Giant dragon mural unveiled at town paint festival

Artist Luke Gray took five days to complete the colourful design

Walls across a town have been transformed by 40 local street artists, as part of an annual paint festival.

Scores of new designs have been unveiled across Swindon, including a 98ft (30m) mural of a dragon on the side of the Wyvern Theatre.

The hand-painted beast, boasting wings and a woman's face, took street artist Luke Gray five days to complete.

"I'm lucky because we have a bit of an overhang [here]. Usually you're painting in the rain and in the snow. The [last] mural I did in Swindon, my paint froze because it was so cold," he said.

Artist Luke Gray in action

Mr Gray, who grew up in the town and studied art at Swindon College, said the design is his interpretation of a mythical creature called a wyvern.

"A wyvern is basically a two-legged dragon - the original word wyvern comes from worm," he said.

"But I found a very old carving of a wyvern which had a human head on a church pew. So this inspired me to change the dragon - I gave it bird wings and made it a little more feminine."

Mr Gray said creating a large mural takes a "lot of measuring" and climbing up and down ladders with pots of paint.

"It's a physical job," he said.

"I've got a few [murals in Swindon] and it can do a lot, especially if the town is in disrepair. It can kind of brighten it up, rather than just staring at brick walls."

Mr Gray said creating the large mural had been a "physical job"

Swindon Paint Fest was launched in 2022 and this year's event was predominantly focused on "SN postcode artists" with links to Swindon, according to organiser Helen Salter.

But not all of the walls in Swindon that were donated to the festival were used.

"It's not just about putting anything on the walls, it's about what it makes people feel inside as well," she said.

"This is about enhancing the area and if a building is beautiful and speaks for itself, we're not going to put a pot of paint to it."

Helen Salter, one of the festival organisers, said the town has about 140 murals

In the 1980s, the town had more than 40 murals but only Ken White's 1976 Golden Lion Bridge and Sarah Faulkner's 1985 Arkells Brewery are left from that time.

Ms Salter said Swindon now has about 140 murals and they are hoping to work with Historic England to try and preserve and archive its mural heritage.