Shahrzad Ghaffari at work

As announced in December, Iranian artist Shahrzad started working on her striking 11-metre-high mural, Oneness, in early January. All surfaces in the rotunda's interior were protected, and scaffolding was set up, covering the whole top floor to allow her to reach the highest areas of the wall. To give her access to all wall surfaces on the lower levels, two mobile raised platforms adapted to the staircase were installed.

Shahrzad worked on the background layers, with the help of her assistant, up to the beginning of this month. Despite the scaffolding, it is already possible to see the changing colour palette on the walls, from the dark chocolate with glimpses of terracotta orange at basement level, into the cream, grey and silvery tones near the staircase's skylight. The rich textures of the painted surface have completely changed the feel of the space.

Early this February she started to trace the vibrant turquoise calligraphy lines, scaling them up from the oil sketch by making a grid on the wall. The first layers of the blue strokes are now visible in all three levels of the rotunda, helping to visualise how the mural will look when complete, this March. We look forward to the grand reveal to the public at the reopening - and hope to announce dates soon.

With Shahrzad in London, the last rewards have been finalised: the framed signed prints and the oil studies should be with you early next month - look out for emails from the Art Fund, as they might check they still have the right address for correspondence. Thanks for your patience - we hope you like them as much as we do!