Leongatha Memorial Hall Mural advances

FOLLOWING the recent celebration of Leongatha Memorial Hall’s centenary, local artist Rob Wood continues work on his mural inspired by one of the military scenes that once adorned the building’s inside walls before being painted over.

While Rob’s painting was a striking feature for those arriving at the centenary event, hanging prominently just inside the entrance to the Hall foyer, he was unwell for a period in the lead up to the day, preventing him from completing the painting by then.

“I didn’t have any of the flora on it,” he said, with much of that now added.

Gumnuts and wattle were identifiable aspects of the original mural of which photos were taken before it was painted over during building works in the 1960s.

Some other flora was not distinguishable.

The time constraints Rob faced in the lead-up to the centenary event prompted him to use faster-drying acrylic paints and focus on the soldiers.

“I’m going over it with oil paint now,” he said.

More detail is being added, such as faces and hands, Rob saying hands are the hardest thing to paint.

Leongatha Historical Society secretary Lyn Skillern was a driving force behind the centenary event, choosing Rob as the ideal person to tackle the mural project.

He is also responsible for the spectacular poppy mural outside Leongatha RSL, with Sentinel-Times asking about the significance to him of such artworks that pay tribute to those who have served in the military.

“It means a lot; I didn’t realise it would mean so much until people would come up and tell me how much it meant to them, people who had served, people who had lost loved ones in more recent wars,” he said, having been thanked many times for his tributes.

“That’s where I’ve branched out with these two main figures to give it more empathy,” Rob remarked of the Memorial Hall mural, having acknowledged it is inspired by the original rather than being a replica, the latter made impossible by the missing details.

He hopes people are happy with the outcome and feel he has depicted the important scene appropriately.

“In the original, there are lots of figures running towards the cliffs, and that’s really hard to reproduce, so that’s why there’s a soldier and a wounded soldier in the front; we call it a reimagining, not a recreation,” Lyn of the Historical Society said, describing Rob’s mural as “such a great thing to have” and pleased to see it occupying pride of place near the McCartin Street entrance.

Sentinel-Times watched Rob work on a poppy at the bottom of his Memorial Hall mural, employing a sign writing technique using a rod held in his left hand, balancing his right wrist on the rod to keep his hand steady and in position as he painted.

He expected on Monday the piece would require about four more days' work, with this paper’s visit hopefully not too much of a disruption.