MAN’S best friend and the spirit of North Fremantle has been immortalised in a mural at Old Bridge Cellars.
Artist Jacob Butler, AKA Shakey, said when he first got his dog Banjo, he would come past the store.
“I love their shop because they are so nice and welcoming, and they had some really cool art and it was about the same time I was learning to paint,” he said.
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READ NOW“I said I always wanted to do a piece here; fast-forward three or four years later and they said ‘we have a wall for you’.”
Shakey said he wanted to do something that represented Fremantle.
“I thought ‘why don’t we make this about what brings the community together’, which is dogs, especially coming from my love of Banjo,” he said.
“It started off with a beach theme because I love going to North Freo beach.
“I just want people to have a laugh at all the different dogs and each personality, and to that warm feeling of a nice summer days.”
Old Bridge Cellars staff started a competition to find a dog for the mural and what began as something local turned into 5000 entries with local North Fremantle chocolate border collie Neo being announced the winner.
Neo’s owner Sarah Viner said she put the photo on Facebook thinking it was a local competition.
“When I saw how many entries, I was like ‘oh no, there is no way’,” she said.
“I think the mural is amazing; the best part is it fits in to the local community very well.”
Old Bridge Cellars proprietor and licensee Jay Beeson said they wanted to be different and loved getting artists to do paintwork.