A community mural celebrating local life through hundreds of watercolours.
Fulham Through the Seasons is a 14-metre community mural I curated and delivered with the Fulham Good Neighbours Art Club in 2024. The mural sits on the hoardings of the Hartopp & Lannoy development on Dawes Road and was commissioned through Fulham Good Neighbours in partnership with Higgins Partnerships.
Many Art Club members prefer watercolour and could not paint outdoors or on vertical surfaces, so I designed an accessible, studio-based process. Over weekly sessions we explored Fulham’s seasons — its parks, oak trees, markets, wildlife and everyday streets — and the group produced more than 300 original watercolours, far beyond what was expected.
I scanned every painting and composed them into a large digital collage, preserving each maker’s colour and texture. The final mural celebrates community art in Fulham: intimate, personal works brought together into one shared story of place and belonging.
The Story
Fulham Good Neighbours wanted a mural that genuinely reflected the people who have lived in the area for decades. Many members of the Art Club are older residents with deep ties to the neighbourhood, and the project needed to honour their experience while remaining accessible.
Rather than switching to acrylics or on-site painting, I built the project around what the group already loved — watercolour. The seasonal theme created a shared framework while leaving room for individual memories: favourite trees, walks through parks, market days and small details from daily life.
Creative Process
Each week I curated reference prompts linked to the seasons and paired them with gentle guidance. Members painted in their own style and at their own pace, producing a growing archive of scenes and details from across Fulham.
As the collection expanded, I catalogued, scanned and arranged every painting into a 14-metre digital collage. I worked to balance rhythm, colour and subject so the mural felt unified while keeping the character of each contribution. Once printed and installed, the hoarding transformed into a bright ribbon of community memory — familiar to those who made it and inviting to those who passed by.
Designing the Mural
Translating 300 individual watercolours into a 14-metre mural required deep technical craft. I scanned, edited and colour-balanced every artwork, then composed the entire mural digitally — a process shaped by my 15 years running a graphic design practice on the high street.
Large-format design demands clarity, rhythm and precision. I worked to preserve the softness of each painting while building a cohesive composition that could hold scale, withstand printing, and read beautifully from the street. The final collage carries the hand of every contributor, held together through careful design and long experience of bringing community stories into public space.
My Role
I conceived the project framework, curated the themes and supported the Art Club through three months of weekly sessions. I developed an accessible approach for older and disabled residents, created seasonal prompts, curated reference materials and guided the group’s painting process.
I scanned and edited every artwork, then composed the full 14-metre mural digitally. I also liaised with Fulham Good Neighbours and Higgins Partnerships, coordinated artwork delivery and oversaw the print and installation stages. My role was to hold the creative vision and apply my graphic design expertise to bring the group’s paintings together with clarity, care and technical precision.
Community Impact
- 300+ original watercolours created by Art Club members with a collective 470+ years in Fulham.
- An accessible pathway for older and disabled residents to contribute to public art.
- Strong local pride at the unveiling; the mural became a talking point for neighbours and visitors.
- A replicable model for inclusive community murals built around studio-based making.
Partners & Credits
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Project Origin & Vision: Developed and curated by Roopa Basu
Artistic Direction & Facilitation: Roopa Basu
Commissioning Body: Fulham Good Neighbours (in partnership with Higgins Partnerships)
Community Contributors: Fulham Good Neighbours Art Club
Installation & Print: Site and print teams for Dawes Road hoardings
Special Thanks: Local residents and supporters who celebrated the unveiling