A TALENTED young artist has been attracting attention in Callington in recent weeks as he has spent days out of doors recreating the town’s much-loved ‘farriers’ mural.

Manny Pearce, 29, has been travelling from Plymouth regularly to work on the mural, which replaces an earlier longstanding artwork which had fallen into disrepair.

Manny, who is part of an artists’ collective based at Ocean Studios at the Royal William Yard in Plymouth, was approached by Callington mayor Mike Tagg about recreating the mural. ‘Callington is so full of murals and a lot of them were painted 20-30 years ago and they are falling apart and so are in need of some restoration,’ he said. This one I’ve done with the horse is quite different to the ones I usually do, because they are usually all blocks and shapes. It was painted as a replacement for the original design.’

He says he kept the essence of the original, which had been removed from the site before he started work, while making it his own.

‘I looked at the original design and kept elements of it. I kept the framing of it, so it looks like you are looking into a blacksmith’s shop through a doorway Then I did my own thing with that. It is the spiritual successor of the original. I altered the perspective, changed the orientation of the horse and made it darker and more classical in style. It looks like the original was done in spraypaints. I used vinyl matts with paintburshes and approached it as if it was an oil painting.’

While painting the mural saw him spending 15 days in the rain and heat – he finished the weekend before last – he did appreciate the interest shown from passers-by.

‘It is not as comfy as a studio, you are sitting down on a stool instead of walking around. I got rained on and sometimes it was very hot and sometimes windy. But that was all part of it. I started to get to know everybody because they would take a walk past on their way to the shops. I spoke to everybody who wanted to speak to me because it is important that they feel the mural is theirs and they own it.’