Created by Matty Ingold and his partner Eryn, the mural reflects Canberra’s culture and surrounds. Photo: Thomas Lucraft.
An emerging local artist has teamed up with her partner to create a new mural at The Property Collective’s office in Kingston.
The mural spans a whopping 27 square meters of wall, ceiling and ledge, taking painter Eryn Marshall 60 hours to illustrate across two weeks.
Designed by The Property Collective graphic designer – and partner to Eryn – Matty Ingold, the mural depicts Canberra’s culture and surrounds using a series of interconnected doodles.
Asked why he went with a line-based design, Matty says he loved the way all the elements flowed together.
“I guess it’s just my own sort of style, it’s just how I like to illustrate so it came pretty naturally as well,” Matty explains.
In addition to classic Canberra landmarks like Telstra Tower, the National Carillon and Parliament House, the mural also features more nuanced Canberra favourites like Brod Burger and Skywhale.
Once created, it was up to Eryn to transfer the design onto the walls and ledges without compromising the proportions.
“I am very detail orientated and used to doing things on a much smaller scale so this was a challenge trying to blow something up 10 times the size I’m used to,” Eryn says.
To do so successfully, Eryn constructed a grid of 1 cm increments across the original design before reconstructing an identical larger grid onto the space that used 10 cm increments instead.
“We then measured those out on the wall with strips of tape and marked on the tape where each of the measurements were and then eyeballed it from there.”
While Eryn describes the fun of illustrating the Canberra Skywhale as a highlight of the project, she says other segments were not so easy.
In a manoeuvre Michelangelo would be proud of, Eryn spent hours perched atop a ladder while illustrating the ceiling, which she admits required bending her body in ways “it isn’t used to bending.”
“The trickiest part to draw was the birds because of the angles and the fact that they were on the ceiling. I had to draw each of the tail and wing feathers on an angle, so that was the most tedious part.”
In 2023, Eryn also worked with The Property Collective to paint a large cubby house that raised over $13,000 for charity and was later donated to a women’s and children’s domestic violence shelter operated by Beryl Women Inc.
“I hadn’t had the opportunity to do one before The Property Collective reached out for the cubby house, but it was something I’ve always wanted to do,” Eryn says.
Eryn’s work can be viewed and commissioned via her website, while those hoping to view the mural can stop by The Property Collective office in Kingston, where the Coffee Collective café is brewing in the lobby from 7 am to 12:30 pm on weekdays.
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