The owners of a Dunedin property damaged by fire last year have turned misfortune into opportunity.
Jenny Turnbull, who owns the Castle St house with husband Michael, decided it could be repainted with a bit of colour and enlisted a Dunedin artist to make it happen.
"We'd had a lot of trouble with graffiti and having a great big white canvas isn't a good place to start,'' Mrs Turnbull said.
‘‘The side of the house was quite badly damaged in the fire. We repainted it and thought we'd get someone in to put something on it.''
Mrs Turnbull asked around for names and that of Jack Pillans, a Dunedin tattooist, came up.
The 26-year-old had been involved in Dunedin's street art movement, having painted a picture of five crows in the alleyway between Rialto Cinema and Visique Optometrists in Moray Pl.
‘‘Rather than me deciding what to have on it, I thought I'd let him just go for it,'' Mrs Turnbull said. ‘‘He sent me a design and I liked it.''
Mr Pillans said he had been working on the painting since Friday.
The paid project had been put on hold while he waited for more paint to arrive from Auckland, but it was due to be finished in a week, he said.
It was the first time the self-taught artist had painted on a house and he jumped at the opportunity.
‘‘I don't get a chance to paint much at work. I usually paint animals and things like that, but this is more of an American traditional style.''
Six tenants rent the house.
