Last weekend marked another Wet Paint Aerosol Workshop for the kids of Brighton and Hove’s parent-run group the Link-Up Project. As we have posted before, this amazing group offers support and social activities for children with Special Educational Needs (SEN). Once again the incredible Snub 23 put them through their paces – teaching them can control and compostition - all overseen by our very own Projects & Community Manager Charlie Allsebrook. Despite most of the kids being new to spraypaint their efforts really impressed us and they all left with a finished canvas as a memento of the day. Above all the other projects Wet Paint get involved with this is probably one of the most rewarding, especially as the kids enjoy it so much. But don’t take our word for it. This is what Julie Sissions of the Link-Up Project had to say: “The children all loved the workshop. It was good that the session was inclusive of all age groups and it was fantastic to see an 8 year-old as engrossed as a 17 year-old working alongside together. The artist was informative and worked well with the young people, sharing his skills and passing on confidence to those who normally find art at school difficult. We will be booking [Wet Paint Productions] again for sure.” To find out more or to book workshops contact us at: wetpaintproductions@hotmail.com
The start of this month saw the winning entries of Channel 4′s Street Summer street art competition go up. This design by Technicolourmoon, was picked by Channel 4 as the winner for the South East region and was painted in Brighton and overseen by mentor Req. This is the first film of the three cities that Wet Paint Productions represented. We’ll leave the artists to do the talking…
Channel 4′s Street Summer – “a season of programmes celebrating contemporary urban art forms” – is fast approaching and so are the WetPaint commissions across the cities of Brighton, Manchester and the UK’s second capital, Birmingham. Next week will see the winning entries go up with the help of Req, Faunagraphic and Ventsa respectively. To view all the regional winning entries go to the Don’t Panic website HERE and anyone wanting to follow Street Summer on Facebook should hit this link: http://www.facebook.com/streetsummer The season will include films on spoken word and rap, street dance, a Hip Hop documentary called How Hip Hop Changed the World, as well as what looks to be an amazing film by viral film-makers and Mike Christie, the director of extreme sport documentary Jump London, called Concrete Circus which brings together the world’s hottest names in the urban sports scene. The season will also screen the television premiere of Banksy’s Exit Through The Gift Shop. More intriguing though is Graffiti Wars – a film given over to the on-going and very public feud between (Team) Robbo and Banksy as well as graffiti writers and ‘street artists’ in general. Ironically, the street art competition has sparked it’s own controversy within the scene. But that’s another story for another day…
It’s not every day a Mexican street artist based in Colombia rolls into town but yesterday was one of those days. The man in question is Stinkfish who has been painting and pasting his way around ‘Londres’ since visiting our fair capital to promote and launch the London release of Nuevo Mundo, a book about Latin American street art, at Pictures on Walls. Back in 2010 Brighton son Hutch was one of a handful of Europeans invited to attend the Bogota Stencil Festival and that’s where the two first met. So, in the true spirit of Anglo – Latin American relations it was only proper that Hutch and Wet Paint got Stinkfish down for some seaside action before he continues the next leg of his European tour. This collaboration is in Brighton’s North Laine and Wet Paint have to thank the residents and freeholder Paul Bonett for allowing the artists to get up as well as Cityclean for the go-ahead. We will post a time- lapse film of this soon but in the meantime check out a collaborative print by the two artists. It comes in a couple of colourways and measures 62cm x 52cm on somerset 100% cotton rag. Details of where to buy it will be released soon.
Last Sunday saw another Wet Paint productions’ Graffiti Workshop and this time we were working with some budding young artists from the Link-Up Project . The Brighton and Hove parent-run group provide support and a social network for children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) and their parents. As part of their activities and outings they included an aerosol art afternoon schooled by Snub 23 (powered by Kobra Paint) who introduced the kids to the art of the craft. The kids loved it so much we have a sneaking suspicion they will be coming back for more. We’d like to thank all the members of Link-Up as they were great and a pleasure to work with. Especially Tom who at 15 years-old had this to say: “I feel this workshop has really enriched my knowledge of graffiti, character construction and building on a canvas. I think we have all learnt new skills with spray paint and I’d definitely love to do it again in the near future. All participants have really enjoyed themselves and found a way of expressing their individual artistic side with brilliant outcomes.” And of course a huge thanks to Snub 23 for being inspirational and to Wet Paint’s Community & Projects Manager Charlie Allsebrook for heading up this and all of our workshops and community work. To find out more about The Link-Up Project click the highlighted link and to enquire about Wet Paint’s workshop and community related work contact Charlie Allsebrook: wetpaintproductions@hotmail.com
Wet Paint Productions and Brighton played host to the mighty SheOne this weekend and got a brand new wall from the master of typography in to the bargain. SheOne is firmly routed in Brighton’s graffiti history going back to the early 80′s and along with Req, put up the first pieces on the city’s long-standing hall of fame, Black Rock. Flash forward thirty years and the London-based artist who has gained international recognition and proved that graffiti has a place in the contemporary art world, has taken his style across the globe. Recently, he and fellow Transcend collaborator O.Two, were personally invited to France by the mayor of Ville De Niort to paint a massive production on the side of the city’s Cultural Arts Centre. Last year SheOne was also one of just 100 of the world’s most celebrated writers and street artists invited to secretly paint a disused subway station in New York City as part of The Underbelly Project. Quite frankly, SheOne’s unique brand of abstract painting has led to collaborations and achievements too numerous to list here. That said, Wet paint are grateful to him for an amazing signature piece and urge you all to keep a close eye on his website for some out of sight projects looming on the horizon.
A chance meeting at a Wet Paint party brought the Family Bottrell and Snub 23 together. Local resident Simon explained to Snub how his four-year-old daughter had enquired after the welfare of the planet once her parents had left this mortal coil and what state of affairs would their planet be in? This not only left a lump in his throat but gave Simon a great idea…promote ecological issues through a graffiti mural as part of Brighton’s Festival Fringe! Snub 23, who is powered by Kobra, rounded up some of the crew and put the plan in to action with the backing of many of Preston Drove’s residents. The key messages that came from the younger members of the Bottrell clan were don’t drop litter, conserve water, don’t fly – go camping instead, and walk, skateboard or bike to school. Following the ecological theme, local artists joining Snub 23 were Sinna One, Pinky, Women 158 and ZeeZeeTwentyTwo, who produced this production to a delighted audience of local residents. Above are some images from the forty foot mural but click HERE to see the joiner courtesy of local photographer Big Zee. If you have an idea for a graffiti project or even need an eco wall contact Wet Paint HERE.
A little while back Wet Paint Productions got the opportunity to collaborate with the very talented bespoke Brighton and London – based designer Gresham Blake. Not only does he have a client list that reads like Who’s Who (Nick Cave to Ray Winstone) but in the past he has also worked with other artists such as Banksy, James Cauty and David Samuel to create street-inspired clothing. This time around Wet Paint hooked him up with stencil artists Hutch and Funky Red Dog to produce these amazing ties. We think there are still some left although we have a sneaking suspicion that the Hutch range may have sold out. If you want to add a little street funk to your working day then we advise you to be quick about it. For more on Gresham Blake’s range visit his website HERE but first watch this great film shot and produced by Steve Glazier for Plastic Pictures.
For your viewing pleasure, this short is part of a longer film that was beamed onto the side of a building as part of Wet Paint Productions’ White Night centre piece ‘inCANdescent‘ in Brighton last October. As we have posted before, the production which celebrates the end of BST and embraces winter, was put on in conjunction with artrepublic, ink_d and our good friends at Snowstorm Media. It was Snowstorm who filmed the original footage at Wet Paint’s event The Beautiful and The Canned (this one from 2009), edited and then projected the film at the White Night festival. The film shows Fin DAC and Leeks going to work in Brighton. Thanks to Snowstorm for the use of the footage and we’ll post more shorts in coming weeks. Stay tuned for news on The Beautiful and The Canned!
At Wet Paint we are currently working with Brighton based illustrator Carlos Garde-Martin to deliver a commission for Social Media Agency NixonMcInnes. When we were asked to fit the brief to liven up their offices and meeting rooms, Carlos was never far from our minds. NixonMcInnes wanted the artwork to inspire their staff as well as impress their clients which include Channel 4, BMW, WWF, HSBC and Mercedes-Benz. These shots are work the in progress and we’ll post the finished job soon.
