Engine room panels bloom into life

CANAL artist Julie Tonkin was faced with a massive paint job when one of her customers wanted her to paint the wall panels of his engine room.

Graham Paton, owner of narrowboat The Woolies, is a fan of her roses especially and has many of her items on his boat.

Julie, who trades as Canal Art by Julie, said: “He decided he wanted roses inside his boat to match his purchases so he brought his boat to me in Netherton on the Dudley Number 2 Canal for his artwork to be done.

“Graham has the most wonderful engine room which houses his Gardner engine with lots of panels on the walls needing decoration as well as a back door and three side hatches.”

It was such a big job Julie enlisted the help of Kerri Williams, otherwise known as The Heritage Crafter.

“Together we painted the panels in Craftmaster’s heritage green undercoat with a red frame, yellow undercoat around the panels and, after painting roses and daisies, we added scumble paint and two coats of clear varnish.

“There were 36 panels in total and we counted 124 roses, we didn’t even count the daisies!”

If you would like your boat doors and panels painted with roses and castles, or items for your boat, contact Julie www.canal-art-by-julie.co.uk and Kerri www.theheritagecrafter.co.uk Graham Paton’s narrowboat The Woolies.

The Gardner engine in front of some of the 36 painted panels.

PHOTOS SUPPLIED One of the painted side hatches.