A true tale.
In 2021, I emailed the legendary Swindon muralist, Ken White, to ask, “How do I start painting murals?”
I couldn’t find this email conversation when I recently tried searching for it, but, in essence, he replied, “You’ve just got to do it.”
Initially, I felt short-changed, but then it dawned on me that no one else could really help me with this; I had to find a way myself.
In my neighbourhood: there once was a large wall by the Swindon Designer Outlet Village. It was quite the eyesore. Although I’m a fan of tagging, this particular wall looked rather drab, prompting a thought, “Let’s paint a mural here.”
I decided to email our then-local councillor, Jim Robbins, about gaining permission to use the wall space. Jim said he’d reach out to the landlord and see what he says. Then, lo and behold, he said yes. The next stage would be the funding (I can proudly say that now, Jim is the head of Swindon Borough Council!).
I set up a GoFundMe page and considered creating a tribute to my late tutor, Paul Moss. Not my art tutor, but my Multimedia tutor. I studied web design, graphic design, 3D animation, and video editing at college. (I did look around the art block at my local college and have no idea why I didn’t sign up; I think I saw more of a viable career in ‘new media’ than in art).
Back to Paul… he was such a wonderful guy—down to earth, tech-savvy, with a great sense of humour and wisdom. I had crippling shyness at college and Paul encouraged me to carry on with my studies, as working in web design wouldn’t be as socially taxing as doing all these class presentations at college.
Paul would go out of his way to help his students. He once drove a student to Cardiff in Wales, 72 miles from Swindon, to visit the university to encourage him to attend. It worked! That was just the kind of guy he was. He even played basketball with me once at my local court—quite the sharpshooter he was.
So, this GoFundMe page. It started off with the Paul Moss tribute and I posted it to my local community group. They said that it was not really fitting as he wasn’t local to this Swindon district. I felt a bit deflated, but on reflection, it made sense if people were going to donate towards it. Then I had the idea to tweak it, and it then became a local artist community project with the theme of Swindon and Wiltshire heritage—now that’s something people can get behind.
The area where the proposed mural wall is located is right next to Swindon’s Outlet Village, which was previously the GWR railway works. They used to have a great industry in Swindon and built the trains there. They were once Swindon’s biggest employer.
With this new local theme and initiative, the page was tweaked, put live and the money came rolling in. Within 2 weeks, we raised £700 for the new mural. I don’t often blow my own trumpet (my default, sadly, has been thinking that I’m useless), but I do impress myself at times with how things fall into place. I can’t really take credit, I just seem to allow things to happen. This project was a prime example of this. A woman, Helen, who lives in the area got in touch. Serendipitously, she had been trying to get a mural painted on that same wall since 2019, but then the pandemic came along and there were other priorities for all, and it got put on the backburner.
Helen and I met at Made in Bahia, which is a hidden gem in my town, a fantastic Brazilian café owned by Gerson Silva that serves fresh Caipirinhas and Sagres lager on tap, as well as some mouth-watering food. It’s sadly one of those cafés that go unnoticed when you walk past, because it’s not fancy on the outside, nor is it heavily marketed. But when you have the inkling to enter, you’re greeted by a warm, inviting smile from blue-eyed, olive-skinned Gerson. It feels like you’re coming into his home, like you’re being taken care of. Helen and I started chatting, and she mentioned another artist who was involved in the initial mural discussions. He turned up five minutes later, a chatty, friendly, energetic artist named Cello. He showed me some of his great artwork and I felt inspired. I must admit, I felt like I wanted to work on this project myself, but I put my ego aside and let it all unfold.
We started brainstorming ideas, but I got quite anxious brainstorming out loud in a group. I don’t really enjoy it, to be honest. I like being alone, writing down ideas, and pondering over them. I feel too much pressure on the spot. A few ideas were flowing, I felt the anxiety rising in me, and then I thought, “Just let it go and see what comes.” Well, it wasn’t as clear as that, it was more of a feeling of “Don’t worry”. Soon after I let go, I noticed out of the window, lovely red brick arches, part of the railway buildings. Then I said, “I had the idea of each artist having their own arch, like the ones across the road, so it’s in keeping with the area. Each artist can paint what they like in their arch, under the theme of Swindon and local heritage.” I felt a bit smug when I said it out loud, even though I had a slight doubt in my tone. They both nodded in agreement, then I started mocking up the arches! 10 artists, 10 arches. Perfect!
A couple of months passed; I was procrastinating a bit on the enormity of the task I’d taken on. I had to remind myself that I could only do one thing at a time, so I started with the brick arches. The simplest way to paint consistent bricks was to use a brick stencil. I bought that, went to B&Q, got some paints, brushes, rollers, and then some spray cans from a friend’s shop.
We arrived at the vast empty wall, marred only by some poorly executed graffiti tags, and proceeded to measure out 10 equal spaces for the arches. I might add that precision makes me feel uncomfortable. I want my mechanic or kidney surgeon to be precise, but as an artist, I have become pretty good at estimation, and that’s fine by me.
Once the arches were complete, I worked a bit more on my design, having the rough dimensions now, I could put something more concrete together in Photoshop.
Piece by piece, bit by bit, the mural began to take shape.
The arches were now complete, and the next step was to find more local artists.
It happened effortlessly, not through compiling a list of local artists, looking through their work, shortlisting, and picking the ‘best ones’. Cello and I extended the invitation to our networks, and we found eight other artists within a few days. I got my new next-door neighbours involved; they are friends of the previous tenants and were both artists, so it was a wonderful way to get to know them by working on this project. These are the same couple who hosted my art exhibition on 14th October 2023.
Adam Crosland, my studio neighbour joined in and so did Caryn Koh. I got to meet a couple of awesome local street artists, Inca Mole and Jaksta as well as Harrie Dearing, I adore her work! Carly Byrne created an awesome, cheerful piece and runs an amazing pottery studio too.
The Redcliffe collective was born
The street where we painted the mural was Redcliffe Street, so we became known as “The Redcliffe Collective.” At last, I felt like a cool artist, part of a collective.
July 2022 was a hot month in the UK; painting outdoors in the sun was idyllic for us all. Around the corner at Made in Bahia, a generous resident put a tab behind the counter for us, so we could grab drinks and Brazilian snacks whenever we needed them. An ice-cold Sagres in a frozen glass on a hot summer’s day was heavenly.
Blessedly (in a weird way), I was off work as I was on dialysis three times a week for four hours at a time. So, I was able to take my time doing a bit of painting when I could manage it over the two weeks. I felt a slight guilt as I was off work and felt that I should be resting, but my psychologist said it’s okay to paint as part of your recovery. She was right; there’s nothing I enjoy more. I lose myself in the act of creating art, so there’s no worry and no kidney failure when I’m painting. What could be a better form of rest?
Painting this mural was an idyllic couple of weeks—a dream come true.
Local residents were coming up to us and thanking us for brightening up the area. Some were in tears of joy, and one older gentleman, enthralled by the railway aspect of the mural, used to work at the railway works around the corner. He came out especially to see it with his wife. It was a real buzz, a true community event. It’s amazing what £700 and a group of people can do in 2 weeks to transform an area!
Once the mural was complete, we had a bit of fun contacting the press. The first to pick up the story was our local paper, The Swindon Advertiser.
The Redcliffe Collective was featured on regional and national news.
📹 BBC Points West (For the West of England Region):
I’m not sure if you’ve noticed a recurring theme in my posts. I constantly remind myself of the topics I write about because they help me, and they are common issues that many, if not most, of us encounter in our lives.
When I asked Ken White, “How can I paint a mural?” what I was really asking was, “Can you make me feel worthy of doing this project, tell me what to do and help me do it?” I wanted him to impart his wisdom to make it easier for me, and that’s fine, but I realised that once you do something for yourself, it becomes much easier the second time. During the second attempt, you have the confidence to do more, and the memory that you have done it before. This sense of achievement strengthens the more you do it. Simple, but I often forget this.
Ken White gave the right advice in the end, by saying “I just did it”. Then I went ahead and ‘just did it’ too.
You can do the same, step by step.
Best wishes,
Go and start that project!
SLART
