March 11, 2011 3.09 pm This story is over 156 months old

Creative busker turns to pavement art

Creative busking: Street painter Mark creates artwork on the street maintaining what he believes to be a dying art.

A creative form of busking can be found in Lincoln. Street painter Mark* creates artwork on the street maintaining what he believes to be a dying art.

Mark goes on the High Street and replicates popular works on the pavement for everyone to see: “I do it for an income and it’s not for a hobby, but I’m a painter and decorator by trade.

“I travel from town to town. I usually come out two or three days a week and try make most weekends, I use public transport so I’m not really mobile.”

Talking about how he creates his work, Mark said: “They’re copies of old masters from the Renaissance and I use pastel chalks.

“It’s always been a passion for me. I’ll usually take them to different cities and place a completed one next to one I’ll do from scratch.”

To produce a painting, it can take Mark several hours of hard work: “Usually one on the street takes me about four hours, the ones I bring with me tend to take between a day and day and half.”

Mark’s work is not very popular with the authorities, as this week he received a fine.

“For the first time in my life this week I was fined by a community police officer for £75, not for drawing on the streets but for writing the titles on the pavement.”

But Mark says street painting is not as popular as it used to be: “About 20 or 30 years ago they were quite a few street painters, but now most of them are 3D artists.”

3D art is where a street painter will create a piece of art but it will be drawn to have a three-dimensional effect as if the work is coming off the canvas.

*Name has been changed at request in order to protect his identity