Painting the big picture: meet the mural artist who gives new meaning to 'occupational hazard'

For Sunshine Coast mural artist Matt Stewart, size does matter.

The Dicky Beach resident is big on bringing the ‘wow’ factor to walls, pillars and even cars to make them really ‘pop’, using his signature strong, bold strokes.

That’s why his clients range from corporate giants including Disney, Mercedes Benz and Cirque du Soleil to humble small businesspeople and homeowners wanting a ‘hero’ piece to match their branding/decor or to put their passion in the frame.

After more than 12 years creating larger-than-life works full-time, the contemporary fine artist knows only too well that each project can come with its own major challenges.

A living room wall may require a juggling act of using paint cans or brushes while up a ladder, or turning contortionist to work around a staircase.

A commission by Cirque du Soleil at Brisbane’s Go Between Bridge took the term ‘occupational hazard’ to a whole new level over five long days.

“I painted four big pillars on Coronation Drive (inbound to the city) in Brisbane that was based around their show Totem,” he said, while taking in the splendours of Moffat Beach recently.

“They were four vertical sets of eyes in different colours to represent the characters.

“Logistically, that’s the biggest piece that I’ve painted. We had traffic closures and bridge closures to make it all work.

“That’s the longest I’ve worked on one, purely because there were four pillars – 11m tall and three metres around. It required getting a boom lift to work around it and painting the whole thing during inclement weather as well. It was raining most of that time.

“I was under cover but it was around Easter so it was blowy. It wasn’t ideal.

“That particular one I used 100 per cent aerosols. They dry within 30 seconds of going up there. So, they’re not too bad – whereas, if I’m working on a wall that has no protection, it really is weather dependent.

“I painted one in the (Fortitude) Valley once that was just a wind tunnel non-stop.

“I came at midnight to see if the weather changed but it was like that 24/7 and I just had to work around it.”

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The difficulties of the Cirque du Soleil experience, however, didn’t dampen his enthusiasm, and Mr Stewart still counts that work as his favourite “only because they’ve been up there for six years now and they still look as vibrant as they did the day I painted them”.

His first major mural was for the Accor hotel group: an inside feature wall of the then Novotel Brisbane in Spring Hill.

“That was very contemporary – a lot of shapes and the cityscape. Probably what most people would think of when they think of a mural of Brisbane,” said Stewart, who moved up to the Sunshine Coast from the capital as the pandemic began to ease at the end of 2021.

“That was a traditional kind (of mural) before I started branching out and doing really left-of-field artwork.”

As corporate clients began to seek him out, the Matt Stewart Creative business owner painted mural artworks for Disney in the lead-up to the launch of The Lion King seasons on stage in Brisbane and Melbourne, as well as for a Mercedes Benz vehicle launch on a barge on the Brisbane River.

“There was panelling that the car sat on that was all lit up and I painted that,” he said of the Mercedes Benz job.

“There was also a media wall (for guest photos). The whole section of the barge was encompassed in the artwork that represented different elements of the car but in my style.”

Mini’s launch of a new five-door model also received the Matt Stewart star treatment.

“Minis traditionally have racing stripes on the middle so I turned that into a tuxedo on the bonnet,” he recalled.

“That blended out into some leopard-print patterns over the front arches and down the side, and there was a female image with a polygon headpiece that ran down the side of the car with branding for both myself and the dealership.

“Then on the roof was actually a duplicate of one of the artworks that I had done. That was stencilled on.

“Text that said ‘five’ ran over the whole back of the car.”

While art novices may be clueless to the logistics of taking a digital concept from the computer screen to a wall, Mr Stewart said he was able to complete works with a minimum of fuss.

“From the initial concept, it really depends on the client,” he said.

“If someone’s in a rush to have something, I can work on a concept within a week and then a couple of days later be on site and paint it within two days.

“I’m doing a couple of restaurant fitouts in Brisbane at the moment and they’re kind of on a sliding scale.

“I’m always the last person to go in a couple of days before opening. I’m reliant on their building going to plan and timing.”

Having a strong interest in interior design and architecture, plus an eye for what looks good and will work well within a space, all helps.

“Ninety per cent of the time, I’ll sit down with the client and get some ideas of what they may want on there and then I will work on the concept wholeheartedly for them to approve,” he said.

“The other 10 per cent is usually people who see a piece of mine and want a version of that or pretty much have an idea of what they want and then get me to create it in my style.

“When I have meetings with them, I’ll take all that into consideration and make sure that the colour palette doesn’t clash or it works really well with their decor and it’s not going to date. You don’t want the latest, greatest bright colour – the trend colour – if in 12 months that’s going to be outdated.

“I do all my concepts digitally and then I superimpose them within Photoshop on to their walls. So, they 99 per cent know what it will look like as an end result.”

From children’s bedrooms incorporating hobbies and sports to garages highlighting a passion for European luxury sports vehicles or American muscle cars and hotrods, Mr Stewart’s ‘canvas’ is always eye-catching.

That’s another reason why some homeowners are now seeking his services immediately before putting their properties on the market.

“I’ve done it three different times now and all three people have had the same reason: they want a hero piece to stand out on their (real estate) listing,” he mused.

“And it does. It grabs. The feedback from real estate agents has been that it grabs so much more attention. Whether that translates into a quicker sale or not …”

After taking art lessons throughout high school, Mr Stewart turned to studies in graphic design as a creative ‘grown-up’ career before making his way up the corporate ladder in branding and marketing.

“I’ve always painted and just decided to start doing it as a side business,” he said.

“We were living in Teneriffe at the time in a wool store and I needed some artwork.

“I didn’t like anything that was out there. So, I got some canvases and started painting my own pieces.

“Then I had a few people come over and see it. They were like ‘Wow. You should sell these.’ It grew organically from that.

“I went into it full time, initially just doing canvas artworks. I had a studio down there for a number of years. And then I had a request to do a mural. I painted it and it kind of snowballed from there.

“Someone once described my artwork as ‘street art with a pop art edge’. Even though I am not a street artist, the inclusion of aerosols and paint splatters brings that into it.

“People want something a little more edgy but they don’t want to go too crazy. It’s a really good middle ground where they feel safe and happy to let me create something.”

Stewart said his work was usually priced on a square-meterage rate, with an average-size wall mural costing between $5000 and $5500.

“When you look at corresponding sizes in canvases – that’s $3500 for (under a square metre), whereas I can paint a whole wall for $5500 if they’re going to be there for a while, or they see it as adding value to their home if they are thinking of selling it.”