Hawke's Bay artist unveils award-winning mural

The mural, titled 'Stop Poisoning Paradise', centres around the importance of bees within our whole ecosystem. Photo / Supplied

Hawke's Bay artist Jil Sergent has unveiled her award-winning mural on the large roller door of Beagle's Bees Honey Factory in the Onekawa industrial area in Napier.

Sergent was one of 10 winners from across the country who took out the top prize in Keep New Zealand Beautiful's (KNZB) Resene Nature Murals Competition 2019.

The mural, titled "Stop Poisoning Paradise", centres around the importance of bees within our whole ecosystem. In her submission Sergent outlined that poisons such as glyphosates are detrimentally affecting the entire ecosystem and the use of the word "why" is repeated in the outer circle to represent the mutation that bees are going through with sublethal poisoning.

On completion of the mural Serjent said it was great to see the mural come together and also the strong message it portrays.

"It's such a relief to complete this mural and I am grateful to Beagle of Beagle's Bees for allowing me to use the large door of his Organic Principles Honey Factory to spread the message that we urgently need to stop poisoning paradise as the bees are dying off."

The Resene Nature Murals Competition, which is part of the Paint New Zealand Beautiful programme, ran from February to April 2019, with artists encouraged to submit mural designs which included an environmental message.

Artists from around the country sent in their designs, with the top 10 murals selected. Photo / Supplied

Artists from around the country sent in their designs, with the top 10 murals selected based on their environmental message, enhancement of the community, originality and creativity.

Winning designs receive a $1000 grant, along with a $750 Resene paint voucher and other materials for artists to paint their mural.

Stan Mans from Hastings was also one of the ten winners for his piece called "Generation To Generation" which shows a time line of the growth of a tree and woman, and the importance of passing on the message of protecting and sustaining our environment.

KNZB CEO Heather Saunderson said creating some of these murals were important to bring a sense of culture and art to New Zealand and try and deter any kind of graffiti vandalism.

"KNZB is proud to partner with Resene again this year to deter vandalism and Paint New Zealand Beautiful. Numerous studies have shown the great impact murals have on their surrounding communities - from increasing civic pride, to a reduction in anti-social behaviour such as littering and graffiti.

"Together with Resene, we're excited to see Jil's mural come to life and to help Hawke's Bay beautify their corner of New Zealand".

The 10 winning artists and regions are listed below, with their designs visible on the Keep New Zealand Beautiful website.

Yeon Seo Kim – Auckland
Sara Fernandez – Auckland
Luther Ashford – South Taranaki
Jil Sergent – Central Hawkes Bay
Stan Mans – Hastings
Rosa Friend – Wellington
Isobel Te Aho-White – Wellington
Hannah Starnes – Nelson
Madison Kelly – Dunedin
Claire Rye – Dunedin