Turning the wash house into art

Pauline Allomes with her wash house mural. PICTURE / PAUL BROOKS

Most people, when they paint an old wash house, pick a couple of colours and spend an afternoon on the job.
Not local artist Pauline Allomes. She transformed her old out-building into a stunning New Zealand bush scene.

"It was a pretty crummy looking wash house." Not any more. Pauline estimates more than 100 hours went into the mural. "It's a Bushy Park scene."
It features a track that branches off to two Bushy Park attractions — the Twin Ponga and Ratanui.
Pauline has coated the wall with marine varnish to give the painting durability.

"I take my hat off to those artists who do the walls in a weekend.
"I thought I could just use a brush, but I just couldn't get the marks I wanted. So I ended up palette-knifing half of it."

With Artists Open Studios coming up it will be a major attraction at her quaint Barrack St cottage, along with an array of paintings of various sizes, on-site catering and a backyard set up for picnicking.
For the first weekend of the annual event, Bird Rescue is providing refreshments. A mother and daughter duo, Tasha Cowell and Hayley Roberts will be using Pauline's kitchen.
Sustainable Whanganui, a team led by Margi Keys, is catering the second weekend.
"If I'm inviting people to come and look, let's benefit somebody and have added value," says Pauline. "Hopefully it's a fine weekend and I can put my gazebo up and some tables around."

Duncan Smith will provide some of his sculptures for the garden, the freshly sowed lawn is looking good, but the centrepiece is the mural.
"Not long after I moved in here I told my son that wash house annoys me," says Pauline. "I couldn't afford to knock it down or do anything with it, so I thought I should paint a mural on it."
She says it's given her work a new perspective, painting a large piece and not knowing how it looks until you step right back and take in the whole wall.
"In something like Artists Open Studios you have to have a bit of an edge."

A sign out front will direct people to Pauline's studio work in one direction and the wall and catering in the other.
Pauline's recent exhibition at Bushy Park was a success, with plenty of people viewing the paintings and the car park constantly full.
"I was overwhelmed that all those people should come. It was really exciting."
She stayed the night and woke up to a saddleback on the deck.
"The place feels like a home, not a museum."
Bushy Park received 10 per cent of the exhibition's sales plus the proceeds of an auction of a Pauline Allomes painting.
Pauline's wash house mural can be viewed over the two weekends of Artists Open Studios — March 21-22 and 28-29. More than 80 studios, some with multiple artists, are taking part.