TurfnSurf Lodge and Surf School Conquered

I am delighted to say that after such a heartbreaking start to such a big commission we finally sucessfully completed our biggest commission to date yesterday . We were asked by Killian and Mary the lovely owners of the TurfnSurf Lodge and Surf School to come up and do a mural on the front of their awesome victorian building. Its a 3 storey monster with loads of windows and corners which we had to really consider in our final design. It sits in a row of buildings that look similar (not anymore) in the center of Bundoran, looking out onto Donegal Bay. It was such a nice spot to work in but when we started the job it was pretty cold and the long jons were well on. It was scary painting it the first time round as we were fighting time hoping the rain wouldnt come. Who paints a house in the coldest winter month? We do thats who! We worked 2 days morning to night on the house. Painting the top and bottom half different colours which took forever. It took us ages to then map out the composition from the small picture we designed. Its one thing transfering something to a large canvas or board but another when its a 3 storey house.

Once we had this done we began filling in the big painted parts like the body. This was really tough as you were up and down the scaffold like some sort of deranged monkey and the very top which went to the roof bad ass. The view was unreal across the bay. We worked solid for 2 whole days and then noticed the cold air wasnt drying the paint. It had soaked into the paint and made it heavy and it began to run. Then the rain came in all its bitch glory. It ran the whole piece into the colour of shit. The wall turned into Bobby Sands cell. What a shit feeling, no pun intended, seeing your work disappear and there was nothing we could do. We just packed up and went home with our tail between our legs feeling seriously defeated and tired. Kilian had the worst parts painted over once it dried and put a plastic canopy up so we could hit it again once the weather got better. And hit it we did!

We travelled up on Monday and got up about 5. We worked from the minute we got up. Mapped out the giant octopus and this time made him way better, adding more tenticles and alot more movement. We were able to use the few hours sunlight to map it out and paint it in to allow it dry over night. We then worked into the night painting the downstairs to look as if it were under water.

We limited the amount of colours to 3 for all the bottom and 5 for the octopus including black. All in all we used very little colour but its hard to notice in how we placed them you think there is more.

Killian was some legend of a lad to work for as he kindly put us up in the lodge for as long as we needed and helped us with anything we needed. Thanks to Tony too who was always on hand to shift boards or sort us out with light. Legends indeed!

We were way faster working the second time around as we knew what we were doin. We also got pretty quick on scaling the scaffold and ladders become useless after a while. But paying for it today with the aches and man pains!

It was nice having such freedom on such a big commission. Killian was a gentleman and allowed us to pretty much do what we thought looked best. Usually with big jobs you have the client throwing out suggestions and ideas that are always against the idea you had originally. But this was a dream job and a pleasure to do even with the size of it. It felt very much like a team effort from all the lads who lived and worked there and us to get it complete and battle against the weather. I cant wait to do it again.

It will be sweet as when we get to see the whole piece without the scaffold in the way.

Thanks to Killian for keeping it as that shit costs money to keep up everyday and it would be impossible to do without! Ill post up more pics when we get them.

When its down it should reveal a giant octopus breaking out from the building and water spilling out filling up the bottom. The octopus is breaking a surfboard in two and below the water level is all kinds of sea life and wreckage.

A job well done and now deserves a day of rest. Movies and the couch for me! WOOOP!!!!