Job becomes horror show
Rainbow’s End artwork painted in Wha¯ nga¯ rei
Olivia Garelja usually paints florals and landscapes but has been having a stab at scenes of horror for a new haunted house at Rainbow’s End.
In total, there’s about 40sq m of mural consisting of a library scene, a bedroom scene and a kitchen scene. The dark, haunting mural boards are punctuated by bright, bloody patches.
The boards will be part of a temporary walk-through attraction that will open at the Auckland theme park for Halloween.
Garelja credits her “creative mind” and Pinterest for her inspiration.
“I kind of imagined what a kitchen might, in a horror scene, look like.”
She drew base outlines on the boards with chalk and the designs for each room evolved from there.
The kitchen is complete with a pig’s head, loose human limbs and a body in a mincing machine. The bedroom has a clown armed with a knife, a doll whose eyes follow you and a message written in blood.
“I haven’t done work so dark before.”
Usually she paints florals and landscapes. Garelja has spent about 25 hours a week over the past eight weeks working on the scenes in her studio near Kamo, Wha¯nga¯rei, fitting painting around her day job.
She mostly used brushes, but wasn’t afraid to use her hands and fingers to create realistic bloody hand prints or mix paint colours.
Garelja, who moved to Wha¯nga¯rei about seven months ago, worked as a mural artist for Rainbow’s End a few years ago, usually on children’s scenes. In recent years she has worked corporate jobs while pursing her creative interests — painting, design and photography “on the side”.
Rainbow’s End contacted her in August to see if she could do the job. They shipped up the boards, paint, brushes and cloths and returned on Monday to pick up the finished work.
Garelja said: “It’s quite a captivating work, you stand there and there’s quite a lot of depth and detail.”