Brisbane Canvas

Daniel Brook has engaged colour and movement to create a pastel landscape of bubbles and candy. The light-hearted artwork communicates a universal view of nostalgia and positivity through child-like symbols.

James Alley is a Brisbane-based artist who engages with themes relating to identity and elements influencing society. Alley uses depictions of the human and animal figure, intersected with patterns and shapes. Connection, community and culture are specific issues considered in his work.

Inspired by how the flux, the infinite nature of landscapes, can allow for new appropriations, new identities and new projects, Samsara (2017) portrays the vigorous growth-decline-growth cycles of flora and fauna that occur in Bardon. The mural depicts the cycle’s vitality and beauty, mirroring the constant change in the local area.

The artwork represents a cohesive and healthy flora eco system. Celebrating the Bellbowrie area, the mural encourages discovery of the depicted colours, shapes and creatures in the surrounding landscape, fostering a fascination with nature. The artwork gives commuters a chance to contemplate nature and leave them with a sense of wellbeing.

Inspired by the topography of the Breakfast Creek and the contemporary nature of the area, Elliott Routledge’s Ebb and Flow (2019) uses traced topography over a collage of patterns and abstract forms. Movement is further emphasised through colour gradient changes across the work.

The fun colourful wall depicts frogs found in parts of north Brisbane, in particular, the Pine River region. Houghton has created colourful horizontal movement across the wall, encouraging viewers to find frogs within the artwork. David’s design uses the calming and grounding benefits of nature to provide a positive outlook within an otherwise busy world.

The artwork reflects on Brisbane's envied subtropical climate and natural environment and acknowledges Brisbane's place as a gateway to the world's largest coral reef system, the Great Barrier Reef. Brisbane’s vibrancy is portrayed through the colour palette exuding approachability and warmth, using monochromatic tones in the text and background.

The artwork responds visually to the theme ‘Brisbane open hearted’ by bringing together memories and familiar childhood reflections using floral associations such as the jacaranda. The featured hand design references the ‘bounding’ of Brisbane together on a street that historically represented separation.

Tropical Life (2015) takes cues from retro modernism and blends this with the uniqueness of a subtropical locale. The artwork is the artist's interpretation of the interior of a 1970s Queenslander adorned with ornaments and small sculptures beside green leafy elements of the subtropical outdoors. Inspired by the colours of Brisbane, the palette expresses the city's vibrancy.  

Using a mixed media process, artist Carley Cornelissen is inspired by experimentation, colour and pattern. The artwork reflects the artist’s daydreams of an idyllic paradise where birds and animals live together with no fear of threat from humans. Their habitats are untouched, colourful and bright.

The artwork is a nod to the areas local environment and history, with imagery of pineapples, fruit bats, telegraph poles and bracken fern. Using a nostalgic 80’s palate and sketches of freestyle trick riders, the work captures a sense of movement and adventure.

Pods is inspired by seedpods and the tessellating patterns found in nature. It embraces the ideas of hope, growth and renewal.

Kirsten Baade has a love of all things bright and colourful. She has an intellectual and creative curiosity in subjects involving art, design and music.

As a Brisbane local, Kirsten’s artwork can be found across Brisbane on traffic signal boxes. Recently Kirsten participated in SWELL Sculpture Festival and Currumbin Wildlife Foundation’s Animals With Attitude Trail.

Hibiscus and frangipani flowers are used in many cultures to welcome visitors while foliage, represented by the monstera leaves, symbolises shelter and shade. The artwork transforms the Thornton Street underpass bringing the seasons of spring and summer through vibrant blooms and foliage

The murals respond to the underpass site as well as to the wider Brisbane Central Business District. The works depict various shapes and forms based around technology information, human interconnectedness, architecture and urban design.

Inspired by Cirque Du Soleil, the viaduct and adjacent Bicentennial Bikeway river walk area, is transformed with the vibrant, dynamic, colourful murals to four pillars of the Coronation Drive overpass.

Due to the proximity to the Brisbane River, this artwork brings elements of nature to remind people of the site's history as a thriving bushland. Although the Goliath Rhinoceros beetle is not native to Australia, it has an intensely distinguishable appearance. The artwork features the iconic Murray Cod and river branches where this fish lives.

The artwork references World War Two soldier, Jack Flynn, whom the road is named after. When Jack Flynn went to fight in the war, he didn't expect to be captured – taking a long and indirect path back home. The artwork design uses text to simultaneously refer to his experience of going to 'work' as a soldier and his will to come home. On a literal level, it also relates to the daily commute of people to and from work along this road. While the rays of colour stem from single points of origin or 'points of view', they symbolise the myriad of experiences of not just Jack Flynn, but of each individual who views the work.

The artwork, borrows characters from the famous mythology "Ramayana", portraying figures delightfully dancing and lifting up the land above their shoulders. The mural seeks to harmonise those who are passers-by with the surrounding environment.

The artwork depicts a quirky and whimsical combination of animal and domestic objects, engaging personal associations towards both subjects. The hopefulness assured by a Tawny Frogmouth baby bird juxtaposes the familiar and humble aluminium teapot that graced every kitchen from the 40’s to the 70’s. Everyone remembers with fondness the teapot Grandma had.

Using fauna and flora native to the Red Hill and inner Brisbane suburbs, with a quote from Nick Earl’s novel Zig Zag Street, the design communicates the relationship between the typography and illustrated native items and the balance between passion and playfulness. The artist describes the artwork as not only a notion of optimism to passers-by, but a love letter to Brisbane as a whole. The selected quote complements the mural site, located just a few metres away from the iconic street featured in the book.

The artwork pays homage to our ecosystem: our earthly home. A call for unity and togetherness, bold positive shapes resonate across the mural to rejuvenate the passer by. Whether you are on a CityCat, bike or simply taking a stroll, quasi-human forms are sure to invite you into the painted surreal landscape, echoing wildly and urging you to breathe and reflect.

It can be seen as you depart from the Maritime Museum Ferry Terminal or as you walk along the Cliffs Boardwalk.

Bronte Naylor’s The Collection (2019) collage mural depicts the old Oasis Tourist Gardens, a much-loved place that exhibited a collection of local and exotic flora and natural artefacts. The design portrays these relics as a tribute to Sunnybank’s history with the colour palette inspired by the tones of the Oasis Tourist Gardens’ butterfly and shell collection.

Once a premier tourist destination with the Oasis Tourist Gardens, Sunnybank is now a thriving multicultural ‘oasis’ for locals and visitors. Drawing on shapes and forms from Sunnybank’s rich heritage, bustling present, and future aspirations are integrated with Irish and Chinese proverbs. This vibrant mural reflects Brisbane’s openness to intercultural engagement and exchange, which will continue to contribute to Brisbane’s vibrancy and dynamism.

Portraying diversity in culture and gender, two faces gaze at each other from opposite bridge pillars, with an equal understanding. Pursuing to evoke the idea of diversity for the future of Brisbane, the background shapes are dynamic in form, colour and position, while leaving space for personal, cultural and conceptual meaning and interpretation. This inspiring and uplifting artwork, encourages discussion around what the future can look like.

The artwork is inspired by the area’s urban renewal changes, where Teneriffe was ‘lost’ to Newstead in the 70’s, only to be ‘found’ again when reinstated as a suburb in 2010. Sargent’s Lost & Found is a playful take on the theme of optimism – often required when hoping to find something lost.  The pattern and lettering are an energetic contemporary take on the art deco architecture and typography that remains within Teneriffe and surrounding areas.

Marginalia Wrapped captures elements of the surrounding architectural forms of Toowong through enlarged gestural marks and abstracted forms. To create this work, Simon started with a collection of shapes and colours captured from the surrounding built environment, and assembled these into a composition that revealed the many shifting perspectives seen as a pedestrian walks the streets of Toowong.

The resulting design references an idea of simultaneous concealing and revealing through the layering of translucent forms one top of each other. This encourages a kind of deep looking as new details are revealed each time the work is encountered.

In particular the patterned treatment and selection of colours in Simon’s design, connect to architectural elements surrounding the Toowong Overpass including the reflective blue glass of the surrounding buildings.

Buff Diss uses pixilation of the Bird of Paradise flower as inspiration for the colour palette and form for the mural Birds of Paradise (2019). The line work overlaying the design involves a stylised contour mapping of sites surrounding Breakfast Creek.