News
19 June, 2022
Lowood has 'Loovre'
THE wall of a public toilet block might look like an unusual place to recognise bushfire resilience and recovery, but that is the goal of the Lowood Community Action Group.
After working with Somerset Regional Council to secure a bushfire recovery grant, the group contracted Nicholson Art Company to design and paint a 9 metre by 2.5 metre mural on the public toilets in Clock Park at Lowood.
Malcolm Nicholson said they were contacted by Lyn Buchanan of Somerset Regional Council and invited to meet with members of the group.
“We met with Sue and Joy from the Lowood Community Action Group, they had seen our artwork at the Esk RSL sub-branch,” Mal Nicholson said.
“They gave us a brief of what they wanted, my brother Kerry then developed the initial artworks and we worked with the group to create the final design.”
The artwork is expected to be completed this week.
“It has been good working here, it is warmer than at our homes in Allora and Toowoomba.”
Kerry Nicholson said the project is part of the Bushfire Recovery program, and shows the different stages of the process.
“It shows the fires and the recovery and resilience of nature and animals, plus a sense of mateship, with a firefighter offering a koala a drink of water,” Kerry Nicholson said.
“It is two panels initially, but there is a possibility of more panels still to come.”
Kerry Nicholson said the two brothers enjoyed their work, and the challenges that come with public art installations.
“We enjoy our job, it is a lot of fun, we have been doing it for over 40 years, we enjoy working together.”
While creating the murals is enjoyable, Kerry Nicholson said the brothers also regularly compete in mural competitions, within Australia and around the world.
“We are given a theme, we develop an artwork, and then we do it on location.
“For our last one, we had to paint a song, while it is not my favourite song, we did ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’ by The Beatles, it has an artistic feel to it.”
Claiming a second place in that competition, Kerry Nicholson said he felt the winner had earned their prize.
“We have won six or seven competitions, our last one was on corrugated iron, it was 43 metres by 6 metres, and corrugated iron is a challenge in itself.
“Our biggest project ever was for Moore Trailers in Pittsworth, that was 100 metres long, but it was a great project to do, they just gave us a brief, and off we went.”
