Images supplied: Alex Bellas
A runidown wall in a Stepney car park has burst into bloom, with Adelaide muralist Alex Bellas transforming the once plain space into a celebration of flowers, colour and movement.
Created for Studio Spring’s Magill Road home, the new mural was designed to bring warmth and energy to the Pilates studio and surrounding community, even through the coldest months of the year.
“As someone who is definitely not a winter person, I wanted the wall to be in full bloom all year round, bursting with colour and energy,” Alex said.
Filled with oversized abstract shapes and unusual flowers, the mural reflects Alex’s love of nature and her mission to bring more joy into Adelaide’s urban spaces.
The project was meant to be completed within a week, but work was halted several times due to Adelaide’s recent wet weather.
Alex pushed on, and after two weeks, one scissor lift and plenty of paint, the mural was complete.
“I’d usually sketch out my murals but for this one I just went straight into marking out rough shapes with a spray can, then painting straight over the top since it wasn’t an overly technical design.”
Alex has now been working as a full-time muralist for six years, and it all began with one daring email.
“Seven years ago I was working in hospo and saw a post on facebook that someone was looking for a muralist for a two-story exterior wall,” she said.
And although she had only painted on a few small canvases and sketched on paper, she thought it’d be cool to say she’d painted one at least once in her life.
“I have no idea what came over me but I emailed them begging for the job and somehow got it.
“I had to learn how to drive a lift, prep a wall, and sketch a design onto a surface that huge.
“But two weeks later I managed to finish, and slowly other businesses started reaching out asking for a mural.
“I fell in love with it so fast that I quit my job within a year and never looked back,” Alex said.
Ultimately, Alex hopes to transform more spaces like this one, bringing colour to the city and making someone’s day a little brighter.
“I just want to bring more colour and joy into this world (or this city at least), there is so much going on around us that it is so easy to get caught up in anxiety and stress, and environment plays such an important role in this,” Alex said.
“If I could paint something happy on every single building I would!”
To see more of Alex’s work, click here.
