At the falling of the year, after McCubbin by Melanie Caple
Artist: Melanie Caple
Year: 2025
Location: 20 Ferguson Street, Williamstown
An urban coastal cluster where pelicans, little pied cormorants, red rumped parrots and sparrows thrive amongst seaswept rocks, tall boats and well-worn pavement, the inspiration for this work is drawn from the immediate Williamstown landscape. Finding inspiration from famed painter Frederick McCubbin and watercolour studies that he sketched from the pier at the turn of the twentieth-century, I wanted to capture a richness that celebrated the past as much as the present, and try to give a sense of the passage of time and the many seasons this wall has weathered.
About the artist:
Melanie Caple is a painter and curator having graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting) from RMIT, and holds a Masters of Arts Management.
Over the last fifteen years she has developed her practice to incorporate finely detailed oil paintings and large-scale exterior murals. Examining our relationship with the botanical world around us with a focus on immortalising a sense of place, she uses native flora, colour and avian species to activate walls and canvases to draw attention to the fragility and vibrancy of our landscape.
Melanie has been commissioned to create public artworks in dozens of locations across Victoria, NSW and SA, working with local government bodies, commercial and corporate clients and private commissions.
Melanie was a finalist in the 2024 Percival Portrait Prize, a finalist in the 2022 and the 2019 KAAF Art Prize, the 2024 and 2023 Omnia Art Prize and the Winner of the 2016 People’s Choice Award in the Roi Art Prize. She has also been a selected mural artist for Frankston’s Big Picture Festival in 2021 and 2022, Urban Canvas Mural Festival in Melbourne 2023 and Benalla Street Art Festival 2024.
While Melanie is based between Melbourne/Naarm and South Gippsland, she can generally be found wherever her latest mural takes her.
Find out more about Street Art around Hobsons Bay.