This weekend, the Homegrown Collective took it upon themselves to host a little paint jam in the car park at the bottom of Palatine Road. With no Sand, Sea & Spray event this year, people had started to ask if anything paint related was going on and not ones to disappoint, we decided we'd bring something together last minute!
Securing the space was the easy part. I'd already been down and met up with Howard the owner a few months before and saw that he'd already let people paint some of the walls, so he said we could have the other side of the car park which was totally blank and that when we wanted to paint, give him a days notice. He was most receptive to what we wanted to do and had the plaques removed from the walls and laid cones out to stop people parking there over night.
The nice owners of Barrets DIY shop on the corner of Palatine Road said it was ok to use the wall space behind their shop as well, so on the Friday, myself, Catch 22 and Lowdown went down and attacked that little area!
I had a nice size wall that I'd painted blue the night before and as usual, the idea for my piece had changed by the time I got there on the friday! ( That's the nature of the Infection!)
Catch 22 and Lowdown shared a longer wall next to me and had previously cut separate stencil pieces that tied in together nicely with design and colour scheme.
What was also important to us for this event, was that we get local artists involved.
Sand, Sea & Spray is an awesome event, but it focuses more on bringing international artists in to paint and some of the people we asked have never been involved with SS&S.
I've known Dom Carlysle for a long time, he's a writer, graffer, illustrator and creates super vibrant pieces using various techniques. He came down on the Friday to meet us and prepped his wall in the main car park with emulsion and rollers.
He tells me his piece is a tribute to late rapper Guru.
He Dreamt Mars came down and picked himself a wall in the main area and I reserved a spot next to him. He rollered it with emulsion and spray painted his section black.
He cracked a piece out quick smart and decided to call it a day until Saturday.
He informs me however, that using Poscas on these walls is a no go! Whatever we do tomorrow is going to be all spray paint and freehand! Time to step it up again!
My original idea was supposed to be based on a doodle from my sketchbook, the intention being to paint the wall blue, spray the main shape in a lighter blue and work into it freehand with Black Posca paint pens, but I've come to realise I can't ever draw the same thing twice! 'It' won't allow me to! haha!
I'd also noticed the two shades of blue were a lot closer to each other than I'd like, so I chose a violet colour instead and as I looked at the wall, I saw an image of a digital wolf in my mind and started masking off really straight lines and shapes.
At one point, I'd almost decided not to use Poscas at all this time, I was liking using just spray paint and getting it really clean, but the urge was too great and once I found that Black Posca went onto the now smooth surface, I started bringing in the techness.
Also joining us to prepare a wall for Saturday's main event, was Rhianna Borsley, Lowdown's cousin. The force is strong in their family! Using paint and brushes, Rhianna laid some groundwork for the woman's face, ready for adding detail into on Saturday.
Lowdown worked up the lady's neck in his piece, but left the rest for Saturday. Catch 22 got his smaller piece finished and he and Lowdown went home for the day, Catch no doubt thinking of all the other pieces he had planned for the next day! (collaborations with Jay Sharples, whom I'll get to in a second!)
I got my piece finished and headed off to get changed and go to Raki's BBQ and then onto the Blueroom to see funk band Government play and our pal Alan Sweet spin some funky tunes.
A great end to a splendid days painting!
So that brings me to Saturday and whom we'd asked to come and paint! Over the past couple of years, we've made some good friends at the various painting events we've done, so we started contacting people. A bit short notice for some, but we knew we'd get some response!
Our pal Jay Sharples from Manchester had already booked a hotel to stay in for Sand, Sea & Spray, so rather than cancel that, he kept his booking and he was on board.
Jay started off on a big 16 foot wall with his trademark splatter technique, the idea being that Catch 22 would work HIS trademark coloured shards into and over the top.
We'd recently met John Walker, Paw Ski and Shoe2 from H2i crew Sheffield when we painted along side them at Alfresco over the bank holiday, so I asked them to come along.
Jamie (Shoe2) couldn't make it this time, but John
( designated driver, cameraman and all round party beast!) came along with Paw Ski
Mars
and Trik9, writer and B Boy from B.O.K (BreakOutKids) crew.
These guys clearly have the skills to pay the bills and wasted no time in working up their pieces in rough lines first then adding into them.
Paste-up artist D7606 took the little wall next to Paw Ski and just round from him, HM Avenue (Raki), Sam Jayne Simpson and Rhianna had their own little paint corner going on!
Swinging back round the other way on the main stretch of wall space, Dom was working more colour onto his wall, whilst He Dreamt Mars got his money's worth out of a huge tub of emulsion and started his second piece.
Just up from He Dreamt Mars, more local boys Graham Morriss (Mos) and Christian Fenn (Seca) had big pieces going up. Mos with his big colourful freehand letters and Seca bustin' out a mean looking baby in his signature blue.
I had a fair few colours left over from a job and a vague idea of what I was doing, but the order of the day for HDM and myself, was freestyle spray painting, can control and getting as good lines as possible.
Our good friend Steve Lawrence ( bar manager at Underbar and head of Bloc Roc) had been informed of our intentions for the event and he showed up on Saturday morning with decks, mixer, speakers and table, plus, he'd pulled in Scott Rogan from the Shaolin Monekys to spin some tunes for us.
The event was complete!
Having music was just the icing on the cake! The weather was perfect, the good vibes were building and everyone got into the spirit of the day!
At one point, Howard had his minions go round with drinks, choc ices and snacks for people and Howard himself was carrying round a crate of beers and juice, most kind.
My good friend Chelsea (co owner of Hello Sailor Tattoo parlour) turned up with a load of drinks and snacks and a crate of beers, (she doesn't even drink herself!) bless her.
At one point I looked up and saw Trik9 get right into the music and start break dancing!
This was shaping up to be a great day!
Everyone seemed to be enjoying the event and as I looked round, it was great to see local artists and friends painting alongside artists from out of town.
I was having good fun using just spray paint and a bit of masking tape and He Dreamt Mars found that he too didn't miss the trusty Posca pens!
The Sheffield boys were on fire! Paw Ski, Mars and Trik9's pieces were going up fast and furious!
Mars' big bold letters looked from afar as though they were coming out of the wall and the speed and accuracy with which he got them onto that wall was insane!
Scott had to leave at 2pm, so it was time for someone else to take over on the decks.
My good friend Inush took over for a little while, playing some nice dub reggae, then it was time for Bobby Boulders, AKA Shelfstacker to have a little go.
We had it all: amazing weather, great friends, artwork, music, treats and good vibes all round!
The quality of people's work was outstanding, I really think everyone stepped it up.
Seca actually started to turn Blue at one point! haha!
The lone soldier, Lowdown continued to work on his piece at the back of Barretts. It's a great spot to paint on there, as it can all be seen from the street and no doubt enticed people over to come and look all day.
My friend of a long time Zane and his son Zane Jr ( Zane squared as I call them!) had come along to join in the fun. Zane Jr has a good eye for colours and apparently had helped Jay pick which colours to use on his splatter wall.
Catch 22 was working on possibly his biggest wall to date. The bright and colourful shards were going on a treat over Jay's splatters. They had another wall next to that one on which they threw up another couple of smaller collab pieces.
Jay had asked me if i wanted to throw some tech lines on top of some splatter, but as we'd previously discovered, these walls didn't like Posca pens, so we got Trik9 to work over the top instead.
Later in the afternoon, Daniel Horrobin from Beat Freekz crew turned up and took over on the decks. His scratch skills and crazy blend of old and new music were a real treat and had us whooping and dancing! It was going off! Myself, Inush, Bobby Boulders and our friend Kyle Gaw started skating and messing around with Dom's BMX.
I took myself out of the play quickly after I came down on my ankle funny and that was me limping for the rest of the day. Bobby B showed me how it's done though, by landing a high jump under and over the cones on Inush's skinny Penny board! Crazy shit!
I resigned myself to finishing off my piece and try and take it easy on my ankle.
It's not that I was impressed with my overall finished piece, I was just happy with how thin I was getting my lines with a spray can and people who've been painting a lot longer than me were coming over and telling me how good the lines were.
I think Zane Jr liked what I was painting! Personally, I think I should have left it after the picture below, instead of cutting back in with black. I always go too far!
Filming the whole event was Lowdown's long time friend Kane. He really knows his stuff and at points throughout the day, you could see him perched up high getting better angles on the work or rolling around on a skateboard with a go pro on a stick!
The local painters were crackin' on at a leisurely pace, but the Sheffield boys had to get back so got theirs done and started to say their goodbyes. Always a pleasure to see new people, especially ones with skills like Mars and Trik9! John was still in high spirits when they said their goodbyes and Paw Ski invited us to a jam in Sheffield next weekend.
The H2i crew's corner of the car park is a testament to their skill and I'm so glad they came to get involved.
Meanwhile, Mos had almost finished his piece and was tying it in to Seca's blue baby wall. I learned a few things watching Mos, his can control is superb.
Seca loves his blue and was working it into his piece right up to the end.
That is one mean looking baby! Pure class.
Howard came over around 8pm and said it was almost time to switch the power off, so the music stopped and people began to put the finishing touches to their pieces.
All in all I think the event was a great success. People who came thoroughly enjoyed it. Some amazing artwork was produced and we got the sense that the townsfolk are really opening up to the idea of street art brightening up the walls all over the place!
Big thanks to Howard for letting us use the space and to everyone else who turned up and painted, spun tunes or just showed support. Extra thanks to John Walker for some of the photos.
Watch this space for the next event.
Check out the links below to see more work from the various artists.