Mangaweka artist Julie Oliver is used to depicting fine details in oil paints while working in the comfort of her studio.
But earlier this month she took on a very different commission - one that involved painting outdoors in a remote location, on a large scale and using just six colours of house paint.
Ms Oliver, with the help of her partner, Tim, has just finished painting the exterior of the woodshed and two new toilet buildings at Rangiwahia Hut, on the western edge of the Ruahine ranges, with murals that echo the landscape.
In changeable, often stormy weather, Ms Oliver had to keep her footing on uneven ground and was also challenged by having to paint at times on corrugated iron.
The idea came from the Department of Conservation's visitor assets manager, Andrew Mercer, who was inspired by seeing other public toilets painted with murals.
"I wanted the new toilets and woodshed to complement the landscape and to tell a conservation story, and at the same time add another element to the visitor experience, something that might encourage people to come up especially to see.
"This is a very special location for its breathtaking views on to the Ruahine range and active bird life. And the murals reinforce these aspects," Mr Mercer said.
Dulux supplied the paint at no cost as part of a three-year Protecting Our Places partnership with DoC that will see recreation and historic assets all around the country painted.
Ms Oliver described the experience as "novel".
"I'm used to painting small details with oils, so painting large-scale murals was a different direction for me. But it was a wonderful break - painting birds while listening to those very birds singing around me was pretty special."
Ms Oliver said she had some ideas of what she wanted to paint before she went to the hut, but those ideas were not finalised.
"I just let inspiration choose what needed to be done."
Each wall of each building shows a different scene - tui sitting in a tree, the tree canopy, and distant shapes of the surrounding mountains.
Using the six basic colours from the Dulux Colours of New Zealand range she completed it all with brush and sponge.
Ms Oliver said she was grateful that DoC had allowed her "free rein" on the project: "That's what every artist wants to hear."
It took her four days, working seven hours a day, to complete the project, despite having to battle changing weather.
She lost two completed murals one day to the ravages of ice.
Rangiwahia Hut sits just above the tree line, at 1320m altitude, on the western side of the Ruahine Ranges. Challenging at the start, due to a short detour for track realignment work which will be completed by July, trampers then come out to the picturesque bridge crossing a deep ravine of the Mangahuia Stream. A slightly steeper grade from here, the track heads past a waterfall to reach Rangiwahia Hut.