A Bay of Plenty artist found inspiration for Rotorua's latest inner-city mural on the second floor of the library among hundreds of historic photographs.
Bela Ughy got work underway on the new mural on Pukuatua St this week.
The artist's brief, sent out by community arts advisor Marc Spijkerbosch, called for something uniquely Rotorua. To find inspiration for the piece Ughy spent time in the Don Stafford room at the Rotorua Library researching the district.
"I've always been good at painting historical images," he said.
"I was looking through all of these old photographs that I found in the Don Stafford room and they all had something in common. They all had steam in them."
The four paneled motif called 'Steamscape' will depict a scene from early century Rotorua of Maori and settlers going about life on the shores of Lake Rotorua.