You probably heard about Banksy’s major retrospective solo exhibition ‘Cut and Run’ at the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow. But you may not know that the show featured a series of my paintings displayed alongside his work.
You might be wondering how on earth this came about; and what’s the story behind the paintings.
Well, come closer, and I’ll tell you all about it . . .
At the start of the year, completely out of the blue, I received a letter from Banksy. He wanted me to paint the aftermath of one of his street pieces.
I won’t go into all the details but it’s fair to say I was quite excited, and it was torturous to have to keep it all a secret!
Here’s what happened when I arrived at the scene . . .
Valentine’s Day Mascara, Park Place, Margate, 1.20 pm – 4.15 pm, Sunday 12 February 2023
Park Place is a quiet backwater – a route to and from work or the shops for some, but you could just as easily take Grosvenor Place or the High Street. I set up 20 yards back from the wall in the parking area for the flats. You never know if you are going to be in someone’s way, but you cross that bridge
if you come to it.
I was pretty much left alone. No one seemed to notice me. The odd passer-by would look, and there was a bit of speculation. Word had started to get out on social media. Someone shared a photo from a first-floor back window on Grosvenor Place . . . “Was this a Banksy?”
Valentine’s Day Mascara, Park Place, Margate – Into the Sun, 11 am – 3 pm, Monday 13 February 2023
I arrived at Park Place at 11 am on the Sunday. The sun was directly behind number 28 and I was looking into a deep-blue shadow falling towards me across the concrete. I knew I could not work on one painting for hours on end. I would have to work on a few over two- or three-hour windows as the sun moved.
We were beginning to get to know the locals now. From the first-floor flats, there was Megan, who lived in the one beside us. She lived there with her partner and young child and had had her windows replaced the day before. And then there was her neighbour, Lee, who was convinced it was
a Banksy from the start.
“I’ve always loved Banksy. Now I’ve got one to look at in my front yard – my very own Banksy!’
Polla and her son who lived in the house that the mural was painted on came and spoke to us. I am not sure she realised the implications of having a Banksy on your wall at that point.
It was the calm before the storm. We knew it. They did not.
That social media post was doing its thing. Speculation rose as the day wore on. People began to arrive. They still weren’t taking much notice of me though! When you paint street scenes people come and look to see what you are interested in. They came here knowing what the interest was.
I added people who appealed to the painting – an arty young man with a beard and long hair who had arrived early and lingered. I put him next to Polla, putting her in again on the left as she peered at the mural with her son next to her. We also had our first vision of a Margate classic – a man in a Baker Boy cap.
As Lee chatted to us from his balcony, it was suggested that I put him in the painting. Although it was bizarre with him sat facing me, as if posing for a portrait, it was absolutely the right decision. Lee needed to feature, and it seemed appropriate we catch him – pleased as punch, hands on knees.
The council had clearly gotten wind of the possibility of a Banksy on their turf now, and the attention it could possibly bring. Two street cleaners arrived and started picking up rubbish. Much to my annoyance they picked up the overturned bins that I featured in the painting. The place was being tidied up.
As the sun lowered, I started an 8” x 24” panel that I would return to at the end of the next day.
Valentine’s Day Mascara, Park Place, Margate – Morning of the Reveal, 7.30 am – 11.30 am, Tuesday 14 February 2023
Valentine’s Day. I arrived at 7.15 am and started painting the morning light as the sun rose.
Some bloke was hanging around near us watching the comings and goings. He suddenly got quite irate, “I don’t like that photographer!”
“Why not?”
“I just don’t like his stuff. He’s a potato photographer.”
We never got to the bottom of what he meant by a “potato photographer.”
He was referring to a local blogger/would-be journalist called Frank Leppard. He came and went all day taking loads of ‘potatoes’. I caught him ‘low riding’ as he snapped the mural. I thought that would make his harsh critic laugh. As it happened, Frank was delighted to be added – bum-crack and all.
People really seemed to like lingering and once they had had a good hit of the mural, some would come for a snoop at what the old man at the easel was doing. A few would jokingly say, ‘Are you Banksy?”
I replied to one man, “Sadly, I’m not.”
“Er, no, clearly! You’re way too old mate!”
. . . “None taken!”
The area was becoming a bit of a social hub and the excitement was growing.
“Was the freezer there already or do you think Banksy put it there?”
“Did anyone see it happen?”
Lee had. Well, with hindsight he had . . .
He thought, at first, it was travellers. It is a wonderful mark of the man that he followed this with ‘so I didn’t think anything of it.’
He became the insider and, as the day wore on, he grew in stature. His wardrobe seemed to get more flamboyant too. He would appear in beautiful shirts on his balcony, sipping his drink and enjoying the atmosphere as he reclined on his red leather chair.
Polla, however, was not so happy. She had become clearly vexed by all the attention and seemed very anxious. She did not appear from her house for a while. Happily, by the next day, she had gotten used to the bustle in the once backwater and was coming to terms with the fact that – to a certain extent – her life had changed.
Valentine’s Day Mascara, Park Place, Margate – Removal of Freezer, 11.30am – 3pm, Tuesday 14th February 2023
As the sun rose, I had to change canvases. The light now was completely different and so was the atmosphere. More journalists were arriving – national press, Reuters . . . And then, of course, the council arrived in their truck with the orange flashing lights.
To a jeering crowd, a man and a woman in high-vis pink jackets dragged the freezer onto the back of their truck. A woman from the top flat shouted out, “At last! Get that shit out of here! And can you clean that rubbish off the wall while you’re about it!”
As the truck pulled off, Megan shouted from her balcony requesting they pick up the pink swivel chair that had been dumped there four weeks ago, and which she had asked the council to collect on numerous occasions. To give them their dues, they stopped and went over to look at the chair before declaring it had foam in it and they could not take it.
There was a fair amount of disgust that the council would remove something with so much cultural significance, and lots of barbed jokes that they never clear anything up until it is considered art. The next morning, there was a sign on a huge pile of crap further up the road: old TVs, chairs, mattresses, rubble, etc. It read, ‘Thanet Council, this is not an artwork, but will you remove this please?’
Soon after the removal of the freezer, the media attendance increased. TV cameras, ITV, BBC. It had all kicked off and everyone loved it. The question of whether Banksy had brought the freezer or whether it was already there now had even greater importance.
“Typical bloody council!”, “Classic Margate!”, “Only in Margate!” echoed through the onlookers. It wasn’t long before the artwork became truly live. People posed as if being pushed by the figure, and a bin was wheeled up to make it look like she had thrown the man into it.
Valentine’s Day Mascara, Park Place, Margate – Bin, Perspex, Gallery and Security, 3 pm – 6 pm, Tuesday 14 February 2023
With the sun now blocked by Gloucester Terrace, I switched to the board I had started the day
before.
And then the suits from London arrived. Well, not suits, but the equivalent.
A young man rocked up in a black Range Rover Sport. Trimmed beard, skinny jeans, and a baseball cap. He was having the audible telephone conversations of a ‘mover and shaker’.
Where was the freezer? When would it be back?
He measured up the mural and basically strutted around like he was in charge. It was thought that he was from the Maddox Gallery. The money men had come, and speculation rose.
Was the wall coming down? Is there any chance it would stay? Wouldn’t it be cool if it became a tourist attraction? How much is the house now worth? Unlucky on the tenant (Polla) but surely the landlady would see her right?
Later in the day, a truck arrived looking ominous. Someone Googled the name on the side. It was an art conservation firm, or art movers, or something. Two security guards arrived clearly employed by ‘skinny jeans’ (the mover and shaker). I added them to the painting as well as ‘skinny jeans’.
Eventually, he approached me. He seemed pleasant enough. He was quite affronted when I accused him of coming from Maddox. As the light lowered, a reporter – lit up in the dark corner of the flint and brick wall – cast his shadow across the wall as he told the story of the vanishing freezer.
I started to paint a kid in – his head covers the bonnet of the Range Rover. I did not complete him, however, as he would have obscured the collie I had caught earlier – a housemate of the small white dog that appears in the earlier ‘Morning of the Reveal’. It got too dark. I was knackered. I figured I
was done.
I drove home to Bath. I looked at the pictures in the studio and – as always happens – they niggled me. They were not quite done. I had been painting in a bit of a frenzy as the scene changed.
So, the next morning, I got back in the van and returned to the scene to find a piece of Perspex fitted, not quite covering the figure. I worked on the two 8” x 24” panels adding the white car (which the security guards had slept in for about an hour) and made sure I had got the now tiring security guards.
A colleague of ‘skinny jeans’ was there that day – being diplomatic, trying to allay fears of the mural being whisked off. He told us it was going to Dreamland Margate for a year, and that Turner Contemporary had been keen, but did not have room, and clearly some deal had been done we guessed. Later the Perspex was swapped with a large piece covering the entire mural.
I spoke to Polla who arrived looking much happier and at ease with the situation. I think she said her landlady was going to find her somewhere to live while the wall was being removed, and I think she had been offered a holiday.
I returned on the 21st to work on two of the larger canvases again. On that day, I finished early enough to head for the seafront – intrigued by the iconic, brutalist tower looming above the red brick Dreamland, and the seafront Regency terraces, amusement arcades and the glorious clock tower with its recorded chimes. I did not finish the painting. I will be back . . .
And lastly, no, I don’t know Banksy’s identity. I didn’t meet him at any stage of the proceedings. And in reference to the speculation that I might be Banksy, I can categorically confirm that I am not. But then that’s precisely what I would say . . .
My series of paintings of Valentine’s Day Mascara, Park Place featured in Banksy’s official solo exhibition ‘Cut and Run’ at Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art, 18 Jun-28 Aug 2023. The show is now over, but there is talk of touring the exhibition, so keep your eyes peeled.
Read a review of the ‘Cut and Run’ exhibition (including a bit about my involvement) on Graffoto.co.uk
My brush with Banksy led to something of a love affair with Glasgow (Don’t tell Bath!) after I went there to see the ‘Cut & Run’ exhibition. I started painting and was immeditately hooked. It was an amazing moment for Glasgow and all of us frankly. View a collection of my paintings of Glasgow.
