A colourful new mural at the Keiller Centre in Dundee is celebrating the city’s history with marmalade.
Artist Diane Selbie hopes the masterpiece at New Inn Entry will brighten up the area and connect locals to their heritage.
The Keiller Centre is named after the famous Dundee marmalade manufacturer and gave Diane the inspiration for her design.
It features three of the iconic jars the marmalade – the first of its kind to be marketed commercially in the UK – was sold in.
Diane, 27, told The Courier: “It felt fitting to do something with the Keiller jars, that’s what the centre is named after.
“I was given a short brief for something relating to the Keiller and what they did. It was just by chance I had already drawn the marmalade pots.
“I made that work into the design.”
Diane also picked her colour scheme carefully, using yellow and orange paint and a candy stripe background – a nod to the firm’s involvement in making hard-boiled sweets.
How was Keiller mural created?
Diane – who displays her work on her Instagram page – has explained the process behind creating such a huge piece of artwork.
She said: “I plan all of my designs out first on a sketch pad and then I go onto my iPad to add colour and detail.
“With a wall this size, when you’re scaling things up, I use a method called a doodle grid. It gives you lots of reference points.
“I write the alphabet on the wall randomly, then I use an app to impose the image onto the doodles. That lets me all the points where I’ll place the details.”
The marmalade mural is one of the biggest projects Diane has completed, having initially picked up the hobby during the coronavirus pandemic.
Working full-time in her family’s wallpaper shop, her passion remains a hobby for the time being.
She added: “I only started a couple of years ago. It’s only recently people have seen my work and reached out.
“It’s all self-taught, I’ve just always admired art and wanted to be part of it.”
The mural was commissioned by Dundee City Council and was also supported by Kathryn Rattray, who runs the the Federation Gallery in the Keiller Centre.
Kathryn said: “We want to celebrate our city and be proud of the legacy of Keiller as a global manufacturer of the famous marmalade.
“The ‘Marmalade on Toast’ mural champions Dundee’s vibrant history and brings back the iconic stoneware jar into peoples imaginations.
“For me, it’s very important to keep the Keiller name alive. I am delighted that the Federation Gallery is right in the heart of town in the centre.
“It really is amazing seeing the centre become a busy place supporting Dundee’s rich creative excellence.”
Conversation