​I was back in my adopted hometown of Southsea on Saturday 9th February at the Spray for your Soul event. This was a small paint jam hosted by Staggering Good Brewery at their new bar the House of Rapture. This venue is amazing and I highly recommend you go visit. Set in the heart of an industrial estate from the outside it looks like any regular work unit until you spot the neon purple cross hanging above the door which is a small hint on what to expect when you go inside. The entire venue has been fitted with reclaimed materials from a church with pews for seating, full size stained glass windows throwing the warmest light across a smattering of Dinosaur heads and giant crosses. You have to see it to believe it, hats off to the owners for doing such an amazing job and being such gracious hosts. Also big thanks to Samo at Play Dead for inviting me along to paint with him, M-One, Winniemmay and Syrup.

​Check out the photos courtesy of Make Light Work and if you like what you see all the artists Insta links are down the bottom.

As you can see the venue was dark with just a small heater above me providing my only source of light. This added to the mood of the place but presented a challenge for an artist painting a mural. Luckily I had Mike on hand from Make Light Work who kindly set up a battery powered LED light to help me see what I was doing. So cool that some people just have these things lying in their car.

Although you might not be able to tell from the photo I was pretty happy with how my piece looked. The geometric pattern in the background looked good in different shades of grey and the custom korpworm, now know as korposaurus, popped out nicely. All done with stencils and spray paints.

In 2012 Blok Collective organised for several Peterborough based artists to participate in the Brooklyn based Sketchbook Project which is home to the largest collection of sketchbooks in the world. The Sketchbook Project began in 2006 in Atlanta, GA and moved to New York City in 2009. Since that time they have grown into a worldwide community of more than 70,000 artists. By focusing on the intersection of hands-on art making and new technology, The Sketchbook Project nurtures community-supported art projects that harness the power of the virtual world to share inspiration in the real world. The Brooklyn Art Library is the storefront exhibition space in the heart of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY where The Sketchbook Project collection is on view to the public* and every now and then I get an email to say that somebody has checked out my book.

My chosen theme was "the writing on the wall" and was biographical in nature. It dealt with the inevitably of who I would become so I delved into childhood nightmares, teachers that shaped me, isolation and religion for my inspiration. There is an album on my Facebook page that has some great photos of my book taken by a local tog but there is only one place you can see the complete finished book and that is on the Sketchbook Project website.

The book is special to me because it is still a source of inspiration for my current work. It was the first (and second) place that I drew my worms, it uses my preferred media of stencil, spray cans and marker pens as well as my favoured colour combinations. Anyway, check it out by hitting the big red button above and be sure to let me know what you think.

View the other Blok Collective sketchooks below:

It's like Free Art Friday but not as catchy or popular. I'm going to give away my "Pie in the Sky" bottle. There are no rules you just need to do something to make me realise you want it.