Graffiti a go go!

We’ve got some new graffiti on the blue hoardings in East Cowes.

I know what you’re thinking… graffiti eh – the underground, often covert activity of youths in ‘hoodies’ and/or baseball caps?? Well scratch that, and please let’s not reinforce stereotypes at this early stage!

So, on Saturday 17th February we invited over a group of professional graffiti artists called Somnio (www.somnio.co.uk) to create a new painting on the blue boards. Somnio is an art collective which has been formed to bring together like-minded creatives. This piece can be seen in the Church Path area near the disused Bethel Church, which is adjacent to Well Road.

For those of you who don’t know, this was part of No Barriers (NB), an ongoing project run by the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) and Island 2000 Trust. Over the past year or so we’ve been gradually turning the hoardings into an outside community gallery space for all to enjoy. See www.nobarriers.org.uk for details of the projects so far.

Lead by Duncan Newland and Stuart Bedford, the Somnio artists set to work early in the morning, bringing with them a vast array of sketches, designs, stencils, and err… paint! They worked on individual parts of the boards discussing and critiquing each others work along the way.

The resulting artwork displays figurative imagery with more decorative, organic forms, shapes, patterns and motifs. It also combines bold and graphic styles with looser, painterly techniques. The frame motif gives a feeling of continuity without controlling the individual artists’ styles. Hmmm, can you tell I used to work in art gallery?

The activities of the day created quite a stir along Church Path site – some people avoided it, and some embraced it, asking questions about what was going on. The general feedback was very positive indeed. Two girls were heard to say: “They’ve made it look really cool down here now.” That’s more like it!

We hope to do more work with Somnio in the future. And hope that this will open the door to other NB creative activities and artistic opportunities along the way.

Photography by Ian Boyd and Tim Johnson. See more of Tim's graffiti photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/64473370@N00/