Wood & Water by Tom Ansell in Busselton

Wood & Water, a Feature Mural for Beach Lyf, a modern Australian Café based in Busselton, is a 3.5m x 5.5m wide hand-painted mural depicting an imagined, furious swell with pylons of the Busselton Jetty towering above. I was approached by Nick Carter, Business owner, in early 2023 about creating a mural to both visually synthesise all that Beach Lyf was passionate about and provide a much-needed fix to the blank staring wall that went beyond temporary, mass-produced wallpaper solutions. The result is a distinct visual style that elevates Beach Lyf from other cafes in the region. This work was initially designed on a small piece of notebook paper (see the sub image attached), and this formed the whole basis for the entire design work, and eventual painting, to follow. My impetus was to create a visually strong mural that spoke clearly about Beach Lyf’s values whilst also creating a work bound up in energy and movement – the swirling bark of the pylons complementing the roaring swell of the waves. I took careful consideration whilst painting these two elements to ensure that they were unified visually in this way, whilst also coming across as natural and not too rigid.