A BEAUTIFUL woodland mural has been painted across the walls of Halton Lea Library to provide an even more enchanted reading area for children and visitors.
Liverpool-based artist Calum Medforth was the talent behind the painting, but much of the design and inspiration came from ideas of year 10 and 11 pupils at St Chad’s High School in Runcorn.
Halton Lea Library, located on Second Avenue, approached the school about plans for the project before going on to meet with art students from both year groups to ask for their help in creating a vision for the mural.
The creative pupils worked off a brief and came together to suggest creating what is now the image of a woodland, due to the several rural woodland spots dotted around Runcorn.
It was then suggested by the group of students that animals should also be included in the painting so that there was an interactive element for young children to be able to find and spot them.
Joanne Stevens from Halton Lea Library said: “They suggested a colour palette of greens with pops of colours and then, Liverpool City Region mural artist, Calum Medforth, worked to bring the vision to life within our junior areas in both Halton Lea library and Widnes.”
Calum spent hours working hard to build the creation, also painting a separate mural in the Widnes library with a similar theme too.
The vibrant and colourful creation spans across two areas of the library and almost looks like a scene from popular children’s book, The Gruffalo, with owls peeking out from trees and a cosy scene of an open fire across the back wall.
Eileen McAuley, lead practitioner in English at St Chad’s, spoke of the pupils’ ‘excellent’ ideas that were brought to life by Calum.
“It was a fantastic opportunity when our GCSE Art students were invited to be consultants for this project.
“They have shared their excellent ideas with the artist, and they have seen first-hand where a career in visual arts can lead.
“St Chad's art department has built exciting, ongoing links with Halton Lea Library to exhibit our students' own creative work, in a space that celebrates art at the heart of our community."
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