Off the wall

Inspired by the vibrant cannas in Joan Grehan's Wanganui garden, Mark Rayner paints a wall panel to provide year-round colour.

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You will need: You will need: 22mm tanalised plywood (l200mm x 650mm), 3700mm length of 50mm x 50mm tanalised timber, heavy duty canvas (1300mm x 750mm), exterior construction glue, exterior PVA glue, galvanised nails , two-part exterior builder's filler, hammer, paintbrushes, photo of canna lilies for reference, tracing paper, carbon paper and a red marker pen. Resene Quick Dry Acrylic Primer/Undercoat and Resene Concrete Clear. Resene testpots in the following colours:

Resene Guardsman Red, Resene Black Forest, Resene Madras, Resene Turtle Green, Resene Fiji Green, Resene Persian Red, Resene Nero (x 2), Resene Lightning Yellow, Resene Sun, Resene Trinidad, Resene Hot Chile, Resene Mulberry, Resene Can Can, Resene Anakiwa and Resene Deep Koamaru.

Handy hint: There's no need to make the flowers look realistic. Use bold brushstrokes and, if you make a mistake, just paint over it.

Step one
Cut the 50mm x 50mm timber to make a backing frame flush with the edges of the plywood panel. Fix with construction glue and galvanised nails. Allow to dry.

Step two
Glue the canvas to the plywood panel witha thick layer of PVA glue. Allow to dry.

Step three
Trace over a photo of canna lilies, then enlarge this to the same size as the panel (most copy shops have plan copiers). Using carbon paper, transfer this enlarged image on to the panel. Draw over the carbon lines with a red marker pen.

Step four
Mix the builder's filler and apply to the outline of the lilies to build up texture. Once dry (the red marker lines should still show through when dry). apply a coat of Resene Quickdry Primer/Undercoat.

Step five
As a basecoat, apply Resene Guardsman Red to the lilies, Resene Black Forest to the leaves, Resene Persian Red to the stalks, and Resene Anakiwa to the sky. Leave to dry.

Step six
Fill in the detail using the following colours. Leaf stripes: Resene Madras, Resene Turtle Green,Resene Fiji Green, Resene Trinidad. Stalks: Resene Hot Chile, Resene Mulberry.

Step seven
Fill in the outline of the leaves, stalks and flowers with Resene Nero. Allow to dry.

Step eight
Soften the black around the leaves with Resene Black Forest and build up the lilies with the following: Resene Trinidad, Resene Lightning Yellow, Resene Sun.

Step eight continued...
Apply highlights to the stalks with Resene Can Can. Paint the sky Resene Deep Koamaru, allowing a little of the basecoat to show through. Paint the side edges of the panel with Resene Nero. Allow to dry then coat the entire panel, front and back, with two coats of Resene Concrete Clear.

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