beautiful addition to the unique murals that adorn the walls of Glastonbury.

Designed and painted by artist Frank Harwood the Waving Woman welcomes people travelling to and from Glastonbury with a cheerful face. She embodies the rural and bountiful nature of Glastonbury and the surrounding countryside, and the warm welcoming people found in the community of Glastonbury.

Frank used Thorndown Wood Paints in a range of colours from the colour chart and selected RAL colours to complete his palette. He painted straight on to the cement render and loved the finish and how easy the paints were to work with.

You can read more about Frank’s murals here and see more pictures of his beautiful works of art.

JON MINSHULL AVALON MARSHES MURAL

A mural was commissioned to mark the start of the trail in the main car park outside the information centre. The Avalon Marshes Mural was unveiled on Tuesday 6th August 2019 at St Dunstan’s House, 1 Magdalene Street where the Glastonbury Tourist Information Centre is housed.

Kim enlisted renowned artist, Jonathan Minshull, who has produced many stunning pieces during his career including numerous murals in the UK and California.

It’s not every day that you get to work with an international artist, so it was an utter privilege to have someone as talented as Jonathan Minshull work with our Wood Paint.

Jonathan has worked in various mediums including oils and acrylics but this was his first time working with a wood paint. Using marine ply wood as a canvas, and a local artist studio as a base, Jonathan created his mural of the Avalon marshes.

After a little experimenting and familiarising with the nature of the wood paint, he found “the paints really good to use and have a real vibrancy in the flesh”. The way that he worked with the paint was very reminiscent of an oil painting. Jonathan used a selection of 11 colours from the core colour chart and a bright grass green selected from the RAL Design colours to build his main palette, mixing together colours to create every shade. 

He found the strength of the colour pigments really high and the quality of the finish to surpass that of traditional oil paints, so his future external murals may well be created with Thorndown Wood Paints!

The final piece is a stunning representation of the marshes so akin with Somerset, with the iconic Glastonbury Tor in the background and local wildlife celebrating the vibrant nature in these parts.

Somerset-Art-Weeks-map