A Keswick artist has just completed a repaint of a large mural in Whitehaven which he completed nine years ago.
Paul Wilmott returned to Washington Square in the west coast seaside town to touch up the work of art he painted in 2013 which depicts the image of Gulliver, famously tied down at Lilliput.
It is inspired by Whitehaven’s link with Jonathan Swift who wrote Gulliver’s Travels.
Swift was born out of wedlock in Dublin in 1667. To avoid the scandal, his nurse took the infant by sea to Whitehaven.
Here, he lived in a cliff-top house for some of his early life. It has been suggested that as the young boy looked down on the busy harbour below, with a multitude of tiny figures going about their work, the idea of Lilliput was created.
Whitehaven Heritage Action Group invited Paul back after the paintwork on the original mural had become weathered and started to peel.
Present at the opening ceremony was the town’s mayor Charles Maudling as well as Margaret Crosby and Michael Moon of Whitehaven Heritage Action Group.
The heritage action group, with the town council, had raised the money to fund the repaint. Paul said how grateful he was to everyone involved, and how the people of the town had been very friendly and supportive as he undertook the painting over two weeks.
He also gave a special thanks to Hannah Ridgewell, of Keswick, who helped with the repainting.
In 2020 Paul won a competition run by The Keswick Reminder to design and paint a giant mural to be put up in the bus shelter at Wivell Park, in Penrith Road.
His mural of Goldilocks and the Three Bears is a tribute to Robert Southey who wrote the world famous fairytale while living at Greta Hall, Keswick, in 1837.
