Scots grafitti artist brings walking route to life with new Pictish warrior mural
Walkers between Tullibody and Menstrie have been flocking to see the village's latest art installation – a graffiti mural of a Pictish warrior and his trusty dog.
The vibrant piece appeared on an underpass along the Tullibody- Menstrie pedestrian and cycle path following a week of work to create it. He created the piece on an area which had already been covered with grafitti.
It was created by Scottish Graffiti Murals, run by street artist Andy SGM.
Andy says he has been blown away by the reaction to the mural and he explained to the Stirling Observer how he created the piece.
He said: 'It's a plan I have been mulling over in my head since around April last year. I had been making regular trips to the lochs and forests of the central belt and the west coast to serve as a bit of natural healing, as I was going through a bit of a rough patch – and I ended up doing these day trips where I would just sit beside lochs and in forests and get some down time to sort myself out.
'In the lead up to April last year, my mural business was on its knees and I was faced with a choice of continuing to just paint everything and anything for anybody, not be fulfilled artistically, be up against strong competition, quite possibly fail and have to give up – or actually starting to be a real artist and start painting what I want and make a real go of it.
'I chose the latter and chose to fight and try and carve my own path out. Sitting in the woods one day I asked myself 'what will I paint? what will I do?' and suddenly the answer was all around me. Nature, wildlife, the forest.
'I began to think of the animals we have here, then I thought of the animals we used to have – wolves, bears, lynx – and I thought these would be great to paint and also it kept it in this area of the world.'
Andy then turned his attentions to people and Scotland's ancient ancestors, including the Picts, Gaels and Vikings.
'They all shared so much. I thought about their connection to the land, their connection to the wild animals, the myths they had, their religions, their style of carvings – and that coupled with the forest wildlife seemed like such a unique and interesting subject matter to paint murals of', Andy added.
'There was so much material there with depicting portraits of them, the mythology and lore they had and it all connecting back to nature.
'I began only uploading videos of the forest, and work that was nature based to my social media to start paving the way – with the thought of doing a huge tribute to an ancient Pict once I was ready to start painting these portraits. So that mural in Menstrie really is a benchmark for me to symbolise the start of something new.
'It also ties in with the history of the area, as it's a tribute to all of the ancient ancestors who lived across Scotland, Pictish, Viking, The Caledonian tribes."
Andy, originally from the Stirling area, moved to Glasgow before living abroad. He then returned back to Glasgow before more recently settling back in Stirling 'for the foreseeable future'.
He added: 'I started off with and continued to do calligraphic graffiti pieces up until about 2022, painting under the name 'As One' for years – but now I'm pushing myself in a new direction, simply using my name Andy – and SGM – so Andy SGM.
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