Painting the Forest Hill Mural

Exciting news: The Forest Hill Mural will be painted this weekend

More details here.

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Not only does this design feature the Horniman Walrus (a nod to our internationally-renowned local museum), but the artist, Lionel Stanhope, will paint the text in London Overground orange to make our mural even more unique to the SE23 area:

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From @Lionel:

We wish you the best of luck, Lionel. Thanks to all who donated to our whirlwind crowdfunder to make this project a reality.

I look forward to seeing the finished work.

I wonder if, at some point in the future, that dead lamppost could be turned into a ground based up-lighter?

Perhaps @MajaHilton could influence Lewisham’s street lighting people/contractor to remove it if it is truly redundant.

Loving the new Overground Orange for the lettering. It will really pop out against the blue and, as you say, give our sign a bit of individuality.

Painting starts today @SE23life @HornimanMuseum @ForestHillArts @SELondonBlog

Oh wow how exciting!

Quick work! I don’t have enough likes for this…

The orange was a great colour choice. And I had originally preferred the green background option.

The orange and blue really sing to each other. We’ve got a contemporary sign with a nod towards tradition, the perfect combination.

Wow, that is coming along nicely. Look forward to seeing it in the flesh soon.

Had a good day today. Wall is dry and clean. This is how I left it for today. Back to tomorrow for lots more.

Top work - it looks great and I am sure it will look even better when done.

Looks amazing so far @Lionel!

So cool!

It looks amazing! The colours are great. The dog might get a bonus walk this evening to check it out…

Looking absolutely fantastic,great work Lionel

It is much more prominent than i was expecting. Another landmark for Forest Hill

The artistry of the walrus is astounding! Great work Owain Nicholls and Lionel

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Wow that walrus looks amazing! Never thought it could turn out like that expected it more cartoon like, will definitely stand out to the others, big up

Absolutely agree. Standing ovation for @Lionel.

And credit to the originators of the idea to add the walrus - you know who you are !!

In case anyone was wondering - this idea was @armadillo’s. What do you think of the final result, Simon?

Was watching them paint the walrus earlier. Great artistry.

Here’s a little vid @liz_hall and I captured today:

And some photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/se23/albums/72157667092908108

From what I can see from the above pictures, its looking better than I could have imagined! Will be popping by for a properly look shortly.

The idea to add a touch of Walrus might have come from me, but major respect to @Lionel for agreeing to go with it and integrating it so superbly into one of his trademark pieces!

Amazing work, @Lionel

A final thank you to the many people who helped make this happen, including @Lionel, @Pauline, @Michael, Eddie Burton from Network Rail, @Armadillo, @Shannonsgc, @Liz_Hall, @SGC, @clausy, @applespider and the 69 generous people who contributed to our crowdfunder, and a special nod to the following who made donations of £100+

• @anon5422159: £500 (part funded by all the businesses who promoted on this forum)

• @Anotherjohn: £150

• @Armadillo: £100 - and also contributing a very popular Walrus to the design

• @TheButcherySE23: £100
  (local butcher: http://thebutcheryltd.com)

• Adrian and Paul: £100

• @Londondrz: £100

• @Place_in_Print: £100
  (local design studio and online shop: http://www.placeinprint.com/)

• @BMSE23: £100
  (local estate agent: http://www.benjamin-matthews.co.uk/)

• @Bolgerp: £100

An opportunistic piece of information emerged from Thursday night’s meeting for Sydenham’s Mural.

The ever ubiquitous Ed (for he also acts as the NR link for the Sydenham project) advised Jon, who is leading on that project, that NR has announced details of a funding pool of £10k for additional murals.

The only constraint being that the walls to be selected must belong to NR.

So is there an appetite to maintain the momentum and apply for a portion of this funding and paint the wall opposite ?

Views ?

That’s brilliant news John

Definitely scope for more art in SE23 - between the local community we’ll have to decide which direction to take with the next piece

Here’s an interview with artist Owain Nicholls, who focussed on the walrussing of our mural, Owain was also responsible for the beautiful Catford butterflies

Should say “One of the constraints being…”

I believe NR want to try to get 4 or 5 murals delivered from the funding.

Some great artists out there, discovered one recently, and contemplating having a piece done for my kitchen wall, and maybe the lounge too.

Thanks Chris, Owain has assisted me on 4 of these signs and did the details on the Walrus he’s a very talented young man and I enjoy employing him on my commissions.

Oh my goodness. It’s beautiful. @Lionel you have created something truly standout that we can all be so proud of. Thank you so much.

What’s NR?

Network Rail.

The walrus is beautiful!

Ah yes, of course. Thanks

This is absolutely fantastic; the colours are great, the walrus is more than amazing, and it exceeds all expectations (which were high!). Well done to all involved - I love this and can’t wait to take a proper look tomorrow!

Really great job.
I thought it would take a week to do.
Impressive! (Art-wise that is)
But for local people to have taken up their valuable time and braved the biting cold last weekend just to scrub all the crap off the wall in the name of community spirit - priceless!

I’m blown away by how great the sign looks - even better than I could have hoped. The colour choices were inspired, and that walrus - wow. I’m feeling so proud of what we all achieved. Special thanks to @anon5422159 for stumping up the very generous seed money. And to @Pauline and @michael who I believe were both involved with liaising with NR.

Ed from Network Rail was an absolute delight & all for working together to make this happen

@Lionel has a good working relationship with him so that probably nelped getting permission & @Lionel gave me the contact to get permission from Ed in the first place which ended up with me meeting him at the site & getting the go ahead

I think @Lionel went above and beyond helping with this on top or the amazing artwork,he deserves the credit for all of this

Only one resident complained about the artwork before it happened. That was all I had to deal with in the end & it was a really easy job to answer to that.

Thank Lionel for the amazing sign, I checked it out tonight & it’s awesome

To echo @RachaelDunlop.

@Pauline, @Michael and @anon5422159 deserve their acknowledgement of their early drive and stewardship.

For each step thereafter, the significant contribution of those who in particular got out beyond their keyboards deserve a special well done too.

Someone complained? That’s a bit random seeing as you can’t really see it from anyone’s house can you? And it was such a manky dirty wall beforehand.

Can we now have some of those beautiful butterflies on the other wall? We’ve got a butterfly house as well as a walrus now :)?

Gee thanks xx

Yup, wasn’t a problem as I could say why

Thank you everyone who helped and donated to the cause. I really enjoyed painting this and really pleased you voted Walrus!
Chris, great job, great to meet you today…you didn’t tell the guys that the Police came down! …

Good to meet you in person finally, and to see the superb work you did this weekend. It seemed everyone who passed by was delighted with the mural, and a lot of photos are buzzing around on social media, which is good to see.

Yes, it was also an unexpected pleasure to meet two police officers summoned by an unknown complainant - I may be wrong but I suspect it’s the same person who complained when a couple of SE23.life posters went up back in 2016…

Anyway, the policemen seemed quite happy to see the mural, so no harm done

It looks absolutely amazing in the pictures. Can’t wait to see it in person!

Can’t quite believe someone called the police - it looked pro rather than graffiti throughout!

I just cycled past it for the first time - it looks brilliant. Bravo to @Lionel, @anon5422159 et al for making it happen

Haha, I would actually call that one person an idiot
Did pick up their name somewhere along the line and wasn’t a name I knew or recognised.

Shame she wasted police time though on trying to stop such an amazing piece of street art.

And pretty amazing it is, thanks Lionel

A quote from another post - are the Dulwich parties involved in this exercise seeking a portion of the aforementioned £10k fund on offer from NR ?

"rigbydan

Not Forest Hill but only a short bus ride away!

This is a call for artists that wish to be considered for the East Dulwich Mural, please follow the link for more information."

Hi @anon51837532 - just a tip if you’d like to quote from other topics:

1. Minimise the composer by clicking here:

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2. Browse to the other topic - your composer draft will be accessible via a bar at the bottom of the screen:

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3. Quote from the topic as normal (select text, click “Quote”) - this will be inserted into your draft, which will pop back up.

4. Hit “Reply,” and click “Reply On Original Topic” when prompted

Thank you for the tip.