St Ives 'Art cabinets' at Porthmeor
Last month I completed a project in St Ives which had been in the pipeline for many months! The weather being a big issue earlier in the year which delayed the process. St Ives BID (Business Improvement District) has asked local artists to submit designs for the much graffiti-ed over telecom boxes near the Tate gallery. The brief was for something bright & colourful.
I took my inspiration from artists such as Terry Frost, Sandra Blow, Barbara Hepworth & Patrick Heron. I wanted to incorporate my design motifs which appear across my work in all my mediums including jewellery, metalwork & paintings.
I created a design working on a rough scale of 1:4 with 'clean' graphic motifs embellished with line work to add further interest. The palette of colours was to represent the St Ives colours seen in the boats, buoys, sea & sand in the area. A range of 6 colours was selected over a base colour a pale grey. The type of paint to be used was important as it needed to be durable & withstand the sea air, salt, wind & sand! I used a metal paint by Rust-oleum which will hopefully last for a while in the challenging Cornish weather.
DAY 1 Preparation
I had allocated 3 days to complete this project & started on the first day by cleaning & preparing the cabinets. A base coat of 'Telegrey' colour was applied mainly by roller. A lot of the graffiti had already been removed & the paint covered the surface really well thankfully. I was slightly concerned the cabinets would be graffiti-ed over again the next morning but thankfully they remained clear.
Day 2 Applying colour
The second day I did initial drawings with a china marker to create the outlines of the motifs, working from my drawing for reference. Then came the exciting part of adding the colours! Working in stages blue, yellow & turquoise paints were applied. The weather was kind so the paint dried well!
By the end of day 2 the base colours were down & the boxes were looking a lot more vibrant.
Day 3 Finishing touches
The third day was about adding some more layers, with a freer approach so the colours had a more blended feel with sweeping movement over the surfaces. The graphic lines were drawn with a paint marker. I used Markal B paint sticks which gave a more broken 'drawn' line to the painted surfaces & completed the effect.
Initially I was concerned about the graffiti on the wall behind one of the cabinets but now feel it is not too much of a distraction. Actually the colours do kind of go with my paintings! I am not sure how long the artwork will remain pristine as unfortunately it is inevitable that graffiti will reappear. I have left the sides & tops of the cabinets undecorated so hopefully that area will satisfy the local youths who do these 'tags'.
This was an unusual project for me but I really enjoyed the process. I didn't mind being on view while I painted (August obviously being a very busy time in St Ives!). I think I met the brief with these colourful additions & have brightened up a scruffy corner of St Ives.