Last year, thanks to a Seedpod grant from the good people at Octapod, I kicked off ‘Seed’ a series of community art events at Fig Tree Community Garden. Trevor Horsnell and myself hosted a series of events that culminated in the painting of a butterfly mural on the wall of the rock steady Croatian Club, adjacent to the Garden.

Well the good news is that we’re back this year with more butterflies. How exciting is that! For all of you who have a burning desire to paint butterflies, or even just a mild hankering, come along to Fig Tree Community Garden this Sunday, 26th February. From 10am until about midday we’ll be painting on the wall and everyone is welcome to join in. Afterwards there will be a delicious lunch from Fig Tree’s wood fired pizza oven; these are yummo pizzas often topped with fresh produce and herbs from the Garden.

But if you’re thinking ‘nah, butterflies- not hardcore enough for me’ I quite sympathise: I too have wrestled with this vexed conundrum. Initially the prospect of painting multiple butterflies on a wall may seem rather girlish, light hearted, perhaps even effete. This is not what I’d imagined I’d be doing in the leather clad 1980s.

However now I am one of the converted and can reassure you that after the first butterfly, you’ll be gone baby gone. It’s highly likely that you’ll go home after the event and spray paint butterflies on your bedroom walls.

This time around I’ll be joined by the very talented artists Karen Robinson Smith and Tallulah Cunningham. Karen is a sculptor with a natural sense of design, so she’s responsible for butterfly placement. Or, as we like to say in the trade (please assume bad Cockney accent) ‘fly positioning.

The gifted natural history illustrator, and artist, Tallulah Cunningham has kindly offered to draw outlines of butterflies so that people can fill them in.

If you haven’t touched a paint brush for years, and can’t draw to save a stick figure, be reassured that we’ll have some fool proof stencils to get you started.

See you Sunday, come ‘fly with us!