Paint the Town Pretty

These pictures could be decorating a preschool but they on the walls of my local railway subway.

Around the corner there are many more works of art.

And designs that wouldn't be out of place in a child's bedroom.

 

I am fascinated with the way Australians decorate their facilities. Everything from buildings to roadside motorway barriers is made decorative as well as practical; every large concrete retaining wall, every long line of motorway fencing, every extended length of building. Surfaces are given texture, colour or murals that catch the eye. There is everything from a few leaf shaped indents to enormous extended portraits of local people, plants and animals. I am impressed. Someone has gone to some trouble to make things look nice as well as functional.

This toilet block was front and centre and right in the middle of four fields and playing areas in the middle of Brisbane. Recent renovations by hoodlums had left rubbish all over the inside floor, including the dismantled toilet seat, but the outside was a bright glittering work of tiled art. I am used to dismal grey toilet blocks huddled in a dark corner of the park.

Things are decorated on a grand scale. This is part of the wall of a city building and is presumably glass and concrete.

There are so many like it including a landmark building on the Brisbane skyline that has long and sloping blocks of window in four different colours. Even the rubbish bins look like they were designed by artists.

Maybe it is because Australians spend so much time outdoors but they sure put some thought into the outdoor environment. I am impressed.