Whimsy and a surf break

Troy Conole completed the mural at Wainui on Christmas Eve. It depicts a surf break and some whimsical characters from outer space, prompted by a sighting of the planet Saturn. Pictures by Liam Clayton

Artist Troy Conole had been staring at a blank canvas opposite his house at Wainui for decades — a 22-metre timber fence  running along the access way to the beach.

Motivation to finally start work on a mural on the fence came in the shape of an old school teacher of Troy’s, Richard Gordon.

Richard, also a Wainui resident, had created a couple of driftwood signs, one with the street name, Cooper Street, placed on the fence and another for the nearby beach toilet blocks, marked “Stock Route”.

“He kicked me into gear,” said Troy, who is no stranger to the world of murals. He painted a surf break mural on a Gladstone Road telecommuncations cabinet as part of the Chorus in the Community initiative. A larger work, in Grey Street, took five solid days to complete.

Troy took to the Wainui Beach community Facebook page to find out whether the locals would welcome a mural,

“I was amazed at how many people were pro mural, and how quickly they responded.  Someone suggested that I ask the Wainui residents if they wanted to give a koha to help pay for it, because paint can cost quite a bit,” he said.

There was a huge response on Facebook. “It racked up to about $400 in two days, which paid for the paint.” Troy visited the Gisborne Resene store soon after to stock up on self-priming mural paint. The beach community’s annual street Christmas get-together on the beach dealt with the last hurdle.

“I asked the owner of the property where the fence is if he would be OK with it, and he was all for it.”

Troy drew the design on his computer, fitting it to scale.  He wanted to use neutral colours such as sand and the night sky to ensure the mural fitted in with the surrounding scenery.  His love of surfing and a sense of humour is depicted in the painting.  Troy’s daughter got a telescope for her birthday and one night they were able to see Saturn — which he has included in the painting.

He worked at night, when there are no interruptions, and because “paint dries on the brush too fast during the day time”.

He projected his computer-generated image on to the fence using an old overhead projector belonging to his mother, who was a school teacher.

It was “a big ugly thing we’ve had in the garage for years”, Troy said. “I knew one day I would use it, and I did.”

Propping up the OHP, he projected the image on to the fence then traced the outline with a Vivid marker pen. It was a process that had to be done in stages, due to the length of the fence.

He finished the mural on Christmas Eve, and comments such as “epic” and “amazing” have started to come through on social media.

“Murals are things I like to do when I have the time, and something I’d like to do more of,”  Troy said.

He sells his limited-edition canvas artworks online and describes his style as an illustrator of “mostly our local beaches”.  He also exhibits at the Ormond Road Café.

And Troy’s interpretation of his new creative Wainui mural —

“Some of us surfers are guilty of getting in our car and driving to the next spot to check for better waves, then the next place, and driving around until we end up back where we started . . .  nah, let’s check Mars!”