Southend City Jam
Southend City Jam is now in its second year and is set to be one of the uk’s biggest and best street art events on the calendar. This was my second year painting the event and what a great event it turned out to be… firstly its held in my home county of Essex, it’s by the coast and held in the summer holiday the vibe for the weekend is just amazing, with so many artist traveling across the country to be there… So much creative talent all in one place.
canvas version
This year I had the pleasure of Painting a large 20 x 8ft wall erected especially for the event, right on Southends iconic pier. The busy location provided a great opportunity to stop and talk to lots of interested street art fans, this is perhaps one of my favourite things about painting live at street art festivals, not only do I get to meet other artist and fans of my work face to face I also get to listen to other peoples take on my work and what it means to them.. This constructive criticism helps me grow as an artist and develop my art practice.
I took what I had learnt from Cheltenham paint festival in regards to painting large landscape walls and applied it to the artwork painted at Southend. Hong Kong Phooy was always one of my favourite cartoon characters as a kid naturally I was keen to paint him in my style bringing him into 2023 whilst sparking a little nostalgia with passes by.
Southend City Jam is an annual street art festival that takes place annually at the end of the Summer Holidays.
The three-day celebration of street art is organised by Southend-on-Sea City Council and Southend Tourism Partnership, alongside local artists Karl Sims and Steve Hart, who have championed street art in Southend for decades.
Each year features over 100 talented local, national and international street artists, who transform a number of permanent and temporary walls around the City Centre and Seafront. From the sides of buildings, to temporary walls, no surface is safe!
Southend City Jam is only possible with our amazing sponsors, external partners, volunteers and artists. We support our local artists and aim to create a memorable event year upon year.
