Concrete Canvas 2022: Bethan painted on one of the Openreach cabinets for the first year of the festival. Her design depicts a lot of the events that occur throughout the year in Central Park, Chelmsford.

Concrete Canvas 2023: All of the designs created for the CCTV bases were informed by information provided by the Community Safety Team. It is fascinating to see how 6 artists with the same brief have taken their artwork in different directions.

Artists Profile: Bethan Coutinho has been working in Chelmsford for the last 7 years on both community projects and private work. She specialises is portraiture but is often found practising her abstract and landscape when she can. Her signature style of jewel colours and painterly realism results in engaging, lively images.

Concrete Canvas 2023: Benzi created two 8ft x 8ft portraits of local legends during the street party. His portrait of Keith Flint from the Prodigy is now in Intense Records on Viaduct Road. His portrait of Suzi Quattro was given to her as a gift.

Artists Profile: Benzi Brofman is an Israel based muralist / street artist. Brofman is a self-taught artist. He never studied art formally and made his way into the world of wall paintings independently. Today, he designs walls for a wide variety of businesses in Israel and leaves his mark in other cities around the world. Alongside his business work, Brofman takes part in voluntary and community projects to promote social issues. Brofman's preferred art style is creating realistic portraits in black and white with touches of colour.

Concrete Canvas 2022: Brave was paired with the Sea Cadets and was inspired by their comment that there are no famous people from Chelmsford. Scotty did some research created his mural to show that there are loads of famous across a broad range of fields. He chose to create a portrait of Grayson Perry to reflect this and hopefully give young people inspiration to find out more about local talent and local famous people. His work from 2022 can be seen on County Hotel and Young Peoples workshop on Chelmsford Market. Brave also created an 8ft x 8ft glitch portrait during the street party.

Concrete Canvas 2023: Brave is a prolific street artist who’s most famous for his multi eyed tigers and his glitch portraits. This piece from 2023 is an excellent example of his glitch portraits. Brave also created an 8ft x 8ft glitch portrait during the street party.

Artists Profile: Scotty specialises in spray-can-art. Often referred to as a street artist or graffiti artist, His work is often large mural sized pieces. A pioneer of the street art workshops He’s been active & involved in creating working partnerships within education & business for 20 years. “In the pursuit of creating the perfect piece of graffiti art, Scotty pushed the boundaries of spray-painting techniques. Learning & excelling at learning the alternative, was important to me. Teaching ourselves to paint with spray paint when we were kids, was the beginning of our journey, this is Graffiti futurism."

British interiors brand where Lisa Brennan's fantastical, colourful illustrations and hand-drawn characters decorate wallpaper, rugs and art prints. Her strong and thought provoking style is timeless, recognisable and unites everything Brennan & Burch creates. In a crowded market you can rely on Brennan & Burch to design bold interiors with a quirky edge that are sometime odd but never dull. Each design will be a talking point.Description goes here

Caroline is a colourful minimalist illustrator. Her architecture degree led me to her passion: illustration. In 2020 she dreamt of the name “lines on the moon” and a year later started sharing work online, launched a design studio and online shop.

Daisy has been creating work using type and date stamps for nearly 15 years, she developed this method during her Fine Art degree at Colchester Institute and has since exhibited both in the UK and Australia. Daisy is a past member of the Hive Artists Studio in Chelmsford and is currently based in Bishop's Stortford, she also regularly works on portrait commissions and other bespoke pieces of work, using her unique stamping technique.

Diana Mayo is a local illustrator making pictures mostly for children’s books. She is currently working on a picture book for MacMillan US.

Elise was born in Chelmsford and raised in the Maldon area. Elise has a background in fashion design and teaching Art and is am currently co-owner of REco Store in Tiptree, an eco refill shop. After a few years creating and selling her own artwork in and around the Chelmsford area, Elise took a couple of years out to concentrate on my eco business… but now Elise is back and ready to bring her creativity to Concrete Canvas.

Essex Rockerz are a collective of local artists, originally formed in 1986. They are highly respected members of the street art scene and an integral part of the history of graffiti in Chelmsford.

Art in the environment graduate from Writtle University, Freya’s My style of art is inspired by skate graphics and graffiti.

Gnasher is an artist who has painted large scale murals for Xbox, Ford , West Ham Utd and Easyjet, amongst others. Finding Graffiti in 1985 Gnasher went on to study art and graphic design, leaving behind the world of graffiti travelling the world concentrating on Djing and graphic design…16 years later, in 2009, a friend bought a load of spray paint and invited him out for the day: graffiti was back in Gnasher’s life and he was hooked. Gnasher words ”I'm covered in spray paint, acrylic and emulsion and I wouldn't have it any other way”

Hayley is a Chelmsford-based illustrator with an MA in Children’s Book Illustration from Cambridge School of Art. Their work has been published in books worldwide and translated into several languages. When they’re not illustrating, Hayley can be found growing vegetables at their allotment or falling over on roller skates.

Hooked Heart Art started because Jen Haresnape’s Heart is Hooked on creating mixed mediums & exploring the breadth of her imagination. Always a keen artist from a young age, Jen has found that art is a great way to stay grounded & connected.

Jennifer Flint is a local freelance, artist, illustrator and owner of Original Creative Work. She studied illustration at the Universities of Lincoln and Westminster before setting up her own business as an illustration agent. Today she works as a mixed media artist and teacher. In the past few years, she has felt incredibly inspired by the local community, selling artworks of the Chelmsford area in The Art Place, working on a variety of local art projects and is passionate about bringing arts to the community.

Juliet is a mural artist, specialising in window murals. She began painting on the windows of her village pub during Covid lockdowns, as a way to brighten up neighbours’ daily walks.

Juliet works with businesses, public sector organisations and homeowners to capture their unique personalities in bespoke temporary artworks. Her hand drawn style visually disrupts spaces to draw attention and generate positive feelings for those who encounter them.

Born in Rochford England Karl is a professional street artist creating large scale art pieces both locally and internationally.Karl first got into art painting traditional graffiti in the early 90s, as an adult his focus changed from illegal graffiti to how far he could push the technical boundaries of the art form and has become world renown within graffiti culture. In the last 3 years he has used skills he has gained in graffiti and translated it into street art.

Rumours circulate that Lily isn't real, she's a gimmick, made up by Concrete Canvas organisers to lend some semblance of charm and humanity to the festival.

Getyourportaits is an urban artist working with mixed media, including spray paint, acrylic paint, paint pens and oil pastels. They are currently exploring the relationship between the abstract and the crisp stencil image portraying how they interact on the page. Getyourportraits captures both the personality of the subject as well as the artist, with the use of bright colours and patterns; often creating a juxtaposition against the background as it seeps into the foreground.

I am trained in Textiles for Fashion but a self-taught painter. Sometimes I paint still life and other times I focus on pattern. Either way, I love colour and strong contrasts and mostly aim to make things that bring me (and hopefully others) joy.

Louisa is an illustrator and print designer living in Chelmsford. She’s worked on projects for clients such as Sainsbury’s, Next and De Beers and illustrated children’s books for Usbourne & Priddy books.

Lynn is a multi-disciplinary deaf artist who runs community workshops around Essex and Suffolk. She lives in one of the parishes of Chelmsford, where she works on her own art. Lynn is co-founder of Chelmsford Creative Collective and has a keen interest in enabling Chelmsford to become a more vibrant, cultural city. Some of her work around Chelmsford has included Rain Art, The Community Piano, mencap design in Concrete Canvas, mural design for Thriftwood College and many others.

My main profession is as a face & body artist but I also take portrait & pet portrait commissions, working mainly in watercolour & coloured pencil. I've recently started painting on glass in acrylic and am basically at my happiest turning my hand to anything creative.

Essex, born and bred, I spent the 80s/90s raving in clubs across the County, this has shaped me as an artist and inspires, my love of music, fashion, and pop culture. My paintings are a mixture of familiarity, wit, anarchy and experimentation.

Thinking about conversations that might be started because of my artwork keeps me coming back to the studio every day.

Morcky is an Italian creative who lives and works in Barcelona. Raised in the graffiti world and educated in mathematics, his work has expanded to explore illustration and animation, defining an artistic path where his passion for instinctive drawings and dynamic compositions interwinds with emotional intimacy and noir atmospheres.

Tim Gresham, otherwise known as the artist ‘Mr Penfold’, works across a variety of mediums from his Bristol based studio, the city where he currently resides. The artist’s chosen fields range from explorative, abstract paintings and screen printing to bold, large scale murals and immersive installations.

My Dog Sighs has been ‘doing the unnecessary with love’ globally for the last twenty years. His glassy reflective eyes bounce narratives of love, loss, memory and place.

Nicola Osborne was involved in art education before becoming a full-time artist. She’s a mixed media artist working mainly in acrylic inks and acrylic in a semi-abstract way. Her current work draws on her practice as an Artist in Residence in a Secondary School, focusing on location and place. Nicola’s painting explores colour relationships, using layering and overlap of partially recognisable forms, both geometric and natural, to generate depth and contrast.

Artist - Musician - Producer sometimes known as Mr Frisbee.

“that’s always been my main inspiration…nature and trying to nail down the perfection of nature.”

Born and bred Chelmsfordian. Current Parish and City Councillor. Loves a bit of art as it makes the world brighter!

Sam’s a contemporary street artist called Vandal from Witham, Essex. He uses a lot of colour in his work and likes mixing it with every day life which you’ll see in his mural for Concrete Canvas!

An established artist from Westcliff-On-Sea who’s been painting and exhibiting for the past 16 years in and around Essex and London. Sharon recently participated in the first Southend City Jam, the highly successful street art festival last September.

Meet our next artist, Shelley Ings. She sometimes makes art.

Cry is not shouting for war, she only copes so/so in a Crysis, has been accused of being a Crybaby, which is far from being her only Cryme & has Cryed rivers a plenty, especially for wolves…..

Woskerski’s art integrates both reality and fantasy often depicted in vivid and vibrant colours. The choice of ironic and seemingly absurd characters often carry a relevant message. Their aim is not only to create an aesthetically pleasing experience but also to infuse the artwork with humour and irony.

Scotts work resonates with outsider and underground comic art where street and alt pop culture hang out... with a humorous twist of animist absurdity." Creative Review.
Scotts artworks feature all over the UK at festivals and events, as a muralist and painter his work echoes the punk sensibilities of urban DIY sub-culture and joy of embracing an uncertain reality.

Aspire’s work can be found down the most unlikely streets, in any corner, painted on walls, hoardings and whatever he deems to be a ‘blank canvas’. The Birdman’s work explores the silent inhabitants of the earth, placing notions of natural beauty alongside a brutal reality. His paintings, often with pixels, highlight that nature may one day be reduced to just another internet search... or a pretty picture on our phones.

A major figure of the contemporary street art movement, Shepard Fairey rose to prominence in the early 1990s with his “Andre the Giant Has a Posse” campaign. The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston has described him as one of the best known and most influential street artists. Fairey’s work, which has sold for six figures at auction, can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

DFace is an instantly recognisable and influential street artist who has painted large scale murals in most major cities in the world.

Alex Face earned his stripes as a Thai graffiti artist. His street art adorns walls in Thailand as well as other cities such as Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei, Jakarta, Oslo, Amsterdam.

His work has become a sensation of Bangkok cityscape, and he has been invited to show in many international street arts festivals such as The Rendezvous (2012, Yangon Myanmar), Moniker Art Fair (2013, London), ThaiTai Project (2013, TaipeiTaiwan) and Urban up Korea Street Art Festival (2014, Seoul South Korea), Break the Ice (2014, Bodø Norway). Additionally, in 2018, he joined the 1st Bangkok Art Biennale where he occupied the Bank of Thailand Learning Center.

Originally from Chelmsford, The London Police are set to play an integral part of Concrete Canvas. They were part of a small group of artists at the end of the last century that helped pioneer a new street art movement. After a few years of mixing travelling and making art in the street, TLP began to receive worldwide recognition for their contribution to the graffiti/street art movement.

Simon uses reclaimed skateboards to create low relief and fretwork style carvings either in the form of wall hanging pieces or smaller household items like side /coffee tables and lamps.The relationship between skateboarding and producing anything in the creative vein is very close. To start with there is the vision of what you would like to create, then there is the mental preparation, then comes the execution. Then finally there is the result.

Mike Philp is a passionate artist who grew up in Birmingham, he was heavily influenced in his early life through skateboarding and Graphic design. Mike is most interested in the combination of Mathematics and Art as a collaborative connection which naturally pushed him towards the focus of geometric pattern work. He has been tattooing since late 2009 and is creating a unique form of geometry within tattooing and design.

Neil is a senior product designer for an international manufacturing company in Witham, Essex. Neil has recently been creating posters, inspired by the local area around him and the places he loved to visit whilst growing up.