A LOCALLY based mural artist has been commissioned by the town council to create a mural in Abergavenny to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

In total three murals are being painted into the recesses on the wall of Bon Marché in St John's Street by Dave Parkinson who is capturing images of the town during the era when Queen Elizabeth first came to the throne in 1952.

Dave has been painting murals around the country for over 30 years and spends hours in his studio at the bottom of his garden in St Helen's Road researching his works of art.

"Doing this mural for Abergavenny Town Council to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee is quite an honour, but the task has been fraught with difficulties.

"Firstly the fresh plaster, which was applied to the recess reacted with the surface underneath and so concrete boards had to be installed. This was followed by some of the wettest weather imaginable and then we were lunged straight into a heatwave.

"However I am still on target of Saturday's deadline to get it finished. I've adopted continental hours to complete the project as my paint is drying before I've even had to chance to apply it to the wall during the midday sunshine.

"I start painting early in the morning and take a siesta during the afternoon and return later to work through until exhaustion takes over.

"People are genuinely interested in the pictures as people of a certain age remember the railway viaduct and the composite image of the cattle market has definitely become a talking point," said Dave.