Painting my Park Slope corrugated shed mural
I recently had the pleasure to hand-paint a floral mural on a shed in my local Brooklyn community garden. The idea was born after painting the plants in my local Brooklyn community garden, and feeling that the well-loved space deserved better than a rusted, tagged shed.
Corrugated shed in local garden
To begin, I reached out to the local volunteer group and was delighted to meet with Fiona, Myles and his dog one autumn evening. We talked about the best way to tackle the shed and they were supportive from the start.
Normally my murals bring nature into urban spaces or private homes, but this was a unique challenge. How to use motifs of nature alongside the leaves, flowers, bricks and shapes of the beautiful garden? I wanted something that wouldn't compete with the nature that surrounded it, but instead take inspiration from it's forms, colours and shadows.
Image of plants in the garden
I headed to the garden with my sketchbook and quickly reacted to the garden around me. This joyful experience (because why Google plants when you can have a cappuccino, blast Olivia Dean through your headphones and splash paint around outside?!). I then took these rough sketches and refined them in Adobe Photoshop, providing the local volunteer group with two options, each reflected the red circles on the adjacent wall, and took from the shapes of the flowers in the garden. They chose the first image and we moved onto the preparation stage of the mural painting.
Rough concept one
Rough concept two
On a beautiful autumn day I headed to the shed, where the local volunteers helped me clean down the shed, and metal brush any flakes of paint. Next, I protected the space using a plastic tarpaulin on the floor, filling a bucket of water, taping up the handle and sides of the shed and mixing the colours.
The shed is primed ready for mural painting
I then applied two coats of a metal primer, before using Behr Exterior paint to put together the mural. The painting of the shed took me three days in total and should last for many years in this beautiful little garden.
Me art mural painting
Mural painting process
Floral mural process image
Final shed mural in local Brooklyn garden
