Warrnambool artist Jimmi Buscombe is painting the Lismore water tower

The Warrnambool artist was hired for the high-risk project, which requires a harness and licence, by the Corangamite Shire and Buscombe is hoping his work will open art to passers-by.

"I had been thinking about doing a water tower for a long time and I put a pitch in for the west Warrnambool tower in 2018 that Claire Foxton ended up getting so it had been on my radar for a while," he said.

"I thought I've got Pick My Project to do and it might be biting off more than I can chew by applying for the Lismore tower but I'll give it a crack and if I get the project then I can decide what to do."

After putting in an expression of interest along with 30 other artists, Buscombe was one of three whittled down to present his design in the final round.

"The requirements for the design was something reflecting Lismore including native animals and birds, local land, farming and specific town history," he said.

"Because of my passion for wildlife art I thought I'd design to that brief.

"I went for native wildlife in a classic south-west farming scene; a couple of brolgas and sheep in a paddock with an early morning south-west mist and Mount Elephant in the background."

Buscombe is expecting the 15 metre high water tower will take him the majority of February to complete.

"There's a lot more involved than just painting a picture," he said.

"I'm doing two dancing brolgas and one of them with its head up will be about 12 metres tall.

"The process for me was designing it on my iPad using stock images and sketching a lot of it as well.

"When you draw on an iPad you do so in layers which will naturally become the layers on the water tower.

"Some of it will be the old school grid system - having a grid on my design and one of the tower and transposing that using chalk and some of it will be much more free-hand."

Buscombe is inviting people to stop by and talk to him about his project throughout the month of February at the water tower on the Warrnambool side of the Hamilton Highway at the Lismore Golf Course and to follow his progress through his social media platforms.

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