67A real buzz of excitement filled the air when Austrian artist Emil Herker brought his unique style of large-scale oil painting to the MegaBox mall late last year. Cameras flashed, smiles radiated and exuberant voices rang out, as excited schoolchildren, shoppers and office workers put their distinctive touch to a massive masterpiece, which conveyed resonant messages about social harmony and the environment. The enthusiastic band of volunteer artists, which over the course of 10 days numbered in the thousands, gladly lent a hand to fill in a few squares on one of four giant grid art pictures. It was all part of an ambitious but inspiring project designed to unite diverse sectors of the community and cause everyone to reflect a little more about our impact on the planet and the kind of world we want for ourselves and for future generations. Green focusAustrian artist Emil Herker worked with Hong Kong volunteers to inject life into MegaBox with mega paintings that inspire environmental awarenessThese are subjects close to Herkers heart, and he was delighted with the public response and the colourful outcome of their joint artistic endeavours. “With this kind of art you can involve many people in the creative process,” he says, watching a group of youngsters swapping brushes, concentrating fiercely and stepping back to admire their handiwork. “It is like painting by numbers, but there is also communication between the participants and the chance for everyone to work together as a team, and that was the deeper intention of this project.” Herker trained as an architect before making his name in the field of photorealism. He was thrilled to see families working together, adults lifting children on to their shoulders to paint some of the higher squares, and kindergarten kids going there in the mornings with their teachers, and returning in the evenings to show their Top: The grid art oil painting The Reappearance of a Blue Sky. Above: Artist Emil Herker poses in front of his works. 上: 巨型油畫以藍天再現為主題。 下：超寫實主義藝術家Emil Herker在其作品前留影。8parents what they had done.“You should have seen the smiling faces. They were all so happy. At one time, there were people here from the mainland, Europe and many other nationalities. They were communicating and helping each other.” One group of Form Four visual arts students from St Stephens Girls College definitely caught the mood. One says: “It was a fantastic opportunity for us to take part in a really meaningful activity with other members of the community. We were excited to meet the artist in person, and we were determined to make sure our part of the painting was done perfectly.” The focus of all the attention was four separate canvases, each divided into 40,000 small squares marked with numbers from 1 to 50 which corresponded to a specific colour. Members of the public were invited to take a brush, check a number, find an appropriate pot of paint, and spend a few minutes filling in a few uncompleted grids. Up close, they might be working with just one or two colours, but from a distance, particularly in the last few days as the full-sized paintings took on their final form, they could see how each contribution became an integral part of the greater whole. Herker says: “Near the canvas you see many different types of brushstroke which show different characters. Sometimes, it is minimal art with only a dot in the middle of a grid, but I wanted to bring out the personal styles and, from a distance, it melds into one painting.” The overarching theme uniting all four pictures was The Reappearance of a Blue Sky, providing a timely reminder about the urgent need to take action to protect the Earths natural resources. “The viewer finds his own story between the painting and the title,” says Herker. “The environmental message is there, but it is important for our society to give people the freedom to think. Otherwise there is no more fantasy.” He says that coming up with the different designs was the hardest part of the project. It began with an extended stay in Hong Kong in late 2006, doing research and sketching out some broad concepts, which subsequently evolved into the initial drawings. The designs were then finalised with the help of computer software that calculated the colours to use in every square and “dictated” the results through a special audio file. “From June to September, I stood in front of the canvas with the earphones on, and the computer helped me write in the numbers,” Herker says. “But you cant do that eight or 10 hours a day, otherwise you get really crazy!” He says that it has given him a special sense of pride to present this form of public art in Hong Kong for the first time and to have Dr Maria Moya Gotsch, the Austrian consul general, in attendance at the formal ceremony which kicked off the project. 保藍 繪新圖去年底，奧利著超實主義藝術家Emil Herker把巨型油畫帶到