Paul Scott: Big pictures deliver the right frame of mind

The Big Picture Fest.

The gorgeous spring weather was a bonus during the painting of 12 large-scale murals to prominent locations across the inner-city courtesy of sponsors - including major sponsor City of Newcastle's (CoN) $169,750 investment allocated from special business rate funding.

Newcastle is no stranger to street art, but organised events have been a tad quiet for the past five years. Back in 2013, Hit the Bricks saw big murals make their appearance in Newcastle through a planned occasion. The murals were widely praised for the vibrance they injected into the city. There was a follow-up street art festival in 2014, but that was it.

The revival of a mural event and its artistic legacy may definitely, perhaps, conceivably, possibly and even feasibly put a sustainable, smart, liveable, emerging, accessible, safe, diverse and vibrant Newcastle on the map. All adjectives courtesy of City of Newcastle (CoN) webpages.

The map? That's the map our leaders, state pollies and others grasping for words to fill airtime have been promising to get us inserted into since the city's name was omitted from the General Chart of Terra Australis completed by Matthew Flinders.

The small matter that the moniker Newcastle first appeared officially in 1804 - in Governor King's letter to 21-year-old Lieutenant Charles Menzies confirming Menzies' appointment as the city's first superintendent - was after the completion of cartographer Flinders' circumnavigation of the island continent is a minor matter for nit-picking hair-splitters.

But Newcastle had no big murals then. No wonder we weren't on the map.

After the last three days, locals and visitors can enjoy more big street murals. It'd take a bona fide sad sack to not feel at least some joy when viewing the bigger street art gallery Newcastle now hosts.

Big murals can help re-define place as equally as blank, tired and drab cement walls can define that very same area. Back in 2009, Renew Newcastle's optimistic workhorse Marcus Westbury advocated for government instrumentalities to recognise the cultural value of street art, describing the practice as one of Melbourne's "biggest tourist attractions and one of its most significant cultural movements since the Heidelberg School".

The Bondi Beach Sea Wall, which began its operation as an open-air art gallery in the late 1970s, is celebrated around the world, providing as much a snappable inspiration for a Gram moment as does the Tasman Sea lapping at its famous shoreline.

There are two murals on that wall that have been considered by Waverley Council to warrant long-term preservation; "The Girl with a Frangipani in Her Hair" (dedicated to 15-year-old local Chloe Byron who was killed in the 2002 Bali bombings) and the Anzac commemorative mural. Both get you thinking.

In the Hunter, Kurri Kurri is now perhaps best known for being the largest mural town in mainland Australia, with more than 60 outdoor artworks depicting the area's history and culture.

However, Mulletfest now provides a worthy challenge to any claim that Kurri Kurri is best known for its murals. Imagine combining both events to create a massive Murals and Mullets festival for 12 months each year. Where the bloody hell are ya?

The rural mural, also known as the mural makeover, is now a thing. The Australian Silo Art Trail showcases art in regional towns and is playing an important role in reinvigorating tourism.

Also in the Hunter, Merriwa now boasts a massive image of a sheep in red socks on the town's GrainCorp silos. That mural has become a place of reverence on full moons for grey nomads who remain lifestyle aficionados of Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead. That sheep is the Silo Art Trail "gateway drug". A sheep in red socks returning your gaze right back at you. What a trip, man.

About 117 kms closer to Dubbo, Dunedoo has added to the trail with a mural of champion mare Winx and jockey Hugh Bowman popping up in the main strip. Wonderful stuff.

There remain many more spaces in Newcastle that will benefit from further additions to our big outside art gallery. Some of those big prominent spaces won't come easily or cheaply. But CoN has shown it can negotiate the hurdles to get great artists to the city and great art on buildings in prominent places.

After the success of the last three days and realising the ongoing enjoyment street art will provide, let's hope there's an even bigger Big Picture Fest in Newcastle in 2021.

Paul Scott is a lecturer in the School of Creative Industries at the University of Newcastle.