Made in Pillgwenlly

I was commissioned by Pobl to paint a mural on this wall on Commercial Road in Pill.
It’s on the site of the old bridge and crossing which you can see in the old photos below.
Lots of people stopped to chat and had input into the design.

A guy called Terry Brock was my main source of inspiration. He was sat on a bench there on my second day painting and we started chatting. It turned out that he’d spent his working life on the trains in Newport. He had a wealth of stories and info which shaped the design. He popped by most days to check on my progress and tell me more stories.

It’s quite a weird thing to paint a massive picture in someone’s neighborhood, and I’m always wary of just making a big bloody eyesore for somebody. I know it’s always going to piss a few people off! There was a real mixed bag of comments as I was painting the mural: dismissive, insulting, bemused, complimentary, amazed etc.

When it was shared to facebook, the reception was pretty positive, which was a relief.

---