ARTIST Andy O'Rourke has once again added a bit of colour to Newport with a firery new mural outside Mono Metals in Pill.

The art was commissioned by Mono Metals, and Mr O'Rourke was given instructions to create a mural that referenced the industrial nature of the area.

Mr O Rourke said: "They (Mono Metals) were saying that their site, the scrap metal merchant, is on an old foundry site.

"So [they asked] if I could do something along those lines.

"I've been itching to paint a dragon for ages, I just thought 'dragon, molten metal, steelworks' and it all combined into a nice thing.

"They (Mono Metals) were very flexible, they basically said 'here's your wall, crack on and see what you can do'.

"I'm kind of conveying people who work in steel works and foundries working really fierce flames and near to dangerous environments.

"So it's not a pretty flowers and unicorns type of mural.

"I wanted to convey that fierceness of the furnace and the blast furnace."

Despite his eagerness to paint a dragon, Mr O'Rourke was at first a little hesitant due to dragons being a bit overused, particularly in this part of the world.

But he overcame this hesitation due to his belief that "a nice, red, fierce dragon is a good thing."

The response to the mural has been extremely positive, with Mr O'Rourke believing that it fits into the area well.

For anybody who enjoys murals like this then there is good news as Mr O'Rourke is an extremely busy man with projects throughout Newport, such as the interior of the Pill homeless pods, around the old passport office, at Milton Primary School and much more.