Bristol artists create lockdown Alice in Wonderland mural

Alison Larkman said the "oddly positioned window" reminded her of a dolls house and she wanted an image of a child "peering in" and Alice "fitted well"

A giant mural of Alice in Wonderland peering behind a curtain has been painted on the side of a house.

Alison Larkman worked with street artist Stewy using stencils to make the image on her home in Lindrea Street, Bristol.

Ms Larkman said after "months of being shut in my house" in lockdown, it "felt like an important marker of this time".

Stewy said the idea to create the image "coincided with the feeling of isolation during Covid-19 in 2020".

Ms Larkman said the work involved "exploring scale and how at its extreme, it either shuts you out - by being too small - or potentially shuts you in".

"Alice fitted well as the story itself deals with scale but also the oddness of it all which is what I feel about this time," she said.

Artist Alison Larkman and street artist Stewy said creating the mural was the first time they had collaborated

Ms Larkman, who has ME, said the experience of the illness "seems to resonate with the experience of lockdown".

"I am debilitated to the point of being unable to leave my house and often my bed. It is a strange time that disconnects you from everyday.

"I become an observer looking out on the world."

Stewy amended the original Tenniel drawing by replacing the illustrated door with the window on the side of the house

Stewy said he had "scaled-up" an original drawing by John Tenniel, who illustrated Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which was published in 1865.

He said he had divided the stencil "into many individual sections like a jigsaw".

When asked why he thought murals might be special, he said: "The mural is public, free and inclusive.

"A large street mural can communicate instantly and can brighten up the area."

The artists borrowed ladders from neighbours and it made Ms Larkman "realise what a community I live in"