Painting a Mural for Alloa Athletic FC

Here’s a look at how the Alloa Athletic FC Ultras mural came together from the first sketches at The Hive to its final installation at the Rec.

I’m really excited to share a bit of the full story behind the Alloa Athletic FC Ultras mural I’ve been working on as part of my residency with the Clackmannanshire Family Wellbeing Partnership at The Hive.

This project started during the Friday youth sessions, where the young supporters sketched out ideas for what they wanted the mural to look like. The wreath, the bold Ultras text and loads of smaller visual details all came straight from them.

I also spent time looking through John Glencross’ brilliant Alloa memorabilia collection which gave me a lot of inspiration from older strips and badges. I really wanted to capture the club’s history in the work.

Once we had the ideas pinned down, I moved into the planning stage which took a couple of weeks. The mural itself was built from four connecting MDF panels measuring around 19ft in total. They were heavy and filled the studio to the point where I was doing parkour over things just to get from one end to the other. It made the process fun though and the scale helped the design really come to life.

Painting it took around five days using a mix of acrylic and spray paint. Throughout it all, I wanted the mural to feel like something the young supporters could take ownership of while still nodding to the club’s history. This project also ties in with The Hive’s Matchday Buzz programme which has been great for getting more young supporters involved.

Seeing it finally installed at the Ultras stand at the Rec was a brilliant moment after all the work that went into it. The response so far has been amazing and it has been class seeing people appreciate it in person.

Here’s some images of it installed!

A huge thanks to the Clackmannanshire Family Wellbeing Partnership, Wasp Community Club, The Hive and everyone else who helped make it happen. I’ve got more mural projects coming up as part of the residency and I’m buzzing to get started on them. 🐝

Cheers!