TABARD BUILDING/DORRINGTON - TABARD ST, LONDON PART 1
This mural I am particularly proud of as I have a particularly healthy case of bad vertigo so for me to go up four floors on what seemed to be a slightly swaying lift (that would be the vertigo!) was nigh on a miracle! You will notice the design actually starts thin towards the top and then gets bigger as it goes down. The simple reason for that was I was getting less nerves as the lift was getting lower! But it turned out to be a creative blessing in disguise as the mural had the effect of cascading downwards. It reminded me of the bottom of the tornado funnel. A doodlenado?
I am often asked do I plan out the mural beforehand and the simple answer to this is no as I prefer to be spontaneous with what I produce. It makes for a more dynamic visual as it is very much in the moment All I have to remember is to switch off my head and let the creative flow literally flow.
Thanks to Dorrington PLC for commissioning this mural, the first of three on this building. You can see this mural if you enter Tabard street from the A2198. The mural is directly in front of you.
TABARD BUILDING/DORRINGTON - TABARD ST, LONDON PART 2
This was the second of the murals that Dorrington PLC commissioned me to do and this one felt even more in the vertigo lane than the first one, most likely due to the fact that the wall space was less. The people watching me from the building opposite which housed the London College of Accountancy must have been amused seeing me crawl from one end of the lift platform to the other as I had left the spray cans there.
One thing I notice about doing large scale murals is that people really enjoy watching you do the work. This unique facet that street art offers escaped me initially but soon became apparent when many people who passed by would ask, “Are you an artist?” Initially I thought they were joking until more people asked the same question. I realised that people usually only get to see the art, the finished art and the allusive artist is often not there. Street Art offers that wonderful opportunity to connect directly with those that enjoy the work, which is why I love it so much. When you get the chance to have the world outside as your studio and the people are part of that space… Well it doesn’t get better than that!
I forget the chaps name who worked the lift for me but I remember him chuckling as we moved up and down the wall! Seeing me crawl around that platform must have been a strange sight! I am determined to get the next gig to be higher So I can conquer my vertigo!
INSTAGRAM ADVERT - LEAKE STREET LONDON
I was Given the exciting opportunity to work with the film company MATTR to be part of this amazing Guinness Instagram advert celebrating the birthday of the iconic Harp design which apparently was 258 years old! Impressive! The actual mural seen in this video was the second one as the day before I did a similar mural and due to filming constraints only a fraction of the whole mural was able to be seen in the actual film.
One of the most demanding and satisfying gigs I have ever had, a workout both physically and mentally and worth all the efforts. As always with Leake Street once the filming was complete we packed up and walked away and I think it disappeared within a couple of hours. That’s the joy of the space, it offers you vast walls to paint on and then teaches you that nothing is forever. It would have been awesome if it had stayed up for 258 years though!
The location of the mural, if you go down to Leake Street and stand in front of the entrance going into the vaults it was on the wall opposite. A real joy to watch the final cut of the advert and a huge thank yoou to MATTR for inviting me to take part.
QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY - LONDON
This was one of my favourite mural Commissions I have had the fortune of taking on. The reception of the new student accommodation building run by Scape was coming to completion ready to take on the new students and the company and conjunction with the designers decided that the space would benefit from a mural to liven it up. For this mural I actually did a plan of what it was going to look like but as is always the case it didn’t turn out as original as by the time I started the mural it had become much more evolved. Ideas, once realised, always become more vibrant over sometimes a short space of time. That is the joy of spontaneous creation. The best thing about this mural was easily incorporating the screens as heads fro the characters. For those of you who may be interested the black out line was done with big Posca pens. Much easier to control and much quicker than ordiary paint.
NESCAFE - UK
This was a great example of a series of fortunate events. I had just finished a mural in Leake Street when a young coupe came up and asked me what I was doing and how people could paint down in Leake Street. I gave them a couple of near empty cans and off they went in full kid mode and started doing their thing on the walls. turns out that the lady worked for NESCAFE and long story short I was invited to create a mural backdrop for their stand at the London Coffee Festival in Brick Lane. I also managed to create a live mural for them At the event. That then became an offer to create the mural backdrop for their new coffee dispensers at rail stations around the UK. And all from giving out a couple of cans!
What an amazing opportunity and huge thank you to the amazing staff at NESCAFE HQ near to Gatwick. I particularly enjoyed creating the image as the backdrop for the machines. And turning the humble coffee bean and coffee machine into characters. Oh and of course the coffee tasted great!
ANDAZ HOTEL - LIVERPOOL ST STATION, LONDON
The Andaz Hotel at Liverpool St Station is an amazing building that I think retained the original facade but transformed the interior into this grand experience. I really recommend staying their if you are up for treating yourself.
The manager of the hotel had been commissioning street artists in London to create murals in the rooms and was interested in my doing a couple of rooms. This was quite the daunting task because there was no room for error as once started the work had to be completed. The only solution I could think of was to use non drip gloss paint as it had that wonderful minimalist quality to it and also minimal fumes and maximum coverage! I was doing so well but then one slight disaster, a drup on the wall from doing the head which you can see on the photo above. Well you can see where it was because use I turned it into a circle and used it as the area to sign my name! That’s the whole deal with these kind of gigs. You have to just go for it and make the most of how it evolves.
As payment I asked if my parents could stay in the hotel for a few days! They recommend it as somewhere to stay also!
WAHACCA “DAY OF THE DEAD” - THE VAULTS, LONDON
Ah this was a tale of highs and lows and highs again. The Vaults had become a great source of creative contact in the early days of my Leake Street experience and they approached me to ask if I and some other artists would be interested in doing a very large scale mural for the Wahacca “Day Of The Dead” festival event. The space in question was a vast hall deep in the belly of The Vaults and I completed it with the my fellow creative wing-buddies ArtByFane and Skeleton Cardboard.
It was beyond amazing in terms of experience and we were all ready to enjoy seeing other folk enjoy the experience and then the news came that some of the Wahacca restaurants had been hit by a rather nasty bout of food poisoning! THey had to close the restaurants for a deep clean and the event at The Vaults was understandably cancelled!
But as fate would decide the next year we ended up having another change to do yet another full mural as they had the event staged again, this time no food poisoning or cancellations!
Additional Information
CRANE BUILDING/DORRINGTON - LONDON
The Crane Building is part of Dorrington‘s property portfolio and is a beautifully laid out space with equally beautiful people within the space. I have never known such a vibrant community of creative people in a building, everyone being so friendly and approachable. The Dorrington management asked me if I would create a mural on a temporary wall at the back of the building whilst some new building work was being done. It was quite the wall, nice a long and very fresh!
Considering the vibrancy of the space it only seemed right to try and reflect that onto the mural itself so I embarked on one of my most intricate and extravagant murals to date full of joyous chaeaters interacting and loving around the wall as if they were dancing.
It took a while to complete but everyone seemed pleased with the result and most importantly it diverted attention away from the loud noises from the builders around the corner.
