{"id":698841,"date":"2026-05-27T23:39:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T23:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/698841\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T23:39:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T23:39:34","slug":"torquay-artists-willie-wagtail-paintings-taking-flight-around-the-surf-coast-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/698841\/","title":{"rendered":"Torquay artist’s willie wagtail paintings taking flight around the Surf Coast and beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"

When artist and “bird guy” Mike McLean started painting willie wagtails on discarded fence palings on Victoria’s Surf Coast, he had little idea of the phenomenon about to take flight.<\/p>\n

But his colourful images, which he gives away free to Torquay residents and sells for $20 to others, found a life of their own during COVID and have since migrated around the world.<\/p>\n

An Instagram page documenting the wagtails’ spread shows them on first-class flights, at temples in Japan, the canals in Venice, on the foreshore in Santa Monica and even on an icy runway in Antarctica.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"One One of Mike McLean’s willie wagtail paintings pictured in Japan.(Supplied)<\/p>\n

The artist’s willie wagtail paintings have travelled widely, including to Japan. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

\"A A willie wagtail painting in Thailand.(Supplied)<\/p>\n

The artworks also made it to Thailand. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

\"A A willie wagtail painting pictured in an aeroplane’s cockpit.(Supplied)<\/p>\n

A willie wagtail painting seen in an airplane’s cockpit. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

\"A A willie wagtail painting pictured in Antarctica.(Supplied)<\/p>\n

No continent is safe from the colourful birdies, including Antarctica. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

The Torquay artist started painting his ubiquitous wagtails a decade ago as an afterthought with materials left over from other bigger works.<\/p>\n

He estimates he has since painted thousands of the birds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I just think it’s a really powerful, strong, cool image inspired by pop art and Andy Warhol’s repetition,” says McLean of their appeal.<\/p>\n

“They make people happy and there’s a lot of joy.”<\/p>\n

\"A The willie wagtail paintings pop up all over town in Torquay.(ABC News: Jonathon Kendall)<\/p>\n

The birds have proved adaptable invaders, taking to rural, suburban and retail areas, and have been used to display house numbers and even table numbers in a Torquay cafe.<\/p>\n

A treasure hunt around Torquay<\/p>\n

For Torquay resident Laura and her two children Spencer and Harper, jumping on bikes or scooters and searching for the willie wagtails around town has become a favourite past-time.<\/p>\n

The colourful birds are not hard to find around Torquay, popping up in front windows, spray painted to walls and even hanging in trees.<\/p>\n

\"Spencer, Torquay locals (from left) Spencer, Laura and Harper have made an art of spotting willie wagtails.(ABC News: Jonathon Kendall)<\/p>\n

“We love the wagtails,” Laura says.<\/p>\n

“We discovered them in the peak of the COVID lockdowns, and it was a really fabulous way to get into the community and get the kids involved and active.<\/p>\n

“All these years later we’re still doing it.”<\/p>\n

They have been wagtail hunting for up to three hours at a time when they spotted up to 89 of the birds.<\/p>\n

\"Two Harper and Spencer love finding wagtails in their neighbourhood.(ABC News: Jonathon Kendall)<\/p>\n

“We will often pick up a couple of the boys’ mates on the way and go for a big ride around all of Torquay,” Laura says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“That includes stopping at the bike jump park, the beach, but mostly spotting the wagtails.”<\/p>\n

Four-year-old Harper says it’s fun to spend “ages” looking for wagtails. Her nine-year-old brother Spencer loves to make a day of it.<\/p>\n

\"Harper, Harper spots another wagtail.(ABC News: Jonathon Kendall)<\/p>\n

“It’s like an Easter egg hunt but with willy wagtails,” says Spencer, adding that instead of chocolate eggs they stop at the local ice cream shop for sustenance.<\/p>\n

In a relatively new residential neighbourhood in Torquay the birds bring the community together.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Wagtail The wagtails are giving local landscapes a pop of colour.(ABC News: Jonathon Kendall)<\/p>\n

Local canine groomer Sally Sexton is only too happy to take a break from washing dogs to discuss why she has a willie wagtail painting in her front window.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s really nice for the kids to walk around and have a look around,” she says.<\/p>\n

“I think most of us got them during COVID and it brightened everything up for us.”<\/p>\n

\"Sally Sally Sexton says the artworks “brightened” life around town during a tough period.(ABC News: Jonathon Kendall)<\/p>\n

Cherry Fitzpatrick from Barwon Heads says she has noticed the wagtails spreading around Torquay, the rest of the Surf Coast and the Bellarine Peninsula.<\/p>\n

She says they make her happy.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s great. I’m going to take one over to my son in the Netherlands,” Ms Fitzpatrick \u00a0says.<\/p>\n

A happy distraction during a tough time for artists<\/p>\n

Mike McLean continues to paint the birds on old fence palings using donated paint.<\/p>\n

The birds are time-consuming, taking up two to three hours of his day, but the artist looks at that time as meditation.<\/p>\n

\"Mike Mike McLean begins the artworks by rolling paint onto discarded pieces of wood.(ABC News: Jonathon Kendall)<\/p>\n

The focus on the sprightly birds has distracted McLean from what has been a tough few years for artists.<\/p>\n

“I think the creative arts have really been hit hard because people don’t have money to spend on luxury items,” he says.<\/p>\n

“They may be going on less holidays, going out to cafes for breakfast, lunch or dinner less, and painting sales have dropped.”<\/p>\n

\"A The paintings have appeared in all sorts of creative places around Torquay.(ABC News: Jonathon Kendall)<\/p>\n

McLean’s now planning a massive flock of wagtails to really grab people’s attention.<\/p>\n

“My creative ambition with the wagtails is to do large flocks of joy. So, large installations,” he says.<\/p>\n

“Imagine a tree in a field with 100 wagtails all over it, or a giant wall with different geometric patterns. I’m very excited for the future.”<\/p>\n

\"Mike Mike McLean is able to paint hundreds of the willie wagtail artworks a week.(ABC News: Jonathon Kendall)<\/p>\n

Even in his other larger pieces the wagtail image comes through. And McLean does not mind that they seem to have taken over his practice.<\/p>\n

“It does make me smile that I’m known as the bird guy,” he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When artist and “bird guy” Mike McLean started painting willie wagtails on discarded fence palings on Victoria’s Surf…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4624,64,63,340497,134,340498,7337,340495,340496],"class_list":["post-698841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-artist","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bird-paintings","tag-entertainment","tag-mike-mclean","tag-torquay","tag-willie-wagtails","tag-willy-wagtails"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}