NEW LARGE SCALE MURAL IN NORTH DUBLIN IMPROVES THE COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENT
Whimsy and bold nature-inspired mural art funded by Dublin City Council for Ard Na Greine residents association in Dublin 13.
PROJECT ORIGIN
This project completed in July 2026 could have not been a better fit as it ticked all the boxes of everything I love to draw. Colorful character, dynamic layouts, to me it is like drawing a gigantic picture book expanding across the length of a massive wall.
Well, I got a call one day in late May from a number I didn’t know. I suspected a scam call, however I was due a call back from my doc so I presumed it was him, but turned out it was a resident from Ard Na Greine, a residential lovely neighborhood in Donahgmede, D13, asking me if I was available to paint a wall and if I could provide a quote to submit for funding. Quote was accepted and I began to organize all needed bits for the job.
WHAT IS THE MURAL ABOUT?
The brief and artwork was quite straight forward in terms of theme: the wall is in a park, and the residents association regularly volunteers to maintain the green spaces and keep the area tidy and welcoming. You can really see the effort they put just walking on the streets. So, I took a stroll around the area, collected a bunch of footage of all nature and made a list of all the animals sightseeing in the area: foxes, hedgehogs, robins, dogs, squirrels. They specifically wanted them on the image so that was my starting point.
BLENDING THE BRIEF AND MY OWN CREATIVE LANGUAGE
When it came to design the wall artwork, I had few key non negotiables:
keep it whimsy, fun and dynamic. No static characters on my watch!
The wall is 27.4m long, so the extended length was a major factor in the layout. I really made sure it was bouncy and felt somewhat “animated” despite the still images, to avoid just a flat line of shapes in a row.
Then, because I had to include animal characters and the gardening element, I decided that the animals would be performing actions inspired by what people in the area go spend their time doing.
Residents garden and water plants: let’s make a gardening squirrel.
Yoga in the park? Let’s add a few foxes doing some yoga poses.
On top of that the rest came with drawing and simply reeeeally loving the themes of nature in my artwork.
CHARACTER DESIGN AND COLOR PALETTE
I said I wanted the layout to be dynamic so I sketched a series of character design sheets of the characters.
The background color of the wall was kept dark green like the previous coat already present, which was just very old and in need of a fresh touch. Because the surface was quite uneven, bumpy and with holes, changing to a different color would’ve made it harder to fix any gap where old wall colors peeks through making the final result look worse.
For the artwork color palette I picked the main colors from the photos of flowers I took during my location visit, and combined a fixed color palette for the mural with shades and highlights.
THE PAINTING PROCESS
I like to work with a grid to transfer the artwork. This round I decided to get help to complete the painting and I got my mural friend Gabriela Joyce to work with me some of the days, which made the process more enjoyable and got the project thru the finish line quicker than doing it by myself.
TRANSFORMING NORTH DUBLIN COMMUNITY SPACE
This project was absolutely a public art project success from start to finish. Not only the artwork looks incredible and it is a huge burst of color visible from a distance now, but it is a genuine reflection of all the work the residents put into keeping their local neighborhood a quality place to live.
INAUGURATION EVENT - SEPTEMBER 5TH 2026
There will be an event and picnic in the park on September 5th as inauguration of this street art piece.
I am very excited to participate, I appreciate all the support from the residents in the logistics of storing all my equipment as well and being very helpful with anything I needed during the days of work.
I look forward to working on similar public art in Dublin City in the future.