One of my two favourite silo art works that always amazes me with the detail in the artwork. Using four disused twenty-eight meter high silos the mural was created over a period of three weeks by the graffiti artist SMUG (Sam Bates) in October of 2018. The once dilapidated old silos are now the highlight of the small South Australian farming town.
Smug is renowned for his photo realist large murals and the basis his artwork are photographs he shoots himself. The pictures are then used to create the large murals with incredible accuracy and detail using only spray paints. His subjects are mainly working class people and his work is to show that all individuals are extraordinary in their own way.
The subject of this mural is Dion Lebrun, a resident of Tumby Bay. Dion first met SMUG at the Tumby Bay Street Art Festival in April 2018 and was considered the perfect representation of the South Australian farmer. In the mural, Dion is shown with his trusty axe over his shoulder and a Robin redbreast, one of the local birds to symbolise the connection between the farmers and nature.
A great time lapse video of the creation of the art work by Chris Ashby Productions can be seen below.