day 9..........

Now before I launch into what happened today, I shall explain whats been happening since the last entry - well, not alot!

Unfortunately the other lift still hasn't been fixed, which means that we still can't paint. But now there are added complications of the weather - the colder it becomes the longer the paint takes to cure and with the imminent onslaught of christmas shoppers, well, it does not mix well. So not entirely sure when completion will be.

Anyway, back to today. Neither Alison or I had been back to the carpark since before half term and to be honest I wasn't too sure what to expect. The only damage was a piece of paint which had lifted from one of the steps (not sure how this happened but would not be surprised if the paint had not completely cured when it did).

There was no graffiti on it, which was great and the only thing was that it looks grubby, but, I reckon with the love of a steamer alot of that could be removed.

after 3 weeks of pedestrians.

The mural may look grubby but honestly it is to be expected as hundreds of people come through the carpark everyday with dirty, muddy shoes. But even in this state the stairs etc still look far better than in it's original state:

before after

Today was a press day, and unfortunately it has not been completed for the children to see (which is a real shame), despite this they seemed really pleased with what was down so far. Apart from the children, Alison, I, carpark representives and media folk there was Councillor Paul Barrington-King who is the portfolio holder for Environment and street scene. He was extremely positive about the project and said: "By getting the young people involved we can brighten up the stairwells, make them less intimidating,but most importantly this is an intelligent alternative to graffiti."

To read more of Councillor Paul Barrington-King's interview go to:

http://www.kentishtowns.com - and click on tunbridge wells.

day 8...........

A.K.A whingey wednesday or midweek madness -we did appear to have a lot more people having a moan today and the madness was to do with my brain stopping to function!

Overnight there appeared to have been no damage caused, but typically within ten minutes of us painting we recieved our first dose of ignorant adults barging their way through. As I have already mentioned the public were having many a debate between themselves about who was paying for the 'unessential maintenence', was it the reason behind the new sunday charging, how pointless it all was, how typical that only one lift was working and did this paint ever dry. But they only really seem to go on about it when we were in their sight, but no one actually had the nerve to ask us. We would not mind being asked, because the ones that have asked have then become more understanding when they have all the details especially when they find out that they are not paying for it out of their taxes!

As I wrote yesterday, today was a short painting day, we painted the last of the blue into the areas we had primed. This now leaves only a small area of yellow to be filled but it was not enough to worthy opening up a new tin.

The children were really pleased when they saw the photos of the mural so far and thought that it really brightened up the car park. After the school we went back to site for a de-brief, this was to discuss the next stage which is the lift areas. We won't be back to the mural until the week after half term, and by this time hopefully the other lift will be working too which will make the next stage an awful lot easier.

day 7..........

" I want to walk down the stairs, so I will" was roughly what the very determined lady said today as she marched through the wet paint Alison had just laid, then past me painting on the stairs. Rude is an understatement. Well I suppose we were due one as it had been fairly quiet for the last two days.

wanted - owner of footprint!

The aim for today and tomorrow is to paint in all the design on the primed landing and stairs. Luckily the paint delivery arrived just after lunch which meant today we painted in green, red and some of the blue areas.

Tomorrow is a short painting day because we are going back to the school to give the group an update. So I aim to finish off the blue in the morning so again it has plenty of time to cure.

Before we left today we did our usual routine of putting up more safety tape, Alison was determine today after the incident earlier that no one was going to get even close to the mural...

cats cradle!

day 6.......

Refreshed from the weekend I entered the car park with some trepidation - I really wasn't sure what state we were going to find the mural in. But I was pleasantly surprised, most of the safety tape etc was still in place and we only found dirty footprints, no actual damage thank goodness.

Today we couldn't actually do much because we are waiting on a delivery of paint. So I primed the remaining steps and landing and we also second coated some of the yellow. With the yellow we actually use a white grit (safety grip) instead of the black, this is because it does not show up as much in the paint which is much thinner than the other colours. The grit is also much finer and once in the paint seems to stick together more in clumps.

My only concern at this time is about painting the areas in front of the lifts, there is still only one lift working and I do not want to inconvientant the public anymore. One suggestion is to paint the areas when the lifts close at 6pm - I just hope with that that the paint will be dry enough by the morning not to ruin people's shoes.

watch this space......................................

day 5....

Continuous heavy sighing is not going to make the lift come any quicker - fact.

Due to there only being one lift working at the moment people are being inconveniance by five to ten minutes tops - now thats not long folks to be honest. Also the amount of complaints I've heard about having to walk to another staircase (which takes less than two miutes to get to) is astonishing.

We actually worked a shorter day today after the epic day yesterday, and also we wanted the paint to have longer to cure before the weekend took off ( you can walk on it after 24hrs but it doesn't actually fully dry out for a week). Again alot of positive comments, it's nice to come across people who don't moan and like to see things being brightened up. There wasn't much overnight damage either, three cones thrown off carpark and some blue footprints on the sky level. So we just cracked on with the land and sea designs.....

We did have a complaint made to the council about the project today concerning health and safety. i mention this because I wanted to state that during the lead up of the project we have worked alongside a health and safety officer and have made risk assessments.

Anyway, Thought I'd talk in some detail about the actaul process of painting the mural. As I have already said we are using epoxy paint, which is a two part part which when mixed starts to cure in 30 minutes. So after mixing the resin with the pigment we lay it on the floor as quick as possble. We don't paint huge area at a time because we also have to sprinkle on the safety grip, which is a black sandy/gritty substance. Once sprinkled we then brush over that area again to coat the grip in a layer of paint so then it is back to a solid colour again It is quite a time consuming process but has to be done so the public has a non slippery surface to walk on in the end.

It's been a hard five days but it looks great so far and I've only had to change a few things design wise as the days have gone along. Though I am looking forward to having two days off! I love the painting side but because we're doing it in the midst of general life I do tend to feel like an exhibt at a museum sometimes, especially when the public are queueing for the lift.

I will leave you for the weekend with a photo of just some of the empty tins we now have piling up.

day 4.....

So once again we ventured into unknown territory hahahahaha! But honestly today was not such a warzone, although when I arrived I was confronted with the news that just after 8pm the night before the barrier from level four had been thrown off the top of the car park just missing a car - delightful! They had walked over some of the mural too but luckily the paint had hardened enough for minimal amount of damage.

So with the barriers etc back in their rightful places we got to work - repairing some of the damage and continuing down the levels. Again, we recieved the negative comments and actually not many tried to cross the border - woohoo! The highlight did come at lunchtime when a lady 'customer' became very stroppy and decided to complain about everything we had done.

Again today we got alot covered and I think because the design is more obvious to the public now they are more understanding (well some anyway) and we have heard some really nice feedback today.

Alison and I worked later today and because of this we finshed after the lifts had been closed for the night. This meant that we were going to have to do a few trips up and down the other staircase to get all the equipment back - not something I was looking forward to to be honest, well, not until I saw..........................a trolley! Yes we loaded up the good old shopping trolley full of gear and walked it down the carpark levels. Probably not the usual sight we get in a Tunbridge Wells car park at 7 pm.

Our final job for the night was to make sure that everything was secure for the night and that it was yet again obvious to the public not to touch the stairs.

Tomorrow we will be focusing on the far part of the land level and sea stairs with any touch ups that need to be done too.

day 3...............

WHAT IS IT WITH PEOPLE?

You put up barriers, signs, cones and safety tape and yet there are complete idiots out there who think nothing of it and barge their way through and walk over the wet paint! Then when you confront them they are indifferent.......forget about the behaviour of the youth of today, I think the adults need to be taught some manners. So, because of this insane behaviour there are now a few areas on the mural that need re-touching, which in turn means that those areas will now have to stay out of bounds for longer. Well at least it will give them something to moan about.

Despite these interuptions we still got alot done today. There was no Alison today but Iain and Simon were my lackys for the day - thanks again to you both!! They also doubled up as bodyguards and didn't mind yelling at the idiots trespassing.

I only really had one problem today and that was the yellow paint. As always it is alot thinner than the other colours which meant when it was applied to the 'rise' of the stairs it did run and go very patchy. So another coat will have to be applied. The best way to actually use the yellow I found was to pour the paint out of the tin directly onto the floor and to spread it out with a brush. By doing so meant it wasn't getting spread too thinly and wasn't patchy.

Instead of going into great detail today about what was painted, I will just put up some photos so you can all compare with yesterday's. As you will see we went down onto another two levels and filled in parts of those designs.

Tomorrow I hope to finish off any touch ups on things painted the last two days, second coat yellow and get backgrounds onto sky and land. Then draw and paint in design on sky level in front of lift (which looks like being broken for a while yet and may cause me future problems) and finally some priming will need to be done because I am running out of spaces to paint!