Our new Mural

It is trully wonderful to see such a beautiful and creative mural design in our precicnt. This stuning piece by artist Hayden Dewar, not only adds a splash of colour to our urban landscape but also serves as sa powerful form of expression that reflects our Union Road/ Ascot Vale community. This lovely mural can be seen on the side of the ILS building (198 Union Rd, Ascot Vale) on St. Leonards Road.

Hayden Dewar - The Artist

I am a Naarm/Melbourne based artist with over 20 years of experience, whose colourful, imaginative murals can be found all over Naarm and beyond. I have created murals of all different sizes with a wide array of project outcomes. Most of these are large scale public art murals. I draw on formative influences of surrealism, street art and comic books,combining the real and imagined worlds to create work that tells a story about a place and its inhabitants. I am keenly interested in incorporating aspects into

the artwork that relate the work to its location. The materials I use for mural work are acrylic exterior paints and spray-paint. I am currently favouring acrylic & brush based work but am equally comfortable

using either one.

My design draws on the atmosphere of the Union rd shopping precinct,

the history of the surrounding area and local native flora and fauna to arrive at a

design that is vibrant colourful, teeming with life, community and history.

area. With this in mind I have sought to come up with a design that acknowledges the history of horse-racing and horses in the area surrounding the mural site without overtly making the sport the main subject of the mural. I have done this by using the shape of a horses head to provide a border for

a section of union rd depicted within this shape (the older buildings directly opposite

the mural corner). I really liked that these buildings were distinctly coloured and

thought this conveyed some history and vibrancy.

My signature Solarquin characters feature in a lot of my murals as sort of guardians

of nature and seekers of a harmonious existence. They are often used in a

metaphorical way to convey ideas of community and creative spirit

To depict the diverse aspects of Ascot Vale and the surrounds and to tie in the nature

around us into adding to the vibrant nature of the area, I have depicted some flora and fauna from both the nearby Maribyrnong river and the Moonee Valley Volcanic grasslands. This includes: a Sacred Kingfisher, River redgum branch & flowers, Golden Sun Moths, and Billy buttons.