Painted by Melbourne based artist Cam Scale and Darwin based Les Huddleston, for the 2017 Darwin Street Art Festival, entitled "Monsoon" - the dancing brolgas (Australian cranes), can be found at 46 Mitchell Street, in Darwin's city centre.
"While in Kakadu, local artist Les Huddleston spotted what he thought was a huge dust storm brewing. As he got closer the real image emerged - more than 60 brolgas kicking up the dust as they danced.
Brolgas are known for their intricate mating dances, which often begin by tossing a piece of grass in the air and catching it in their bill. The elegant birds then jump into the air with open wings.
“When the monsoonal rains come the billabongs get full of water to the extent that they meet the saltwater. When they meet the saltwater come in and breed in the billabong. That billabong turns into a life source for Aboriginal people that go down and drink water and hunt for fish and the birds eat the fish and the turtles. The painting represents a life force”, Huddleston explained.
The depiction of fish swirling in the billabong at the feet of the dancing brolgas is a reminder of the beauty and necessity of the natural world.
“The mural shows the importance of our natural environment. Maintaining our natural environment is the most important thing we can do and I think people tend to forget that sometimes. If we don’t maintain our environment it doesn’t matter what we do”, Scale said."
...WOW, this mural is amazing. The birds are huge!!! Thanks Sami for hosting the mural get together each week.
ReplyDeleteThanks Tom, yes it's a gigantic mural!
DeleteThis is a really stunning mural. What I like about it is it shows natural selection works and, if humans would stay away and not interfere, Mother Nature would be able to take care of herself and the land.
ReplyDeleteThanks Elizabeth :)
DeleteAwesome mural. Thanks a lot for host.
ReplyDeleteHave a nice week ahead.
Thank you Rupam, enjoy the rest of the week.
DeleteI really like that, I've never seen those birds, it's a nice wetland scene
ReplyDeleteThanks Amy.
DeleteVery impressive.
ReplyDeleteCertainly is William, it's huge!
Deletethese giant flamingos are of the most beautiful effect. thank you for the description and the meaning of this mural. I wish you a good beginning of week
ReplyDeleteThank you Kwarkito, glad you enjoyed the mural.
DeleteIt's a very large mural and well done. I know little of brolgas, but a bit more now. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThanks Andrew. I only saw brolgas on my visit to Darwin last September.
DeleteThe mural is beautiful: a real appreciation of these lovely creatures. It's sad that videos like the one you have see natural behavior of non-humans as "funny" rather than an example of the interesting diversity of the natural world, and seem a bit contemptuous of other species than ourselves.
ReplyDeletebest... mae at maefood.blogspot.com
Thanks Mae.
DeleteMajestoso como as aves o s|ao.
ReplyDeleteBoa semana
Obrigada Pedro, boa semana.
DeleteBig and beautiful birds. Interesting facts and video of the dancing birds. Great mural. Thank you for hosting. Have a great week.
ReplyDeleteThank you Nancy, glad you enjoyed it.
DeleteThis is a stunning mural that features dancing brolgas. Colours are soft too.
ReplyDeleteHave a great day!
Thank you Amila, love the colours too :)
DeleteBeautiful mural and background, especially. Yes, we need nature. And many forget this
ReplyDeleteThanks Iris, I like the background colours too :)
DeleteThat is an inspiring life force artwork! Your explanation really helped us enter into appreciating it. Thank you Sami
ReplyDeleteThank you Cloudia.
DeleteWhat a great portrayal of these amazing birds
ReplyDeleteThank you Debbie :)
DeleteI have seen most of the world's cranes and the last species was two Brolgas in Werribee, VIctoria, just outside Melbourne, so this mural has special appeal for me. It is extremely well done too.
ReplyDeleteThanks David, glad you enjoyed the mural and amazing that you have actually seen most of the world's cranes.
DeleteGostei deste belo e artístico mural.
ReplyDeleteUm abraço e boa semana.
Andarilhar
Dedais de Francisco e Idalisa
O prazer dos livros
Obrigada Francisco, boa semana.
DeleteWonderful birds painted in those soft colours!
ReplyDeleteThanks Marianne :)
DeleteWow what a mural again, cranes in the mood. Wonderful.
ReplyDeleteThanks SC, glad you enjoyed it.
DeleteThe cranes are wonderful. Thanks for hosting us Sami.
ReplyDeleteThanks Pat :)
DeleteThe mural's very dynamic. I'd never heard of brolgases. The plentitude of plenty in nature is astounding.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kelly. I only saw them during my visit to Darwin in September last year.
DeleteThis is incredibly beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jeanie :)
Deleteoooh, that's a lovely mural....I just love brolgas! I'm having trouble linking a pic to the linky....not sure if its a problem between Blogspot and wordpress as I've had this issue before but never with your site.
ReplyDeleteThanks Cath. Not sure why, but it does seem to happen sometimes.
DeleteThe brolgas dance is extraordinary.
ReplyDeleteThanks Linda. Very elegant birds :)
DeleteThe dancing cranes are fabulous Sami, gorgeous mural of them here.. loved the video made me think of the expression 'dance like no one is watching' :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Grace. Yes that would be a good expression for the crane dance :)
DeleteSuch an enormous wall of beautiful details! I love the movement and the colours ... so much going on! It must have been so challenging to capture it!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fabulous mural this is.
ReplyDeleteAll the best Jan