Local artists create amazing artwork for Alloway Tunnel Mural
Artist Chris Rutterford has just installed the latest artwork into the Alloway Tunnel. Visitors can now see a glorious new sunflower and rambling rose canopy up in the ceiling vaults.
The majority of the sunflowers were painted by art pupils at Carrick Academy in Maybole during a mural factory workshop at the end of last term. The rambling roses were painted by local professional artists, art students and art enthusiasts during a recent mural art workshop in Burns Cottage Education Pavilion. Then Chris takes them back to his studio to finesse all the pieces.
The ‘Gilding the Lily’ workshops attracted around 300 local artists who came together to add final flourishes of high-quality artwork to the mural. On the final day many local people dropped in for a last chance to get involved and it was great to welcome back many young people who joined us at the start of the project, three years ago.
Chris said, “This has been such a special and inclusive project to manage. Around 3000 local people have helped me transform this space into the joyful place you see today. The ‘Gilding the Lily’ workshops enabled us to collaborate with professional and amateur artists to put the icing on the cake by adding some outstanding pieces of artwork.
“The tunnel looks magical with all the colourful canopies added. I will shortly be adding more of the individual pieces created by some of the artists and these include all kinds of flying creatures from butterflies to birds to dragons and other mythical creatures.”
Meantime, Chris is working on completion of the ‘Last Train to Butlins’ scene, which will feature hundreds of more portraits of local people and their loved ones. The mural is due to be finished this autumn.
