Go big and go home: Turning your walls into artworks

Best known for his public murals across Melbourne, artist David “Meggs” Hooke brings his abstract paintings to private residential homes in the name of making a very private experience out of something that is usually public. It’s where he repurposes his colourful street art for clients to call their own.

“Creating private home murals is an opportunity to create a larger and more detailed interior artwork, similar to a canvas, as well as still working off the build and flow of a space and therefore its overall feel and interaction,” Hooke says.

He recently worked on a private mural inside a North Melbourne home, weaving his art to absorb the urban landscape and feed into nature at the same time.

Hooke says indoor murals reinvigorate a space in ways hanging artwork cannot.

“Commissioning an artist is a very unique way to transform a home’s interior space and is a lot more accessible than most people probably realise,” Hooke says.

“Home mural work is an interesting middle ground between larger-scale public works and more intimate and personal gallery works. In some ways, it’s an opportunity to create an artistic installation in someone’s home that complements the feel of the existing space,” Hooke says.

Muralist Lisa King was commissioned by home owner Richard Sullivan to add a mural inside his Fitzroy residence. He had already commissioned the artist Adnate to create a piece for his external walls, but saved an atrium area for King to bring her own rebellious cool to his family home.

“We had lots of back-and-forth conversations about life to begin and then covering subjects of feminism, corporate greed, my emotional state, misogyny, sex, food and rock’n’roll we came to the idea of me orchestrating another table-scape mess,” King says. “The work is the remnants of a long dinner party of sorts with some undertones of political conversation and deep melancholy in the portraiture aspect, which is stylistically nothing out of the ordinary for me,” says King of its erotic and playful nature.

Artist Rowena Martinich has worked with many private clients over the years on bespoke abstract murals for their homes, from a house in Point Lonsdale to a Caulfield wall garden and a glass wall in Hawthorn.

“A lot of people say they want a big mural for their home but never get around to doing it,” Martinich says. “The Barton Street Project features an 8.5-metre permanent work that was specifically created for a private dwelling. It was a great project to work on and really changes the dynamics of a home.”

Martinich goes through a rigorous briefing process with her clients prior to starting work.

“It’s important not to get mixed messages; people often think you’re a mind reader. I prefer to have lots of conversation about what they want, I create digital mock-ups of two to three options with palette choices and we go from there,” she says.

“Working at that large scale is creating maximum impact. It’s more dynamic than hanging a painting on a wall. It pushes it to the next level. It activates a whole space.”

Street artist Tyrone “Rone” Wright created a backyard wall piece for art collectors Sandra Powell and Andrew King in 2014. Although he could do three private commissions a week, he prefers to pick and choose where his art will appear next.

“Sandra and Andrew’s backyard wall had ivy growing all over it, so the idea that my art evolves around the work is what appealed to me,” Rone says.

“I guess I’m at a point in my career where I paint what I want to paint – not every artist can do that or has that choice. I do still get asked a lot, but I don’t seek the opportunities.

“What I look for when I do private murals is surface. It has to be an interesting space to paint on rather than a flat white wall.

“An exterior of a home where there is raw old concrete and an archway so I can make my work integrate with the architecture is what my eye is drawn to.”