*and I’m just painting a mural never mind going out to sea and rescuing people!

RNLI Exmouth 200 Anniversary mural

It was back in balmy August 2023, when I was approached to paint a mural for RNLI Exmouth. They are officially 200 years old in 2024, unofficially Exmouth had a lifeboat before the RNLI was created, in 1803, paid for by local residents.

We discussed painting a mural at the lifeboat station, but I felt the station is an architectural statement and I didn’t want to deface it. We decided it would be better to welcome visitors to Exmouth, on a main road to the seafront and let them know we are a proud RNLI town.

When the Haldon House Doctors Surgery agreed to let us use their wall it all fell into place.

This was an exciting challenge for me, although I had done a lot of work around the town this was my most prominent project so far. I found the design straightforward, we had to show the fantastic Shannon Class boat and a brave hero looking out for someone in trouble. I wanted the angle of the boat to be at its most imposing as you drive past.

Someone has grafitti’d your wall

Most people I talk to about commissioning street art or a mural are concerned about the artwork attracting graffiti or tagging. My experience is that good artwork is respected and not ruined by vagrant spray cans.

However, as my work started, one way I use to scale up a mural so large is to spray a ‘doodle grid’ this does the same but is a lot quicker than making out measured squares.

I sprayed my own graffiti on the wall, filling the space with smiley faces, noughts and crosses and many odd skirls. Then I photograph it and superimpose that onto the artwork on my tablet. This helps me draw the boat and face on the wall, at the right size and in the right place.

The doodle grid superimposed with the artwork

The only problem was my doodle grid looked like someone had got onto the scaffold and vandalised the building. This attracted many outraged locals, there were posts on Facebook and even members of the RNLI were asking questions. The doctors surgery was inundated with reports of the graffiti and concerned vigilantes were ready to go out looking for a hoodie with a spray can.

Storm after storm

This mural was agreed and planned to go ahead in October, but problems with a licence pushed the start date to December. A month which consisted of one storm after another rolling in from the Atlantic. It has been too wet, too windy and too cold. Therefore I found myself snatching the odd hour or two working on the scaffolding and progress was a lot slower than I would normally expect.

Not the easiest of surfaces to paint.

What has been fun, is the encouragement in the bad weather I have received from the many passers-by for my artwork, but also the recognition from the town for the brave men and women of the Exmouth RNLI.