Burnham-On-Sea street artist Damian Nicholson has this week been presented with an award for his work in creating a huge house-sized street mural in the town centre which has been praised by Britain In Bloom’s judges.
Dave Perrett, Chairman of Burnham In Bloom, presented Damian with the Mayor’s Decanter on Sunday (April 14th), accompanied by Damian’s niece Imogen who appears in the mural.
The 30ft-tall artwork, opposite Burnham’s Somerset and Dorset pub, was created over eight days in 2022, as we reported here.
Dave said: “It’s a lovely mural that adds colour to that end of the High Street and the judges from Britain In Bloom highlighted it during their visit as a positive feature.”
“It helped Burnham achieve a silver award last year which is why we are recognising Damian with this annual award.”
Damian adds: “I’d like to say a big thank you to the Burnham In Bloom team for giving me this award. I’m so pleased they considered this piece of artwork worthy of their appreciation.”
“The aim of the work was to people smile. It’s good the judges considered a painting and the flower blooms as part of the overall effect of brightening up our lovely town.”
He says the mural is called ‘hope springs external’, explaining: “The girl in the painting is my great niece, Imogen, and it shows her bringing a beacon of light and hope into the world and coming through the darkness of fire.”
“There’s also a hedgehog, red squirrel and blue tit to show the link with nature. The sunflowers and some of the colours also illustrate hope for Ukraine.”
