GUIDO’S MURAL WORK REALLY HITS HEIGHTS
FROM low-level graffiti tagging to large-scale murals, Guido van Helten is leaving a giant footprint around the world.
His enormous, eyecatching murals adorn sites across Australia, Europe, Asia and America.
“I come from a history of growing up using spray-paint and working outdoors,” Mr van Helten said.
“Now I do public artwork, working with images of people intended to capture the imagination.”
He spends plenty of time developing a concept for a location, mostly using a monochromatic palette, which allows him to create intricate shading and details.
He spent a month at the Southern Cross University, hosting photography workshops across two campuses capturing compelling images within the community which informed the design concept, before raising his boom lift and dispersing paint using a spray gun, paintbrushes and roller.
Mr van Helten has completed more than 60 large-scale artworks and recently transformed adjoining 10-storey walls at Southern Cross University’s Gold Coast Campus with two lifelike figures immortalised on the skyline.
His creative labour took 18 days and 50 litres of paint, with the 43m-tall masterpiece capturing the country’s imagination and the sense of a meeting place that a university campus represents.
“When you know that you’re going to be doing something very big, imposing and dominant in people’s environments, it can be very nerve-racking,” he said. “The concept developed organically from being here and spending time with the people. It’s technical and figurative.
“I’ve tried to conserve the texture of the building by using a water colour paint, with a lot of fades built up on top of each other. The tiny details all blend in from far away, but I like that up close the style falls apart and you can see the construction, which is what people can see from the stairwells and the window.”
Guido graduated from the university’s Lismore campus with a Bachelor of Visual Arts – Printmaking major.
Mr van Helten is now headed overseas for six months.