Prolific mural designer and street artist Jimmy C has recently unveiled an enormous new mural in Adelaide’s northern suburbs, bringing a bright splash of colour to the Paralowie Village Shopping Centre.
The English-Australian artist, who rose to prominence as a standout of the Adelaide graffiti scene in the late 1980s, was approached by the Paralowie Village Shopping Centre while living in London, where he’s been for the last 14 years.
For previous mural projects, Jimmy said he’d sometimes felt restricted by the guidelines and preferences of the client commissioning the work. However, for the wall in Paralowie, he was granted a favourable level of creative freedom, and “encouraged to be interesting and radical with his design and colours.”
The resulting mural features five people of culturally diverse backgrounds on a vibrantly colourful backdrop of clouds, the sun and the moon.
It was an important goal of Jimmy’s to make the portraits “big and bold” so they could be seen by the children at the kindergarten and primary school across the road from the shopping centre. By incorporating strong, dynamic colours and multicultural portraits, Jimmy wanted to celebrate the cultural diversity of the area.
“The mural stands out so much already. I hope it can have a positive impact on the community and on the kids. I hope it’s inspiring for them”, Jimmy said.
“Whilst I was painting the mural the kids would come up to the wall after school with many positive comments, one of them saying, ‘I can see the mural perfectly from my classroom window!”
A representative from the Paralowie Village Shopping Centre said the mural “has completely transformed the area”.
“Paralowie is also a fairly dry area, and the shopping centre doesn’t have a lot of colour, so my intention was to be very bold with the colours”, Jimmy says.
Jimmy C, whose real name is James Cochran, played an important role in the growth of Australia’s underground graffiti movement in the early 1990s. After undertaking a range of mural commissions and community arts projects, he completed a Master’s degree in Visual Arts at the University of South Australia, specialising in urban realist and figurative oil painting.
His interests in graffiti and oil painting led to the development of his signature style: portraits and urban landscapes painted entirely with dots and dashes of spray paint, a technique he calls “aerosol pointillist”. He’s gone on to complete mural commissions around Australia, North America, South America, and Europe.
Jimmy has a range of murals in Adelaide and South Australia to check out, such as the Ophelia Wall on Vardon Avenue, the Howling Owl Cafe on Vaughan Place, and the Joy Baluch bridge in Port Augusta.
After completing his most recent commission in “tough conditions and full sun from 9am to 7pm daily”, Jimmy is excited to spend the rest of his time in Adelaide enjoying the Fringe and festival season before travelling home to London.
WHAT: New Jimmy C mural at the Paralowie Village Shopping Centre
WHERE: Paralowie Village Shopping Centre, 3-7 Liberator Dr, Paralowie SA 5108
Facebook: Jimmy C
For more information, click here.
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