A GP surgery has unveiled a specially-commissioned mural as part of a charity’s drive to revitalise waiting rooms.

Overton Surgery commissioned Fluid Motion Theatre Company to create the mural for its waiting room, to bring positivity and create a vibrant talking point.

The Basingstoke charity champions the power of the arts to boost mental health and tasked local artist Liam Kelleher to create a piece of art with the theme ‘Thrive’, incorporating input from the surgery’s patients.

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The result is a striking 3m wide by 1.5m tall mural featuring a community scene of characters, animals and nature, with patient suggestions used both symbolically and as tributes, creating layers of detail for viewers to unpack.

Called Four Sisters of Utopia, the mural embodies four elements that people need to thrive – love, life, peace and bounty – into four female characters.

Funded by The Arts Council, the Artist in Residence programme is the latest addition to Fluid Motion’s mood-boosting arts activities, which include theatre workshops in schools and workplaces and its free annual All in the Mind Festival.

The project was inspired by Dr Tim Cooper, a Chineham GP, mental health specialist, and Fluid Motion trustee, who approached the charity to explore how the arts could help rethink waiting rooms and impact patient health and well-being.

Reactions from patients and staff to a pilot art commission at Chineham Medical Practice were so positive they prompted the Artist in Residence programme, a much larger project to transform clinical spaces through art.

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Leigh Johnstone, Fluid Motion’s artistic director, explained: “GP waiting rooms can be a cold, sterile, silent and sometimes nerve-wracking environment for patients.

“We’re using artists and art, not just to brighten these spaces up, but also to help spark good conversations with patients and staff and create a positive, colourful distraction – something to make people smile.”

Artist Liam has worked on several public art projects, including Basingstoke’s Streets Alive art trail. He said: “I love to work on projects like this: engaging with the public to create visuals that tell us familiar stories, open dialogues and excite the imagination.”

Overton Surgery GP, Dr Nicola Decker, said: “Watership Down Health are delighted to have worked with Liam Kelleher and Fluid Motion Theatre Company.

“After the last few years of Covid, when the very fabric of everyone’s lives has been affected, it was refreshing to have time out to pause to create a work of art.

‘We learn so much from working with people who bring different perspectives and talents to the problems we face.”