A PENWEDDIG student has won a competition, held by a community group, to find a design for a new mural to be displayed in the town.

15-year-old Chloe Lewis’ mural design will be displayed on a wall in Aberystwyth after she won a competition, held by Caru Aber.

Chloe, who us currently studying a GCSE in art at Ysgol Penweddig, said her design was inspired by Katsushika Hokusai’s famous woodblock print, The Great Wave.

“I am very proud and excited that my work will be displayed in my home town along with the other amazing murals that have been painted around the town.

“I came up with the idea by thinking of Aberystwyth’s main features, in my eyes the sea and the pier.

“My work was inspired by the artist Katsushika Hokusai as he is famous for incredible wave art. I had come across his work whilst I was researching for an art project and I really liked his work.”

Caru Aber is a small group of volunteers in Aberystwyth, aiming to make their town a nicer place for locals and visitors.

The group would like to make Aberystwyth “known for its murals”.

Caru Aber founder Jeff Jones said: “We came up with the idea of a competition for a mural to include the children of Penweddig, in year 10, following a recent litter pick using our Caru Aber Schools equipment.

“This equipment was purchased to lend to all of our local schools to educate our children on the issues of waste and our environment. We think its important to include all ages of our community and inspire them to make Aberystwyth a cleaner, brighter town.

“The Winner, Chloe Lewis, was inspired by the work of Hokusai in the shape of the wave and developed the image in an original way incorporating the pier. The image will be painted on the side of the old Fountain Inn in Trefechan which was donated along with another wall by Brian & Jennifer Wilkins of CBW property letting.

“Caru Aber have plans for another mural to go up in Llanbadarn Fawr. This was another competition which was open to everyone. The winner of that competition was Megan Elinor who will be painting her own winning image when finances allow.

“We do have one other wall which is very prominent but have yet to make any decisions on the image or artist. This will remain a secret until everything is finalised.”

Recently, artist Megan Elinor completed another mural (inset), inspired by an image by the late local photographer Alan Hale, which shows people jumping off the jetty on North Beach: “I was contacted by Dave Lewis the owner of the property on the corner of Portland Road and Terrace Road offering the side of the building for a mural.

“Megan Elinor the artist won the quote and it was financed from JustGiving donations and grant monies awarded to us.”

Jeff added: “It would be lovely to make Aberystwyth known for its murals but we have to be careful not to over do it and make the town look too tacky. We also have to take the locals into consideration as the council has received complaints about them.”