New mural captures spirit of Waimate rugby
Waimate’s ‘‘resident artist’’ has added another artwork to others he has painted around the town.
Bill Scott has painted a mural of Waimate Rugby Club players on a wall of the Junior Advisory Board (JAB) storage shed at the club grounds, Manchester Park.
‘‘The initial brief was to recognise little kids transitioning to seniors,’’ he says.
The artwork depicts four juniors and four seniors, all of them members of the
Waimate club.
‘‘The wall we’ve used is in the lower areas where the wee guys play. The images they had there before got a wee bit dated.’’
Scott says he was given ‘‘a heap of photos’’ to use as a basis for the mural which was initiated by the club’s JAB.
‘‘We’re also recognising the girls coming into the sport and the Tongan and Samoan guys.’’
While the names of those pictured in the mural are known, Scott says it is not about individuals but the whole club.
Club president Chris Medlicott is delighted with the result.
‘‘I think it’s an outstanding initiative.’’ Two years ago Scott painted another rugby themed mural on a wall at Transport Waimate’s premises.
It depicts the late Stella Chamberlain, the first woman to be made a life member of the club, hanging out jerseys on a clothes line. Chamberlain, who died in 2014, washed the Waimate senior team’s jerseys for 39 years, by soaking them in a bath, washing them by hand and putting them through a wringer.
Scott says he has also recently completed a portrait of early settler women for Bushtown.
His best known Waimate works are large scale murals on silos which dominate the town’s skyline, and are considered among the largest examples of street art in New Zealand.
The murals show former New Zealand prime minister Norman Kirk, early settler Michael Studholme, Ma¯ori chief Te Huruhuru, Waimate war hero Eric Batchelor and pioneer woman doctor Margaret Cruickshank.