Carmarthenshire News Online visited Newcastle Emlyn today where we met with street artist Jenks Art.
Jenks was busy working on a new mural for the town centre and had already finished the first part featuring Newcastle Emlyn’s Castle and a Welsh Dragon
Jenks said: “I was contracted by Carmarthenshire County Council to do 10 murals around Carmarthenshire in each of the 10 towns project.”
Jenks told us: “This is the 8th one that I’ve done.I have Llanybydder and Llandovery. The one planned for Llandovery is on a listed building, so there’s a bit of red tape around that one. I’ve never painted on a listed building and I never thought I would to be honest.”
We asked JenksArt about one of the most famous murals he’d painted of former BBC presenter Huw Edwards. We were curious to know if he had erased it by choice.
He told us: “I did, yes. There was a project to do [the] underpass in Llanelli and it was in Llangenech. Of course he was probably the most famous [person] from Llangenech. So I made the decision to paint his portrait on there and everybody was chuffed at the time. But then the news broke and yeah, it’s been painted over since.”
We asked JenksArt about his graffiti art style and whether he had encountered many people with negative views about ‘graffitiing’ buildings.
He replied: “Not many these days. When I first started out, I used to mark the wall up. The wall looks a bit of a mess when I first started. I used to mark the wall up and I used to have the occasional old lady with a shopping trolley walking past giving me evils. But nowadays, no, the opinion of it has changed slightly over the last few years.”
We asked JenksArt about the preparations that go into the murals before painting them such as whether the area has to be flat and if it had to be prepared beforehand.
He told us: “Yes, this one’s been prepped by Carmarthenshire County Council for me. It doesn’t necessarily have to be flat. I do sort of pebble dash walls and all sorts of things, but you lose the amount of detail.”
We asked JenksArt which mural was his favourite to date.
He responded: “That’s a good question. I don’t think I’ve got one. Each one I try to do, I try to make better than the last one.”
His murals often reflect the attractions, history and the culture of Carmarthenshire especially events and contemporary issues like the murals commemorating people like Phil Bennett, Steadman Davies, and the NHS mural in Llanelli. We asked him if he chose those mural ideas himself.
He answered: Yes, pretty much. Especially Steadman, he was a very close friend of the family.”
We asked Jenks if he ever needed to revisit and touch up his murals.
He said: “Not really, but the one of Steadman in Llanelli, I constantly go over. It’s such a public spot. There’s a Warren Gatland piece there at the moment.”
We asked JenksArt if he works off of photographs and if he gets to choose those images or if they’re chosen for him.
He said: Quite often it’s left up to me. Ideas will get thrown at me, and then I’ll go searching online for images that I think will work together on the wall space that we have.”
We asked JenksArt what type of paint he uses for his murals.
He said: “It’s acrylic paint, which is then varnished over afterwards to stop the UV fading.”
We left Jenks to continue working on his mural. Many people passing by expressed positivity about the mural saying that it would brighten up that area of the town when finished. People both young and old stopped to admire his work and to take photos.
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