They were blank canvases.
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Now, with the shake of a few spray cans and the stroke of a paint brush (or two), once drab walls across Wollongong have come alive as part of Wonderwalls 2017.
Twenty-two artists unleashed their creative flair on the sides of CBD buildings and multi-storey car parks during the weekend’s three-day festival – turning lacklustre walls into masterpieces.
From larger-than-life portraits of people, each with their own striking level of detail, to huge splashes of colour that drew the eyes of passersby to once-overlooked spaces, there was plenty of variety among this year’s 13 colourful large-scale murals.
On Burelli Street, the wall of the building that’s now home to David Jones went from a bleak brown to a vibrant array of colours in the space of just a few days.
Aussie artist Ian McCallum was the man behind the spray gun for the mammoth 62 metre-long by nine metre-high artwork.
The mural is so big it spans almost the entire length of the building.
Mr McCallum, who hails from Toowoomba in Queensland, is known for exploring the interaction of colour and the notions of the everyday.
The 27-year-old said his mural – painted using a spray gun, spray cans and rollers – was about drawing attention to “those easily-missed details in the world”.
The artwork, the biggest of all the murals painted during Wonderwalls 2017, took seven days to complete.
“It’s good to get a bit of colour down that end [of Burelli Street],” Mr McCallum said.
“You’ve got the youth centre there, the skate park, the basketball court and the park, so it’s good to brighten it up a bit.
“I’ve had some good comments from people as they’ve walked by, so that’s always a positive.”
Nearby, in Globe Lane, UK street artist “Smug” got to work on a massive portrait of a man playing a harmonica.
“Smug” returned to Wonderwalls in 2017, with this year’s masterpiece painted just around the corner from his 2013 effort (featuring a man and koalas).
The festival, aimed at bringing together and inspiring the community, concluded with a rooftop party at Wollongong Central on Sunday afternoon.
The event, which is in its fifth year, also included an artist exhibition and free artist talks.
Festival director Simon Grant dubbed this year’s event as “awesome” and said he was pleased with its ever-growing appeal across the broader community, rather than just the city’s creative sector.
“I’ve seen lots of grandparents with grandkids and parents with little families cruising around, which is really nice to see,” Mr Grant said.
The festival will be back next year and the hunt for more public spaces to paint has begun.
“We’ve already got a couple of spots locked in; 2018 will be a cracker,” he said.