Long story short: 15 years of colour
c.1995 Lawrence Hargraves Hospital Hydrotherapy Pool Mural
I started painting murals because of terrible architecture.
Put bluntly, there’s an oversupply of badly designed buildings and unloved spaces which artists are asked to improve, camouflage or rehabilitate with murals.
Artists are (still) seen as the cheap fix, helping people look away from the failure to provide a decent building in the first place.
I soon got jack of being poorly paid to paint murals on crappy buildings.*
That's when I decided to study architecture.
Once working in the profession, I realised that architects are rarely trained to use colour as a design tool, and many are afraid of trying because they know how powerful it is, in making or breaking a building.
For the past 15 years, I have focused solely on understanding and communicating the role and potential of colour in architecture.
Arc Angel Mural 2024
Collaborations with amazing architects and clients has left me in no doubt that;
Good colour design can improve an average building tenfold.
Glaringly white interiors are detrimental to human health.
There’s no such thing as a ‘neutral’ palette.
Beautifully designed buildings contribute to human health, wellbeing, connection and culture.
The best architecture has a profound relationship with site; materiality and colour are key aspects of this relationship.
The materiality and colour are inseparable; colour must be understood as a material available to architecture, never an ‘add-on’.
The intelligent handling of colour and material demonstrates respect for place (Country).
A clear colour strategy + a place-based colour palette + the building in its context = MAGIC.
Colour is political.
The people want colour.
I bring expertise gleaned from over 200 projects to every collaboration. I share it all in my Colour Workshops and Seminars for Architects and Spatial Designers.
I want the built environment to support and delight people, to increase connection and wellbeing.
Through the medium of colour, I want to make better buildings for all. The skilful use of colour is my passion, and my contribution.
* I still paint murals! But now I do it very differently.