AN ART and Design lecturer from West Cheshire College has spent his summer holidays working as a pavement artist in Chester to get more people interested in art.
Ian Prewitt joined other artists from around the north west to create art on the streets in a bid to get the public talking about art.
He said: “The idea of creating and exhibiting art in unusual places is a central theme of my current work.
“Creating art in the middle of the busy city centre means lots of people have the chance to see your work.
“Musicians, actors and dancers do a performance and get immediate feedback. As an artist it is harder to get any feedback even if your work is displayed in a gallery. I wanted to address this issue by taking art to the people.”
Ian created modern day pieces by drawing stylised images of people against a heavily decorated background. He used a range of materials, including paint,Šinks, chalks, pastels, charcoal and even diluted coffee.
Ian added: “When I was doing this project I had a lot of people stopping to ask what I was doing and some people even asked if they could join in. It has been a fantastic success and the response from the public has been very positive.”
His spell as a pavement artist became such a talking point with people that Chester’s Forum Shopping Centre is currently exhibiting his work until the end of November.
Ian, a lecturer for the college’s BTEC first diploma in art and design, is currently planning his next art project titled The New Generation.
The programme aims to use art as a way to engage and give a voice to new students.
Students will be asked to have their photograph taken before making a positive comment about their experience of college.
The photographs and comments will then be installed in the Rotunda of the college’s new Ellesmere Port Campus.
