Murals for alternative school

Some Cannons Creek buildings are getting a facelift thanks to pupils from Porirua Alternative School.

Pride, confidence, team work, focus and an escape are some of the benefits three Porirua students list when asked about the weekly art sessions run by artist Chris Barrand.

Maddy Marshall, 15, Jonah Davis, 16 and Blaine Bethan-Taape, 14, attend the Porirua Alternative School in Cannons Creek.

Every Wednesday for three years, Wellington’s Pablos Art Studios tutor Barrand has been running two-hour sessions with the students as part of an outreach programme.

‘‘Chris is really good at explaining things and mixing it up so we can understand,’’ Davis said.

‘‘He tries to get us to express our feelings and take them over into our art. It helps a lot.

‘‘Art puts me in my own world and even though I’m working with others, it feels like there’s just me and the art. It’s cool.’’

The three students worked on a large blue mural, decorated with stencilled brown turtles, fish and outriggers, on a wall in the Cannons Creek village centre.

They said they would feel proud to show it to their children one day.

Bethan-Taape said art had enabled him to show his ‘‘true colours’’.

Barrands aid the vibrant mural reflected the Cannons Creek community and was a metaphor for the teens’ journey through life.

‘‘Sometimes when you’re on the ocean, it can be incredibly stormy and at other times calm. It’s a theme the students can identify with as they face their own challenges and achievements.’’

Although the project with Porirua Alternative School was drawing to an end, Barrand said other projects would carry on in the community with support from Porirua City Council.