Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix kicked off in October at the Yas Marina circuit and I was asked if I could paint a series of pictures to coincide with this event at Abu Dhabi International Airport.
The project was to paint and encourage travelers to interact with the paintings and also do some drawing themselves. Having a studio in the departure lounge in one of the richest cities in the world didn't seem like a bad idea and top that off with people from all over the world passing by to do outlines I felt like this could be the beginning of something new.

The highlights of this project were discussing art and poetry with a delegation of Pakistan Government officials and a great Russian family who missed their flight and joined me for 2 nights in a row.

The paintings I made were fast productions. I had one day on them and they all could have done with some major tweaking but on the plus side, the Abu Dhabi International Airport Company liked them so much they now want to display them around the airport for the world to see!

The Race.

Heat.

Circuit break.

Speed.

Faith.

Deserted.

Love speed.

The seed.

The circuit.

Burnout.

The Formula.

The flower.

Company representatives take a closer look.

Back-up support for the fill-in.

Betty and Feiruza join in.

Sinan helps out on drips.

Serene and Ines worked overtime in overdrive to make it happen!

Great drawing! Get the blu-tack out and stick it up.

Ines worked too hard.

Serene brought tranquility to this project.

Customer services were great!

Olga, Marina and Nina from Moscow.

Olga and her squeezy flower.

The tallest mobile phone mast palm tree in Abu Dhabi!

Zayed University mural

On the 28th October I was invited to Zayed University in Abu Dhabi to talk about the work I have done on the streets around the UK. I was also asked to paint a mural with members of an art group at the University.
For the concept of the mural the basic idea was the word Zayed. The University was named after the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan who ruled the Emirate from 1971 to 2004.
Sheikh Zayed through hard work and vision united the Emirates into the U.A.E. He had to overcome many obstacles to make it happen but his commitment, dedication and love of his people shone through and he created a great country.
For the mural the word Zayed was written in Arabic and in yellow to represent the desert. The trees either side are the growth of the U.A.E and the blue eye is the sky.
The students helped out with painting and added words to the trees in Arabic.

Thank you to all the students who took part and to Dr Justin Thomas and Naz K. Shahrokh at the Art and Design department for organising the materials and the team.

Back to University

Abu Dhabi's finest.

We start with the blue..

The students working hard

The basics are in now we can start the filling in.

Find a spot and paint... if you can!

I let the experts take care of the tree.

The students work the colour scheme.

Amazing henna art, U.A.E. style.

Great henna art.

and now for the finer detail.

Dedicated to Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

What's in the tree?

The beautiful script.

The honor code.

Finished!

Where are we going with this?

Town Farm Primary School

Recently I collaborated with artist and friend Sonia Blair to produce a playground mural for Town Farm Primary School in the village of Stanwell. This was part of a much larger ongoing project by Signal Project for A2 Dominion housing. See our complete work at:
www.stanwell.signalproject.com.

This mural involved the pupils each painting an animal or insect which would then be cut out and placed on the mural once the Stanwell Scouts photographed them around the village. The theme for this mural was fusing video games with nature, so lots of green and some floating grass bits for the animals to stand on. I was getting flashbacks to Donkey Kong whilst painting this!

Think of an insect

is it a spider or a pizza?

Make a mess

We paint the mural

Add some colour

The finished piece

The frog and butterfly combo

The tree of Knowledge

Animal magic

This little piggy went Awol

Close up of board 1

The trees have ears

Plant more trees

How many animals?

Quiet in class

The stock

I had none only the dinner ladies!

Mutate Britain

Thursday 9th October was the grand opening of 'One foot in the Grove', an exhibition and collaboration with the Mutoid Waste Company and a whole heap of artists.
The night consisted of some of the finest sculpture by the Mutoid crew set in the old Acklam Playcentre which I first had the pleasure of painting in 1997. My piece was a 'shrine' to graffiti.

Ladbroke Grove always has had a rich history and influence in UK graffiti. One of the first pieces painted in the UK was by Futura 2000 on the pillars under the Westway in 1982 whilst he was over with The Clash, who lived locally.

At the show I managed to collaborate with Zeus who made a sculpture of the word Mutate; also collaborating on this piece was local artist Natalie, who worked on the colour schemes.

The show runs until the 27th October and is well worth checking out.

The Shrine to West London graf

The loyal worshipers pay homage

Mutoid Waste Companies incredible machines

The future of jukeboxes

This robot horse shot FIRE at PR representatives!

M is for mutation

U is for Underground

Natalie does a great T

Mutoids Joe Rush with my finished T

The A popped out

The E flowed

Are you John Conner?

The dog machine looked tame

No wonder the troops have equipment shortages

Mutate Britain

On Thursday 1st of October in preparation for the show Mutate Britain I managed to grab a spot outside of the venue. Also on hand were my good friends the two Natalies who helped me out with filling and detail work.
The show opens on the 9th. Its going to be huge!
For more info go to:
www.mutatebritain.co.uk
www.mutatebritain.wordpress.com
www.myspace.com/mutatebritain
facebook - mutatebritain

Words in nature - Part 2

The estate flowers

Stockwell Park crew

Force of nature

Details

Close-up of wall

Words in nature - Part 1

My latest project is to take inspiration from nature and use it to illustrate and form words. Nature and graffiti go together in a sense that I've spent enough time hiding in Foliage to really understand that there's something beautiful about having enough of the stuff around you in times of crisis.
Trees and plants are a great source of inspiration and these paintings are part of a series. keep watching...

Concrete plantation

The overseer

Close up shot

Look it moves!

Now match it to the piece

All natural, no additives

Looking at you

More eyes on me

I bake the cakes