How an artist transformed Liverpool’s Flower Streets with beautiful gable end murals

Artist Madeleine Pires has created a street art gallery of gable end murals which have transformed Liverpool’s Flower Streets.

Over six months, she completed eight out of nine giant floral artworks as part of a Culture Liverpool project.

They now adorn the house walls of 1 Crocus Street, 5 Pansy Street, 4 Pansy Street, 1 Daisy Street, 2 Daisy Street, 1 Woodbine Street, 2 Woodbine Street and 2 Harebell Street – some streets have two murals of the same flower, one on each side of the street.

The ninth, for Snowdrop Street, will come in the spring, as the real-life namesake flowers all start to bloom.

For Madeleine, the commission has been a very personal one involving neighbours and volunteers from Kirkdale who’ve helped out with everything from adding their own design touches to loaning ladders!

“I did the first mural on Pansy Street and it got such a lovely reception,” she says. “People from the community were very sweet, they’d be passing walking their dogs and say hi, and they’d tell me how much the murals were brightening the place up.

“It was something that was specifically for them, and I think once they started to see them they really appreciated that.

“I always approach each piece of artwork as if it’s going to be the best thing that will ever come out my mind, my heart, my hands, and since it was for them and being made in public with people passing by all the time, that just made it even more special.

“Some volunteers were older and one of them had lived there when he was a boy after the war so he had this personal connection to the street which meant helping me had so much more meaning.

“Another one of the residents who came along right at the beginning was also really helpful. He actually lent me his own ladder when I got rid of the cherry picker and he let me keep my outside table in his house overnight so I didn’t need to be driving around with everything in my car.”

The project involved all ages too, with children from the nearby Kirkdale St Lawrence Primary School joining in to add their own floral motifs.

“There was a lovely little girl who was about 10 who really loved helping me, she was absolutely thrilled when it was time to paint her own daisy, and her brother helped as well and got really into it. It was her class, year 5, that got to participate in the other daisy mural and all got to do their own daisy.”

Madeleine, who lives in the Warrington area, first heard about the Flower Streets mural project through dot-art in Liverpool.

She explains: “dot-art sent out this opportunity to all artist members over a year ago, I did a proposal and Culture Liverpool liked it.

“The work is quite a lot bigger than I usually do, I’ve done a couple of murals on mdf for schools before but never anything this size so I had to do a lot of research. I shadowed a street artist and consulted him about types of paint and techniques because I wanted it to be really high quality. 

“The backgrounds are all done with very good quality exterior masonry paint and I found an amazing range of colours.

“For the main areas of detail, I did a prototype acrylic painting at my studio at home first. For the Pansy Street mural, I chose the most beautiful pansy I could find, and once I had photos of the blank wall I used Photoshop to try out different background colours and see which would go best with the design.”

Madeleine did her eighth street artwork at the end of September, but then colder weather meant she had to put painting on hold.

She’s looking forward to spring when number nine will finish the set and in the meantime she’s planning to create a treasure hunt-style mural map so children can spot hidden creatures in them.

“There’s something for everyone in these murals and it’s been so nice to see how much people really like them,” she adds. “Some were quite sceptical at the beginning because they said there wasn’t any point doing anything nice because it would get ruined, so it was lovely to see attitudes change and them become the biggest fans.”

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