Taking art to the highway

It would be hard to find a higher-profile location for artwork than the shed wall beside the Coastal Highway where Chris Zesk has sprayed his latest mural.

This is his third mural in three years on the wall near the Appleby Bridge, with the monarch butterflies of his last mural now replaced with super-sized bees feasting on blossom.

In the centre is the graffiti-style signature of his artist name, Zesk, emblazoned in bright yellow to catch the eye of some of the thousands of people who drive past every day.

Builder by day, street artist when he gets the opportunity, Chris spent about six hours spray painting his latest mural onto the wall, which is one of about eight murals he has around Richmond and Nelson.

“I’m always looking for places I can paint and I always thought this would be a prime spot.”

The owners of the shed are happy for him to paint the wall and his aim is to repaint it every few months with a fresh design.

Chris says he tried the art route as a career, but it was a struggle to stay enthused when he was not always painting what he wanted to paint. So now he just gets the cans of spray paint out when he finds a wall he can paint.