Auckland artist, Brigita Botma, has unveiled her award-winning mural titled, ‘Harmony', on the BNZ wall in Pukekohe's town centre.

Brigita was one of ten winners from across the country who took out the top prize in Keep New Zealand Beautiful’s Resene Nature Murals Competition 2022.

The mural features a pīwakawaka (fantail) and tui with a backdrop blending the natural environment of harakeke (flax bushes), kōwhai and pōhutakawa flowers, with the urban city environment of Auckland's sky line. The tui is seen proudly flying a banner that reads 'Natural and urban environments can exist in harmony. Let's make it happen!'

Brigita says the mural was inspired by her passion to keep pollution down and her desire to practice pride, respect and honour for our environment - embracing the essence of her polynesian namesake and business name 'Mana(bell)'.

"I think Pukekohe is a good place for a message about existing in environmental harmony as it has a strong mix of both urban and natural environments. It's a pretty special place to me as I've spent all my young adulthood in the area and it's almost an extension of what I consider my hometown: Waiuku. Pukekohe has put a huge effort into beautifying their town and preventing graffiti, so it was great to help them through this initiative. The Pukekohe township is so pleased with the mural and grateful to Keep New Zealand Beautiful and Resene for helping them to beautify a very graffiti-prone spot through this competition - I've had hundreds of positive comments on it," says Brigita.

The Resene Nature Murals Competition, which is part of the Paint New Zealand Beautiful programme, ran from April to June 2022. Community members are called on to submit mural designs, which include an environmental message, for a wall to paint in their local community. Artists from around the country sent in their designs, with the top ten murals selected based on their environmental message, enhancement of the community, and originality/creativity. Winners then have 12 months to bring their mural to life.

Winning designs receive a $1000 grant upon completion, along with a $750 Resene paint voucher and other materials to paint their mural.

Keep New Zealand Beautiful CEO, Heather Saunderson, says: "Our Resene Nature Murals Competition provides a great opportunity for artists to beautify their local communities. In its sixth year, this competition continues to grow in popularity and we're always so impressed with the calibre of entries we receive that narrowing down the selection to just ten winners is getting harder and harder. We're so excited to see these murals come to life, knowing how the beautification of public spaces greatly benefits communities by increasing civic pride and deterring vandalism and anti-social behaviour such as littering and graffiti."

The ten winning artists and regions are listed below, with their designs visible on the Keep New Zealand Beautiful website.

• Brigita Botma, Harmony, Auckland
• Carol Green & Kim Littlejohn, Bringing Nature to the City, Auckland
• Corey Harbrow, Keep NZ Beautiful, Christchurch
• Danny Owen, Nature, Invercargill
• Leon Hohepa, Future Generations, Porirua
• Matt Russell, Resilience, Wellington
• Micaela Van den Berg, Sunrise, Kaipara
• Paranika Dudley Heeth, The Return of Nature, Auckland
• Shann Whitaker, The Interconnection of all Living Things, Mangawhai
• Vanessa Barclay, The World is in Our Hands, Cambridge

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