A giant painted pheasant can be spotted darting across an old farm building in Kirkhill Forest from the road.
The mural of the game bird with the word “scowp” painted alongside it seemed to have popped up overnight – leaving drivers wondering how it got there.
And that’s because artists drove around a mile and a half up the forest track, and then hiked with all their tools, to paint the barn under the cover of darkness.
The mural just off the AWPR is the latest of Aberdeen Street Art’s projects.
Last year, the group painted the two massive murals of Thomas Blake Glover – otherwise known as the Scottish Samurai – on derelict buildings at the Toll of Birness.
Aberdeen Street Art was formed following the first lockdown to help those struggling with their mental health.
Following the success of their first project, Mike Arthur, group coordinator, promised there would be more murals popping up across the north-east.
Location, location, location…
Mr Arthur started “hunting” for the location last December and said the barn “really stood out”.
“We were looking for a location that was quite prominent,” he explained. “The barn really stood out. I went out hunting one December day, and I saw this place.
“It was just such a brilliant location for it, and with the trees in the background it was just perfect.”
Once they pinned down the perfect location, they tracked down the owners and got planning permission from the council.
Before painting started, Kinghorn Construction donated their materials and time to help the group repoint the barn and brick up a doorway to make it a flat surface.
The following weekend, the group got to work painting the pheasant running away, with the word “scowp” printed across the barn.
They used the limited summer-time darkness to project the image onto the barn.
The whole project only took three days but there was a lot of planning.
“It was quite exciting,” Mr Arthur said. “We had four artists on the ground when we were painting the mural, which took us the whole weekend.
“We had to paint the whole barn with a background colour, prime it, treat it, then go in at night to project onto the barn, when there’s only a couple hours darkness at this time of year.
“That was a bit of an adventure.”
A focus on Doric and nature
The Doric word “scowp” means to dash and run, and in this case, refers to the movement that a pheasant makes as it runs.
Artist and group member Fit Like Art focuses on natural art and he wanted to do something with the local language for this project.
Aberdeen Street Art joined forces with the Mearns Writers for the Kirkhill Forest mural, and Mr Arthur hopes the next stage will involve the poets writing a verse in Doric about the art.
The group received funding through ACVO from the mental health recovery fund, and they hope it will be an ongoing project in the area.
“We had a lot of community help, and everybody was behind us,” Mr Arthur explained.
“There were a lot of ups and downs in the project, but everyone stuck together really well and were really supportive. It was a nice community ethos.”
Follow the artists behind the mural on Instagram @fitlikeart, @sixfootclown, @alteregoabdn, @bfl_abdn, @aberdeenstreetart and @k.i.s_photography
