Bristol artists create lockdown Alice in Wonderland mural

A giant mural of Alice in Wonderland peering behind a curtain has been painted on the side of a house.

Alison Larkman worked with street artist Stewy using stencils to make the image on her home in Lindrea Street, Bristol.

Ms Larkman said after "months of being shut in my house" in lockdown, it "felt like an important marker of this time".

Stewy said the idea to create the image "coincided with the feeling of isolation during Covid-19 in 2020".

Ms Larkman said the work involved "exploring scale and how at its extreme, it either shuts you out - by being too small - or potentially shuts you in".

"Alice fitted well as the story itself deals with scale but also the oddness of it all which is what I feel about this time," she said.

Ms Larkman, who has ME, said the experience of the illness "seems to resonate with the experience of lockdown".

"I am debilitated to the point of being unable to leave my house and often my bed. It is a strange time that disconnects you from everyday.

"I become an observer looking out on the world."

Stewy said he had "scaled-up" an original drawing by John Tenniel, who illustrated Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which was published in 1865.

He said he had divided the stencil "into many individual sections like a jigsaw".

When asked why he thought murals might be special, he said: "The mural is public, free and inclusive.

"A large street mural can communicate instantly and can brighten up the area."