AN ART and design lecturer from West Cheshire College spent his summer holiday working as a pavement artist in a bid to encourage people to get creative.
Ian Prewitt joined other artists from across the North West to produce art on the streets of Chester in a bid to get the public talking about art.
He said: 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, inks, 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 exhibiting his work until the end of November.
Ian, a lecturer for the college’s BTEC first diploma in art and design, is working on his next art project, titled The New Generation.
Students will be asked to have their photograph taken before making a positive comment about their experience of college.
The pictures and comments will be installed in the rotunda of the college’s new Ellesmere Port campus.
