Kasper's Wodonga murals earn new life in soon-to-be-released calendar

Lukas Kasper, known as Kasper, painted 10 murals in the first six months of the year as part of the Upstream festival.

The Melbourne-based artist said he was touched by the beauty of the Border's wildlife and environment, which acted as inspiration while he was completing the project.

"I literally live in an apartment in the middle of the city so I don't get the crimson Rosellas and the eastern Rosellas and the galas," he said.

"The trees, the plants and all the running water, the river, there's just so much beauty around there.

Kasper said while painting he was pleased to meet "so many great people" from the community.

"As a public artist ... you're consistently in the public eye and also everyone is a critic," he said.

"The people of Wodonga were incredibly nice and incredibly kind."

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Kasper said each mural took between three days and a month's worth of work to finish, but now the project was over he was left with a "surreal feeling".

"It's like leaving a big part of my life behind," he said.

"When I took the contract to paint all those murals, I moved over everything.

"I left half my life behind; my partner, possessions, I left my studio, I left everything to start that job."

He said before painting the final paint stroke on the last mural - the Sticky Beak mural under the Lawrence Street bridge - he paused.

"I made sure to take a second and just go, 'Wow, that was an amazing experience'," he said.

Kasper said he hoped his art made the Wodonga community smile.

"I just want people to be happy," he said.

"And for it to take people away from their regular routine."

He said he tried to include different artistic elements to his work

"Both expressionistic and realism," he said.

"Because on one level you can see a duck and it's a duck and on the other level you can look at the expressive artwork in the back and maybe it can make you think or take you out of the mundane.

"But mostly it's to bring happiness and to bring inquisitiveness."

The murals will be available for purchase here.

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