Main Outside Studio Building Works

Work is on going on the front of the studio as 20 years of weather have taken the toll. New windows, fascia board and blasting what was left of the painted surface is taking place. Underneath beautiful stone, light grey from Trawsfynydd and pointing in good condition. Today top coat of Atlantic Surf 1 put onto the two main doors. The colour is actually a hybrid mixed by Robinsons Bangor, a never to repeated blue.

New artworks in perspex and vinyl

Two large new perspex based works are in progress for bangor Creadigol installation later this year. To compliment earlier works shown in Kansas City Missouri, the new works are ever more demanding compositions capitalising on the process driven, linear aspect.

Review of Splott Bridge Artwork

The artwork on Splott Bridge is holding up remarkably well. Wales Online Review not traceable.

Digital Sketchbook 1: Shape and Surface

Splott Railway Bridge South West Side Completed

The fence came down 19 April at 1pm, so the bridge is now complete. The South West side, last to be painted, looks excellent. The dominant yellow appears strong in area and weight. The gold ochre has worked really well in threading the design together. Overall, the design seems to move along the pavement, the side of the road with style and ease. The two sides of the bridge are far away from each other to be distinct yet there is an awareness of the other side; the concept was that there would be a dialogue between the two sides of the bridge. This has been successful and the change in scale from artwork to design has led to the actual painted bridge far exceeding the idea. It is an absolutely superb outcome. Click on the title above for full photograph portfolio and below for the north east side.

Splott Railway Bridge North East Side Completed

On 16th march the north east side of the bridge was completed and the wire fence removed. Click on the title above to view further photographs of the 33 metre artwork.

Splott Bridge Artwork Painting In Progress

On 1st and 5 March I drew the design onto the bridge using chalk and black pen; large scale drawing and the painting of the North east Side had started on Friday. Painters Andrew and Paul painting the Blue sections to the North East side

Splott Railway Bridge Cardiff Artwork Final Designs

"A bare wall is a 'dead, anonymous surface'. It will come alive only with the help of objects and colour. They can give life to the wall or destroy it. A stained, coloured wall becomes a living object" Fernand Leger, On Monumentality and Colour.


Dear Mr. Smith,

I am a student of the Journalism school at the Cardiff University. As a part of an assignment, I am doing a story on the repainting of the Splott bridge. I'd request you to answer a few questions for the story:

1. What's the idea behind the design?

2. Which of the two are your favourite?

3. How do you think the repainting of the bridge will affect the residents of Adamsdown and Splott?

I's be grateful if you could answer these questions as they are indispensable for the story.

Thanking You,

Yours Sincerely,
Shruti Tripathi

Dear Shruti,

Thank you for your email. Here are responses to your questions:

1. The idea behind the bridge designs is to create a dynamic colour composition using shapes and forms gathered from the buildings, streets and places around the neighbourhood of Splott. The designs and colour schemes are named after streets in the vicinity of the bridge. The shapes came from features of buildings and small details that are abstracted and altered in scale. For example, a small pipe can become a large tube form.

On the colour choice, some came from pure observation. For example the golden ochre (in both designs) came from the victorian decorative tiles in many of the doorways around splott and the naples yellow from the horizontal brick work of the end of terraces (the bands in habershon also came from this). The other brickwork including a photo from the willows school of a pub end wall and rusty pipes at the steelworks informed the reds, and there is a fair amount of painted blue around the steelworks... But above all, of course, final colour was chosen for interaction, contrast and design needs.

2. I would have to go with Constellation as a personal favourite as it is the most dramatic of the two and the bright yellow perhaps will lift the south west side of the bridge that does not get so much sun.

3. I hope it will brighten that end of Splott Road for everyone that walks, drives and passes by into and out of Splott and Adamsdown.

Splott Railway Bridge Artwork Design Commission Cardiff

The commission is to produce two artwork designs for Splott Railway Bridge in Cardiff. At over 33m in length and over 2m in height this large scale exterior artwork presents tremendous opportunity. Working with local schools and the community two designs for each side will be produced to be chosen at a public consultation event. The Willows High School have kick started the project by carrying out a photographic project looking for shape and form in the townscape around Splott. Click on the title above to view the selected photographs from over 540 submitted. See here for my own research photographs.