November 11, 2022
Guests enjoying refreshments at Kingaroy RSL Club after Friday’s Remembrance Day services were greeted by something new this year.
A large mural featuring silhouettes of army, navy and air force personnel set against an Australian flag now greets everyone who enters the club.
The mural’s design is painted in oil on canvas, and mounted in a custom-made stretcher frame to cover a blank wall next to the kitchen.
It was painted by Kingaroy artist Jo O’Brien over four months, and officially unveiled in front of a crowd of RSL members and invited guests recently.
Kingaroy RSL Club manager Maxine Tessmann said the idea for the mural came soon after the club’s interior had been repainted.
“We had an empty wall next to the kitchen that looked a bit drab, and we thought a mural might be a good way to improve it,” she said.
Club board member Barry O’Brien suggested his daughter Jo might be a good artist to hire for the project, and she was offered the assignment after club officials realised how well-known she was.
Jo moved to the South Burnett when she was 15 and took up a career in nursing after her children had all started school.
However, she found mixing work and childcare could be stressful, and thought she might try painting as a way to relax.
Jo said she had always admired art – particularly pictures that told a story – and when someone told her a local artist was running drawing and painting classes at his gallery, she enrolled.
She painted her first work – based on an old black and white photo of her father, his brother and an FX Holden – in 2006, and within a few years was winning first prizes at the old Nanart Arts Festival and having her work profiled in national art magazines.
At the mural’s unveiling, Jo said she had carried out research to ensure the military personnel and equipment on the mural were correctly represented.
She also used one of the RSL’s flagpoles as the model for the mural’s background.
She completed the work at her home because it allowed her to work without distraction and – in all – it took her more than 165 hours to complete after the club approved the concept design.
Jo said the mural was the largest project she had undertaken but thought it was a great honour to have her work displayed on the club’s wall.
It was also something she looked forward to showing to her grandchildren when she brought them to the club.
