Gollum’s the latest attraction in town
For almost two years, an artist has been dreaming of turning his town’s undesirable walls into pieces of art.
It was a sunny summer’s day when the idea first came to Matamata artist Daniel Carter while he was wandering down the main street with his son.
Since then, Carter’s vision has remained clear. He wanted to spread ‘‘high-quality interactive murals’’ throughout the town and from there create a mural map to draw in more visitors.
‘‘I was watching the tourists and where they circulated but they did not look like they were venturing around town as much as people would like them to,’’ Carter told
‘‘I spotted a few places and created a map where each mural could be placed through town and try to get people using the side streets more.’’
While the process has been a slow one, Carter has officially ticked off his first mural.
Earlier this year The Redoubt Bar and Eatery wanted Carter to design something special for them.
After a few designs were passed around, and Covid-19 was out of the way, the decision was made and the paint hit the wall.
Across seven days a 3D version of Gollum, the
Rings character, now stands 3 metres tall on an outside wall. Carter used both an airbrush and paintbrush to create the depth and details, and to make it seem like Gollum was creeping out of a Hobbit window in his corrupted ‘‘shadow figure’’ self.
Carter would not divulge how much the mural cost but said his murals started from $2000 and went up from there, depending on measurements and images.
‘‘Putting the picture on the wall is not even half of the work.’’
All work on the mural had ‘‘to be done after hours . . . because it is a bar, some nights I could only start at 1.30am’’. While Carter has more murals in the pipeline, none so far are related to the films or to his mural map.
‘‘There are a lot of people that are interested in them but they take a lot of time.
‘‘I want people to be able to take a proper photo shoot in front of them.
‘‘I am trying to make it interactive, and doing that will make more people want to come to Matamata and see beautiful pictures.’’
Since Carter hung up the overalls as a car painter and decided to make his passion into a fulltime job five years ago, his artwork has been recognised across the country.
He has flown to Dunedin to design a mural on a campervan and in coming weeks he will complete a handful of murals in Auckland, as well as a large piece in front of 4000-plus partygoers at AUM New Year’s Festival in Auckland.
In recent years, and a bit closer to home, Carter has created a mural for Te Poi, two for Walton School, one in Te Aroha’s art gallery and another at United Matamata Sports Club.
Since the launch of his Facebook page five years ago – Desire for Creation – Carter said business was ‘‘going great’’.
He has perfected his skill in airbrushing, murals and pyrography – freehand art using a blow torch. Most of his artwork is sold privately.