Marlow: Local artist creates colourful mural near Nook gift shop

Morgan Royale, 51, has only lived in Marlow since February but is already enamoured with the Buckinghamshire town's community spirit and artistic vitality.

By day a logistician, the 51-year-old has always dabbled with the arts as a hobby and has collaborated with the gift and homeware shop Nook on painted plant pots, as well as exhibiting canvas designs on his social media pages under the moniker 'Reeled and Skinned'.

He has also recently worked with Emma Wilson, co-founder of Nook, on the idea of a large-scale mural in a small square on Church Road, close to Morgan's flat and Emma's shop.

The two share a love of Thailand and thus a design of two brightly coloured toucans was dreamt up, set against a vibrant blue background dotted with flowers and greenery.

More than just brightening up a "dirty corner" of Marlow, Morgan hopes the artwork will draw more customers towards Nook, which he described as an "amazing shop" that easily slips under the radar by nature of its tucked away location.

He began laying out the outline for the design on Friday, October 27 and kept at it until Sunday morning, during which time several curious Marlovians popped their heads around the corner to keep track of his progress.

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"Quite a few people stopped by while I was working, especially on Sunday. Julia, who works at the Marlow Tattoo Lounge, even helped me to get the texture of the feathers right when I was having some trouble.

"I'm someone who can never finish anything, so I'm still adding to it even now. I'm thinking of putting a little gecko or a sloth in one of the corners."

Morgan is keen to celebrate the street art in the town, a genre that he feels can be overlooked by Marlow's otherwise thriving gallery scene and has surprised himself by how much he has taken to having such a large canvas. 

"I do think it's easier to fill in an artwork's details on a bigger surface. I've already been asked by a headteacher at a primary school in Bourne End to paint a similar mural there, so it's great that the piece is getting that kind of attention." 

The wall the mural was painted on partially comprises an old lifted building, meaning that the design could start to disintegrate as soon as next spring.

Morgan is more excited than deterred, however, at the prospect of altering and playing with the work, or maybe even starting again entirely from scratch.

"Art was the only thing I was interested in at school - a part of me is surprised that I ended up in logistics. If I had the money, I'd be updating the mural every week."