Surfcoast Wholefoods unveils new mural

SURFCOAST Wholefoods have added a pop of colour to the inside of their Torquay store with a bright mural.

Canberra artist Bohie Blackwood created the statement piece over the space of two weeks.

“The reason we wanted to do it was to just bring some magic and colour and vibrancy into the store, and something that was really meaningful, like a legacy art piece,” Surfcoast Wholefoods owner Toby Jeavons said.

The idea of the mural was to bring something really colourful and heartfelt with a community connection into the store.

“There’s an underlying environmental story woven into the mural as well that you can discover if you sit and look at,” Mr Jeavon said.

“It’s coming back to our vision of the shop which is to offer a space for community connection and consciously sourced products that are good for people and good for the planet.”

The artwork on the wall now is completely different from the initial concept, which featured cliffs and beaches with local flora and fauna.

When Blackwood met with the owners, the idea evolved to include children sitting around a campfire with the endangered local southern right whale and other animals.

Mr Jeavons said within the mural there’s messages of wisdom, knowledge and protection.

“I think it has a really important message if you sit with it and I’m sure people can also interpret different things from it, which is really cool.”

For the store owner, watching how the idea changed and came together was his favourite part of the process.

“When we actually got together in the same space and looked at the space and threw some things around it just took it to a whole other level,” he said.

Blackwood, who will soon relocate to the Surf Coast, did a live install of the mural, where she created the entire piece in store.

“It was great for customers to be part of that journey as they’re seeing it come together and we had the help of the DBM Sign guys to install it, they did an awesome job as well, it was a pretty tricky space to put it in,” Mr Jeavons said.

“Now we have this beautiful piece that’s in the shop and will be there forever.”

He encouraged people to head into the store, sit with the mural and see where it takes them.