UK’s First Colourscape Painting
What does 700 litres of water based paint, two international artists, 500 brushes, 50 paint rollers, 30 local people, 10 days and two cement mixers make?
Visitors to this year’s SO Festival will get the chance to find out when world-renowned artist, Ra Kajol, will create the UK premiere of his outdoor colourscape painting, Traffic Art, on to the streets of Skegness this summer.
The SO Festival organisers have commissioned the transformation of the Tower Esplanade pavements, starting at the Clock Tower and running down to the RNLI Lifeboat Station. The paintings will feature local history, creative ideas from local people, as well as popular Skegness images and famous icons.
Ra Kajol, a Bangladeshi international artist who lives and works in Denmark will be joined by his artist assistant Uttam Karmaker to create Traffic Art. Over the last 10 years they have created unique visual artworks at major international arts festivals and events. Kajol is currently painting a new work in Mexico before coming to the SO Festival 2010 in Skegness to start work.
[phpbay]Art watercolours, 1[/phpbay]
The Traffic Art installation will begin on 12th July and will be painted over a period of 10 days leading up to the launch of the festival on 22nd July. Kajol and his assistant will also invite local residents and holidaymakers visiting the seaside town to participate in the creation of this huge 4,000 square metre street artwork.
Incorporating this year’s SO Festival Colour and Light theme, the finished artwork will be the opening event for the festival on Thursday 22nd July and will remain open 24 hours a day for the duration of the festival and will be free to view and walk over.
The idea to incorporate this into the SO Festival was developed by East Lindsey District Council following the SEAS Festival in 2009, when a relationship with Helsingborg Festival in Sweden was formed. Kajol had previously created similar Traffic Art works in Helsingborg and this summer he will be painting a new creation by painting a 500m stretch of roadway through the Swedish city for the Festival.
We welcome people of all ages to take part in the Traffic Art painting project and anyone under the age of 16 who wishes to take part must be accompanied by a responsible adult aged 18 or older. Come and join in creating this unique street painting and bring your camera phone to capture all the action.
