In less than one week the hot and cold water towers in Boissevain have a new look.

The Boissevain-Morton Arts Council hired an artist from Saskatoon to paint murals on both towers.

Kent Ness says this is the highest he’s ever gone to do a mural. He uses a lift to go 130 feet in the air so he can start doing his art work. “It takes a lot of planning. Originally the plan was to wrap all the way around the towers but it’s impossible to get the lift in all around the towers. We’ve scaled back the project and focused on the north side of the towers.”

Prior to the Boissevain project Ness had gone up about 60 feet so this mural is twice as high as any of his previous work. “You have wobbly legs for the first bit but you get used to it” said Ness.

“Weather has been a big challenge. It has been windy up there. Once you’re that high up and exposed to the elements it moves the lift a lot and it’s hard to apply the paint because I’m using aerosol and my paint sprayer.”

The mural was an approved design but had to be scaled back to a more rectangular vertical shape.

“I do everything free hand. Sometimes on easier to reach walls I’ll use a projector based on an image I’ve already sketched up because it makes it a lot easier to scale things up. For this one it was all free hand and that made it more challenging too.”

Doing murals is a part time passion for Kent Ness. “I work for the City of Saskatoon doing drafting for the construction department. This is something I’ve been doing for about 20 years.”