A Garden in Two Worlds: New Murals in Maindee and Malvern

A Garden in Two Worlds: New Murals in Maindee and Malvern

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been working on a pair of connected murals for a remarkable garden project in Maindee — and its show garden counterpart at the RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2025.

The original brief was to create a backdrop for the new community garden in Maindee, and I was given the freedom to explore creative directions. After conversations with Emily, the garden’s designer, we started with the influence of Maindee’s art deco architecture and the idea of a trompe l’oeil illusion. But the concept evolved.

I’ve been experimenting for a while with distorted perspectives — particularly equirectangular and “little planet” images, from 360 photography, which reveal both micro and macro views of a space. This idea suited the garden perfectly. I wanted to create something immersive, something that made you feel surrounded by nature even at a busy urban junction. It was great to get to try it on a fairly large scale.

The result in Maindee is a large mural — around 7 metres high and 10 metres wide — painted on the gable end of a building overlooking the garden. I incorporated elements from the planting list Emily shared with me, blending them in and around the circular composition that wraps the viewer in garden textures and colours.

The second mural, created for the RHS show in Malvern, adapts and extends the original piece. It’s longer and lower — 14m x 2.4m — and includes key urban features from Maindee: the art deco baths building on one end and the iconic railway bridge on the other. The centre of the mural echoes the Maindee design, but working in the show garden allowed me to respond more directly to the planting as it took shape. This became a true collaboration with Emily and her landscaping team.

Painting the mural in Maindee took 10 days and was completed at the end of March. The Malvern mural was completed in just 4 days last week — in time for the RHS show judging. Whatever the results, the project has already been a fantastic celebration of creativity, nature, and urban transformation.

The garden will be a beautiful addition to Maindee, and I hope the mural offers something visually striking — a work that makes you pause, and maybe feel a little more immersed in the natural world.