House compound wall doesn’t have to be boring. What better ways to wind down from a stressful day at work than to go home, sit back and relax in your garden chair, sipping a cup of tea, while enjoying the colourful murals adorning your house compound wall. It is surely a sight that we seldom see here in Brunei. Thus, when a relative asked me if I would like to do some artwork on one of the panels of their house compound wall, I couldn’t say yes fast enough and I knew exactly right away what I was going to create.

Day 1: Yellow office building, Red hotel, Blue apartment building

Post mortem of day 1: Brunei is a hot hot country. Despite erecting a tent to block the sun, I could still feel the heat and was all sweaty. My glasses kept on sliding down my nose due to the sweat. So day 2 I started painting at 4.30pm just to get the sun out of the way. A long power extension cable came in handy to power a fan to keep cool. 

Day 2: Added Pink condominium, Green convention centre, Blue and Cream apartment buildings

Post mortem of day 2: Starting off late obviously left me just a small window of sunlight. I tried to push through into the evening with lighting from 2 spotlights but the visibility was just not the same.  

Post mortem of day 3: It had rained the night before, and I arrived to see some blotches on some of the completed buildings. I spent some time fixing them and with the limited daylight I got, I only managed to partially complete one additional building.   

Post mortem of day 4: Now that the meticulous part was done, doing the back buildings was quite easy and quick. The all black colour made the front buildings pop. My Gotham city was starting to take shape. 

Day 6: Last day. Some final touches and the masterpiece was done. It was a pleasure to have the opportunity to do this project. It took me 30 minutes just standing there admiring it, hand on my chest, before I left. Off to the next project! Cue the batman theme song….