Help make Perth more colourful
Public are invited to complete giant murals
YOU can fill in the rest Giant mural paintings depicting the Fair City will require the public’s help to colour them in. The project is a bid to make Perth not just remember the past, but create the future.
Artist Louise E Robertson has got her pencils and pens behind the bid for UK City of Culture 2021 status and has recently devoted her time to coming up with the inked outlines for some giant 6x7-foot canvases that local people will be able to colour when they go up this month around Perth City Hall.
The Methven-based mum told the PA: “This is my gift to the city I’m doing it for free and we will be providing colouring books of the images for the children to fill in.”
The murals show iconic city buildings in a pulsing, dynamic, new light.
Louise continued: “I first saw that Perth was bidding for city of culture 2021 via twitter. Perth city is a real mixture of social deprivation, wealth, culture, and diversity. It has its own particular history of industry, battles, religion and kings.
“It has had many a fortune and misfortune. It has a wealth of beautiful spaces and architecture and much to celebrate. Five years ago, Perth returned to the status of a city and looked to its future being brighter.
“The development to the future and Perth’s regeneration was beginning. There have been some monumental setbacks with the closing of established businesses and shops, but there are some exciting times ahead, not least the efforts of the cultural Perth team.
“The Perth 2021 bid is one of those drivers and is a springboard, regardless of the bid outcome, because so many events are already underway and developing our beautiful city.”
Having worked in America, Louise married Perthshire man Frank and moved to his family home where they are the third generation of the same family to be there.
After relocating to her husband’s home city she has made the area the centre of her world, inventing a series of impish Pictish people she calls ‘The Woadies’ along the way.
“As a writer and an artist, I have always been interested in the culture around Perth and Perthshire and in particular the history of the Picts and have produced several drawings based on the incredible images preserved from times long ago.
“I think that this was what drew my eye to Perth – the opportunities to dig deeper and enjoy the history of the city.
“Inspired by what Perth has to offer, I created a series of colouring pages of Perth that I have shared on my various social media platforms under the name of Talesilove – the name of my website – where the pages are free to download and colour.
“At about the same time, I was very lucky to be nominated as a ‘Perth Pioneer’. After a series of Mural artist Louise Robertson meetings with Perth and Kinross Council, they launched me as a ‘Perth Pioneer’ on their 2021 website.
“The Perth 2021 team liked the images and the concept of the colouring pages and felt they could be used to promote the city on the ground and online, reaching different generations.
“They thought that the images would work well on the mural space on the back of the city hall, that needed renewing.”
Louise’s mural colouring days will take place later this month and will be given a live social media feed.
An exhibition based on the actual canvasses is in the pipeline for next year.
Meanwhile, Louise just got the good news that her children’s book, ‘Woofy Woo Woo the Artist Dog’ was the winner of Best Children’s Picture Book (softback fiction) at this year’s International Book Awards.