Melbourne-based artist Marco Pennacchia is gearing up for his fourth year at the Rochester Mural Festival, blending Italian heritage with Australian artistry.
Photo by
Aidan Briggs
Melbourne-based artist Marco Pennacchia is preparing for his fourth consecutive year at the Rochester Mural Festival, bringing his distinctive style that blends Italian heritage with contemporary Australian artistry.
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Originally from north-east Italy, about 40 minutes from Venice, Marco has called Melbourne home for six years.
“I just wanted to run away from Italy and then I got stuck with the lockdown and then I met my partner and I just got stuck here,” he said.
“It has been six years now, it is like a new home, I love Melbourne.”
Marco has been a full-time practising artist for four years, transitioning from hobby painting to professional practice after Melbourne's lockdown period.
“I'm not just a mural artist; I am also a fine artist,” he said.
“I do a lot of oil paintings where, for me, it is easier to actually express myself, because with murals, usually they tell you what they want.”
His artistic focus centres on portraiture, particularly female figures, which he believes possess inherent elegance.
“Female figures, in an artistic way, are just more elegant than men's figures,” Marco said
“If you look at a lot of Italian classic artists in the past, they always painted women.”
A distinctive element of his work involves fabric, influenced by his mother's profession as a seamstress.
“I think that comes from my mum, because she is a seamstress, and I grew up with her making dresses and then just got obsessed with fabric,” he said.
“Because there is a movement, a flow, that you can just move it around and you can express feeling.”
Marco's Rochester journey has been remarkably successful.
Marco has been successful at the Rochester Mural Festival, winning first prize and the People's Choice Award in 2022 and earning a Highly Commended Award in 2024 and 2025.
Photo by
Steve Huntley
In 2022, he won first prize and the People's Choice Award for Teardrop, described as showing “the intense darkness of death and unheard love”.
His 2024 entry Dream Unveiled earned a Highly Commended Award, symbolically portraying “humanity's interconnection through a flowing drapery”.
Last year's highly commended work La Tarantella celebrated his Italian roots through traditional dance.
“Last year’s theme was ‘Love, life and music’ and I did a portrait of a friend of mine dancing the Tarantella,” he said.
‘La Tarantella’ painted by Marco Pennacchia at Rochester Mural Festival 2025.
Photo by
JORDAN TOWNROW
Beyond Rochester, Marco has achieved recognition at Tasmania's Sheffield Mural Festival, winning in 2025 with A journey into the cosmos, featuring “this lady looking into the sky, the stars and the Southern Cross”.
For Marco, Rochester offers more than competition.
“Coming to Rochester is an excuse to leave Melbourne to paint with other artists with no pressure,” he said.
“We know each other, it is a nice town, it is chill, there is no traffic.”
While pursuing fine art exhibitions, mural work provides financial stability.
“I've sold a few paintings, but murals, it is definitely the money maker, it helps me to pay the rent and bills,” he said.
His ultimate goal remains painting grain silos.
“Every artist wants to paint the silos and tries to find a silo to paint. I am trying, I will get there, I'm just waiting.”
The Rochester Mural Festival runs from Saturday, March 21 to Saturday, March 28, 2026, and combines with the Sips & Sounds Festival, Creative Seeds Exhibition and Ripple Fest.
Festivities begin with the ‘meet the artist’ dinner on Saturday, March 21, with painting officially starting Sunday, March 22 in Mural Park, Rochester.
Marco Pennacchia wanted to capture his love for his Italian culture and motherland through his mural design in 2025.
Photo by
Lua Ikenasio
