A vision of New Zealand

08 Mar 2023

From kōwhai flowers to Kikorangi skies, Auckland artist, Brigita Botma, has unveiled her award-winning mural titled ‘Harmony' on the BNZ wall in Pukekohe's town centre.  

The mural features a pīwakawaka (fantail) and a tūī with a backdrop that merges the natural environment of harakeke (flax), kōwhai and pōhutukawa flowers, with Auckland’s urban city skyline.  

The tūī is seen proudly flying a banner that conveys the mural’s message, 'Natural and urban environments can exist in harmony. Let's make it happen!'

Inspired by her passion to keep pollution down and her desire to practice pride, respect and honour for our environment, Brigita’s mural also embraces the essence of her Polynesian namesake and business name 'Mana(bell)'. 

"I think Pukekohe is a good place for a message about existing in environmental harmony as it has a strong mix of both urban and natural environments.,” says artist Brigita. “It's a pretty special place to me as I've spent all my young adulthood in the area and it's almost an extension of what I consider my hometown: Waiuku.” 

“Pukekohe has put a huge effort into beautifying their town and preventing graffiti, so it was great to help them through this initiative. I've had hundreds of positive comments on it.”

A close up of Brigita’s mural featuring the pīwakawaka, harakeke and kōwhai, painted in Resene Turbo, Resene Crusoe, Resene Black and Resene Endeavour. 

The Pukekohe community are so pleased with Brigita’s mural and grateful to Keep New Zealand Beautiful and Resene for helping them to beautify a graffiti-prone spot through this competition.

Brigita was one of ten winners from throughout New Zealand who took out the top prize in Keep New Zealand Beautiful’s Resene Nature Murals Competition.

The Resene Nature Murals Competition called on community members to submit mural designs, which include an environmental message, for a wall to paint in their local community. Artists from around the country sent in their designs, with the top ten murals selected based on their environmental message, enhancement of the community, originality and creativity.

"Our Resene Nature Murals Competition provides a great opportunity for artists to beautify their local communities,” says Keep New Zealand Beautiful CEO, Heather Saunderson. “In its sixth year, this competition continues to grow in popularity and we're always so impressed with the calibre of entries we receive that narrowing down the selection to just ten winners is getting harder and harder.”

“We're so excited to see these murals come to life, knowing how the beautification of public spaces greatly benefits communities by increasing civic pride and deterring vandalism and anti-social behaviour such as littering and graffiti."

Find out more about Brigita’s work: www.manabell.co.nz

Brigita’s mural ‘Harmony’, painted in Resene Turbo, Resene Crusoe, Resene Endeavour, Resene Roadster, Resene Black, Resene White, Resene Pohutukawa and Resene Daisy Bush

Published: 08 Mar 2023