PAUL CURTIS ARTWORK
Liverpool City Murals
Danny Boyle Film Mural
A commissioned piece for the upcoming Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis film. Danny Boyle and his team needed a mural to use as a backdrop in the film. The scene in question was being filmed in Lime Street Station in Liverpool. There was work going on in the station and the mural was to be used to hide the works.
The production team had stumbled upon the Liverpool Landmarks mural at Liverpool Shopping Park on Edge Lane . They loved the bright depictions of the famous Liverpool buildings and wanted something similar, with the addition of a train (it was a station after all!).
The film has the working title "Jack and Ellie" or "All you Need is Love". It will not be screened until Autumn 2019. It stars Lily James, Himesh Patel and Ed Sheeran. It is a romcom with a heavy dose of Beatles references.
The list of buildings: The Liver Buildings, St Georges Hall, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool Cathedral, St Johns Tower (Radio City Tower), Mann Island, Lime Street Station plus a steam Train.
"I was just getting out the shower when I was called by Danny Boyle's production team. At first I thought it was a wind-up. They gave me an outline of what they wanted and told me about how they had seen and liked the work I did at Edge Lane. This helped speed up the design phase at least.
Due to health and safety (and some initial obstructiveness from Network Rail!), I had to order MDF panels and work off-site. I only had 9 days to complete the project, so it was a stressful few days - I couldn't miss the filming deadline!
I delivered the panels to Lime Street Station the night before filming. The next morning, I got to meet Danny Boyle. He is a very genuine fella and was happy to chat about my work and said he loved the finished mural. He even asked if we could get a photo together. I wish him all the best with the film!"
Liverpool City Landmarks Mural
If you ever have a chance to stay at the Heeton Hotel on James Street in Liverpool, be sure to look at the mural at the reception. This artwork is a pseudo-map of the Liverpool city centre area, particularly the area around The Strand.
An impressive 34 landmarks are crammed into this mural. You might want to see if you can identify them all, but below is the spoiler list:
The Royal Liver Building
The Port of Liverpool Building
The Museum of Liverpool
The Pier Head
The Beatles Statue
The Mersey Ferry
The Royal Albert Docks
The Billy Fury Statue
The Pump House
The Liverpool Eye
The M&S Arena
Cain's Brewery Works
The Baltic Triangle
The "Abbey Road" Crossing Mural (by Paul Curtis)
For All Liverpool Liver Birds Mural (by Paul Curtis)
Liverpool's Chinese Arch
Liverpool One
One Park West
Heeton Hotel
The Queen Victoria Monument
Castle Street
Liverpool Town Hall
The Cavern Club
SuperLambanana
Liverpool FC
Everton FC
The Mersey River
Princes Dock
Alexandra Tower
Atlantic Tower
Our Lady and St Nicholas Church
The Strand 30 James Street
Colourful (ish) Liverpool Mural
This mural depicts many of Liverpool's famous landmarks in one of Paul Curtis' trademark styles. Black and white monochrome line drawings with heavy, bold shadows and a few bold colours picked out. This style manages to combine the complexity of the architecture, in a unique, clean look but holds the viewer's eye with the sheer amount of detail to explore.
Painted at the Unite Student Accommodation on Skelhorn Street in Liverpool (near to Lime Street Station). It took 9 days and is around 5 metres wide by 7 metres tall.
The landmarks include The Liver Building, Port of Liverpool Building, Liverpool Cathedral, Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, Mersey Ferry, Superlambanana, Chinese Arch, Liverpool Town Hall, Museum of Liverpool, St John's Beacon, 30 James Street.
Links
Harry Potter Mural
More information about this mural can be found on the School murals page here.
Liverpool Landmarks Mural
This epic mural is 40 metres long (that's the length of 3 buses!) and 2.5m high, making it 100 square metres in area. Amazingly it took Paul just one month working alone to complete this feat. It has 31 of Liverpool's most iconic buildings and landmarks.
The list of buildings: The Liver Buildings, Port of Liverpool, Edward VII statue, Liverpool Town Hall, St Georges Hall, Queen Victoria Monument, Hope Street, Albert Dock, Walker Art Gallery, Picton Reading Room, Mersey Tunnel ventilation tower, Sefton Park Palm House, Liverpool's Chinese Arch, The Bluecoat Chambers, Cain's Brewery, For All Liverpool's Liver Birds, Metropolitan Cathedral, Liverpool Cathedral, Radio City Tower, Museum of Liverpool, The Botanical Gardens of Edge Lane, Mann Island, St Lukes (the bombed out church), Littlewoods Building, Stephenson's Rocket Train and Liverpool's Municipal Building.
"The Liverpool Landmarks Mural" (actually called City of Colour) was commissioned by Liverpool Shopping Park. The aim was to cover a large section of hoarding with something other than generic vinyl. It is huge, 40 metres long! The outline was simple, fill the space with something colourful that includes links to Liverpool and Edge Lane.
I only had a few days to design it and given that the space was long and thin, the waterfront sprung to mind. I quickly realised that the scale wouldn't work, but I kept the idea of doing the landmarks. I chose a mix of old and new buildings and interlocked them together. As well as some obvious choices I chose some that I personally like (such as the One Stop Shop Building on Dale Street). We have such beautiful architecture here and I think some gems go unnoticed because we are spoilt.
The first panels are the nod to Edge Lane; the Rocket Train (the only non-building on it), the Botanical Gardens glass house (the only building that no longer exists - I did this as a Meccano model (another Edge Lane link)) and the Littlewoods Building. The rest are various buildings around Liverpool (mostly central).
I kept 5 main colours in mind for the buildings. They are all bright (most buildings are grey and white so would not fit the brief) and colourful and I hope it brightens up the car park. My only disappointment is that the hoarding will be pulled down in about a year. I hope they save the paintings in some way, but who knows."
Links:
City of Liverpool Mural at Taco Bell
A vibrant, bright colourful mural painted for the Taco Bell restaurant in Liverpool by the artist, Paul Curtis.
The artwork depicts the Liverpool skyline and an abstract River Mersey which contains many objects that celebrate Liverpool's rich culture. These include; the ferry across the Mersey, the yellow submarine (The Beatles), the Liver Bird, Superlambanana, a guitar (music), football fans (Liverpool and Everton) and flowers (the parks). The White Star and The Cream companies are also hidden within the painting.
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Liverpool Skyline & Waterfront Mural
The iconic Liverpool waterfront. This skyline mural captures the view of Liverpool as seen from the River Mersey.
Completed in black and white, it centres on the famous "Three Graces" (Port of Liverpool, Liver Building and Cunard Building) at the Pier Head. It also features many other famous buildings, such as the Cathedrals, Museum of Liverpool and St John's Tower. There is also the Ferry across the Mersey making its way to Birkenhead.