A MEXICAN restaurant, which was forced to paint over its eye-catching mural shortly after opening last year, is now inviting the public to vote on a new design.

Ojo Rojo’s colourful graffiti artwork, created by local artist Krishna Malla, had adorned the wall of its Bournemouth Triangle premises.

However, following a ‘misunderstanding’ in the tenancy agreement between the landlord and owners Trevor Hill and JJ Adams, the mural had to be repainted in the restaurant’s brand blue in July.

Dozens of people took to the restaurant’s Facebook page to object to the mural’s removal.

But Ojo Rojo has since announced that it now has permission from the new landlord to paint another mural on the wall.

Three designs have been created in homage to the original artwork, with the public allowed to vote for their favourite design by Friday, January 27.

Krishna has once again been asked to paint the mural.

Trevor said: “The mural was a massive part of our launch – before we even started promoting the restaurant, the mural was going up and a lot of people were noticing. It created a solid buzz.

“When we were forced to remove the street art along the side of our building, it attracted a lot of attention. There was so much support to keep the artwork and we were moved with the comments we received about it.

“We thought that due to the amount of support we got for the last mural, we’d put the design of the new one out to the public. We’ve got Krishna back on board as well.”

He added: “We want the mural to be a gateway into the Triangle and represent its creative side.”

The first of the three new mural designs features a collection of frogs around a single feather, to represent the owls in the original mural.

The second design is a “hyper-realistic” version of the original mural and features owls painted in various shades of blue, with highlighted colours throughout in the eyes and the occasional feather.

The third design features a more abstract representation of an owl’s face.

To vote for one of the designs, visit ojo-rojo.co.uk/muralVote/. The winning mural will be painted at the end of January.