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Flying Start — Blaenau Gwent
Nine centres, nine different paintings. I worked with Flying Start staff, parents and children to develop nature murals around the people and places at each site. At Cwm, the children’s drawings helped take the painting in a particularly lively direction.
Location: Blaenau Gwent, South Wales
Client / setting: Flying Start centres
Scale: Nine centres
Approach: Naturalistic, painterly murals; site-responsive design; staff, parent and child involvement
Example locations: Sirhowy, Blaina, Cwm, Garnlydan, Abertillery and Swffryd
Discover what made each centre’s painting different ↓
Starting with one
We started with one, Sirhowy, as a test. Four days of soft meadows, trees and wildflowers, with a fox and some rabbits tucked in, to work out the cost, the level of detail and the palette before committing to the rest. It went down well and became the benchmark for everything after.
Different centres, different paintings
After that, no two were the same, because each one took its cue from the place and the staff. Blaina is quieter and more grown-up — grasses and species, less colour — because it’s mainly adults in and out. Cwm was the one that really caught fire: the staff and children were so involved it turned into something like an avant-garde art retreat for toddlers. Their own drawings of the places they explore went into the wall, and it came out craggier and rawer than the others, full of bracken and burnt colour, with the cross on the hill and a nod to the old pit.
Details from the people and the places
A lot of the detail was painted in response to what each centre actually keeps. Garnlydan has an African land snail the children look after, so the snail went in, along with some daffodils. There’s a stick insect hidden in a corner at Abertillery. Swffryd is the Sunflower Centre, so it got sunflowers. Elsewhere there are nine ladybirds to find, swifts and swallows in the sky.
Most of the reference came from the simplest place. I’d stand in the foyer and look out the window — the valley sides, the forest, the wildflowers growing right there on the doorstep — and paint that. Light, airy, a subtle sky of blue and cloud rather than the whole thing painted, and small detail everywhere: the real grasses, leaves and wildflowers of each spot.
Participation without forcing every centre into the same model
I talked with staff, parents and children as the work developed. Some details came from those conversations, and at Cwm the children’s drawings were incorporated directly. There was no fixed participation formula: some spaces needed a quieter, more staff-led response, while others opened up much more to the children. That flexibility mattered because each mural had to belong to its own centre while still sitting comfortably within the wider programme.
What Flying Start said
“Andy created bespoke murals for our Flying Start hubs that have completely transformed the environment. He was incredibly receptive to ideas from both staff and children, ensuring each mural reflected the unique identity of the individual setting. The finished artwork has been extremely well received by families, children and staff alike, creating welcoming, engaging spaces that inspire learning and play.”
Catrin Daniel
Capital Programme Officer, Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council
20 October 2026
Further context
Greening Maindee