Mural worth waiting for (From Stroud News and Journal)

Mural worth waiting for

WAITING for a bus in Box is likely to be a more pleasant experience thanks to the creative contribution of Five Valleys' artist Julie Bharucha.

The Inchbrook artist is behind a 20-tile mural on the back wall of a new bus stop by the Halfway Inn, part of Cotswold Chine School development.

Each tile features a different view of Box village. "They're mounted all together and read as a complete panel with individual views," Julie said.

The painstaking terracotta panel took five months to create from walking around the village photographing and drawing views to be immortalised on the tiles to the completed work.

"You have to put quite a lot of background work in before the finished item," said Julie, who recently gave up teaching pottery at Cotswold Chine to concentrate on her passion and profession - porcelain sculpture.

Other examples of her work can be found at the school, at a bus shelter near Old Neighbourhood in Chalford and Cheltenham General Hospital.

Her work will also be featured at the London Art Fair in January. She used a ceramic technique known as scraffitto to create the Box bus stop mural.

"You do get an etched effect," she said. "The tiles are quite textured, each one individually designed."

Designed by David Austin and Associates, the bus stop was unveiled in October as the first completed part of a new development at the special school, to include a new training centre, a visitor centre and extension to Halfway Inn.

For more information call Julie Bharucha on 01453 832442.