World-renowned artist Guido Van Helten brought the massive blank wall next to Grant’s Seafood to life working from a photo which he thought best represented Nowra’s community and its story.

The photo, taken by the late Jeff Carter in 1955, was of a fisherman mending a net in Greenwell Point.

Mr Van Helten has made a name for himself around the world by turning the sides of buildings into beautiful portraits.

The artist’s preferred medium is aerosol cans. He thinks of himself as a muralist rather than a street artist, from Brisbane.

For the Nowra mural it took five days atop a cherry picker and over 40 cans to complete the image on the wall which faces the Egans Lane car park.

Normally working in black and white he decided to enrich the tones this time by adding another colour to match the salmon colour in the adjacent seafood sign next to the completed mural.

It was an intricate process. Mr Van Helten created a grid pattern with the picture, counting out the bricks on his blank canvas to accurately piece together his image.

Half of his paint was kept on ice and the other in hot water to change the flow and shape of the paint as it came out of the cans.

Shoalhaven City Council executive strategy manager Susan Tracey said the whole project was part of the Nowra Alive initiative.

“The idea is for Guido’s mural to be the entrance to the live gallery walk THOROUGH_FAIR,” she said.

“We want the area to become a community space for events and activities for everyone to use for fun and be part of.

“We also have 22 panels on the side of the Shoalhaven City Arts Centre that are ready to be prettified.”

Ms Tracey said the idea was for local businesses and groups to adopt a panel and paint them with images that tell the stories of Nowra.

“The vision is to extend the live gallery walk around Nowra and eventually create something that links up all around Australia.”

To adopt a panel, contact Shoalhaven City Council on 4429 3111 or visit the Nowra Alive website www.nowraalive.com.au.