Marvellous mural

In my last post from my trip to Hawke's Bay, I thought I would share these photos with you of a mural by the esplanade.

Gisborne boasts quite a few murals, usually with a historic focus and featuring steam trains, men in overalls and ladies in bonnets. This one is quite different, as you can see.

There are individual tiles painted with children's faces. These are fantastic! They were painted by the children of a local school and there are some pretty weird looking pupils if we assume that these are self-portraits. Some are blue or yellow with crazy teeth and wild hair.

It reminds me of a recording I have of Joyce Grenfell 'doing' George, Don't Do That'.


"And this is my friend Caroline, and Caroline is painting such a lovely red picture, aren't you, Caroline? I wonder what it is? Perhaps it's a lovely sunset, is it? Or a big red orange? It's a picture of Mummy! For a moment I thought it was a big red orange, but now you tell me, I can see it is a picture of Mummy. Aren't you going to give her any nose? No nose. It's so interesting the way they see things..."

I always wondered what it was that the irrepressible George was doing. I assumed he was picking his nose, but I have heard other suggestions that are generally far less pleasant.

If anyone has any (not obscene - there is a good taste blocker on this site) suggestions as to what George is up to, please share them.

I'd also be keen to know if anyone has any further information on this mural. Perhaps you know someone who provided one of the paintings - perhaps you are someone who provided one of the paintings. I'd love to hear from you.

As I was playing with the camera settings, I'll leave you with a final picture of the mural in a swirl.