My first brush with the Art Trail on Saturday was accidental, when I found my way to La Delice blocked by a Spar delivery lorry competing for pavement space with an artist working on the new Jewel Road mural. By 11:30 Carne Griffiths had a trestle set up, paints and reference sketches laid out and painting well under way. Carne usually works in a studio and produces the elaborate, densely detailed prints that are now familiar locally, after featuring on the cover of E-List. He has exhibited rather widely, this year for example participating in the Affordable Art Fairs in London, New York and Hong Kong. I think painting a mural is a departure from his usual work. He told me he did consider spray paint, bought a set of paints but got 'a mouthful of fumes' and quickly decided to stick with his preferred medium, water-based acrylic paint. The weather this weekend is perfect, sunny but not so hot that the paint dries too quickly. The painting should be finished today and will get a protective lacquer coat to protect it from the elements.
On Sunday, the second half of the mural is under way. Here, Carne is using a marker pen to get the effect of pen and ink hatching. It's a lot of work to get through in two days.
Jewel Road Community Group organised the mural and prepared the blank wall next to the cafe with a fresh new coat of white paint.
