BRITISH COLUMBIA ARTISTS  

Sgraffito mural decoration

This shows part of an exterior mural on an apartment building in Vancouver's West End, completed by Greta Dale in 1960. Another panel flanks the opposite side of the building's main entrance. At the time that I took this photograph the murals were hard to see behind the shrubbery and ornamental trees.

The sgraffito technique was used in this artwork, where a layer of different coloured plaster (in this case black) is applied to the wall, then a layer of contrasting coloured plaster is applied over the previous layer. This can be repeated as the artist wishes. Once dried, the artist scrapes through the surface layer or layers to expose the different coloured layers below.


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