With his Harley and trusty painting tools, Daniel Hend is ready to tell stories of small communities across Australia. Photo: Supplied
Most motorcycle riders pack essentials such as riding gear, electronics and maybe some camping gear for long journeys, but not Daniel Hend.
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Mr Hend carried tins of paint and his brushes while he travels around Australian country towns, painting murals.
This November, Mr Hend is travelling to north-east Victoria to make commissioned murals.
“I'm travelling to Wangaratta this week to do a commission piece,” he said.
“I was just posting in local communities around the place to see if there’s any interest, and so far, I’ve got a lot of interest in the post that I did on the Seymour community page (Facebook group).”
Mr Hend, originally from Mullumbimby, NSW, and now based in Tasmania, travels up and down the east coast, from the Gold Coast to Victoria, painting murals.
His passion for painting started at the age of nine when his dad, who is a landscape painter and a painting teacher, taught him how to paint.
“I’d go to markets as a kid, and I’d paint lots of landscapes in a day and sell them,” Mr Hend said.
“As I got older, I got into doing murals and then painted a lot in my home town, and did most of the walls there.
“I had to sort of move around to get some more work.
“Over the last 10 years, I’ve done murals up and down the east coast to Tassie, so from Queensland, NSW, ACT, Victoria and Tasmania.”
Daniel Hend’s most recent mural is titled 4 Seasons in Adaminaby. Photo: Supplied
Mr Hend has completed about 160 murals all over Australia, and his dad, who kickstarted his passion, couldn’t be more proud.
“He’s very happy with what I do,” Mr Hend said.
“He’s very happy with how I’ve continued to progress artistically.”
Using big canvases that are required for murals has its challenges, but Mr Hend just enjoys them more.
“I like the challenge of big surfaces. I like the scale of larger ones,” he said.
“My favourite sort of thing is to go to country towns or smaller country towns and just hang out there, get to know the people, get to experience different landscapes and paint them.”
Mr Hend said the communities he went to helped him out a lot in terms of places to stay when it came to big pieces that required months of work.
He said his art was a way of him helping communities foster a sense of identity through creating a landscape or painting that told the story of the local history.
“It’s usually coming in and painting a special landmark in the area, or there might be a certain lake that’s predominant that everyone knows, and then there’s a lot of people who grow up fishing around that lake, so they really appreciate having that represented,” he said.
“It could be a certain shack that everyone knows or an old tree or something such as that or the train that comes in.
“There’s these different things that each town has.”
Besides painting, Mr Hend also loves the travel.
“I pack all my gear into the back of a motorbike, so I ride my Harley up and down the east coast with a bunch of probably about 20 litres of paint and all my brushes and gear,” he said.
“I really enjoy riding as much as I enjoy creating the murals.
“It’s also quite an adventure, and I’m able to have fun on the way.”
Mr Hend accepts commissions and is also open to teaching those who want to start painting.
“They can get on to me directly, and I’m more than happy to talk them through preparation, products and how to set themselves up to do it,” he said.
“I love passing on information and knowledge to people, and getting other people on their way to do it because it can seem like a bit of a task, and that puts in a bit of hesitation, towards artists, especially because it can be a bit tricky when you’re first learning.
“You just got to see it as if you’re a good artist, you just got to see it as a big canvas.
“One tip I will give is if it’s going to be a big piece, you just got to stand back and keep looking at it.”
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