Street art gallery

SPANISH artists worked colourful magic in the streets of Benigembla providing the village with a stunning open- air art gallery.

The five painters worked over four days to create the giant murals on the walls of buildings – commissions by the town hall in the third successive year of its ‘ graffiti’ project.

And the artists even had time to leave a sixth ‘ free’ picture, a dramatic owl staring across fields into the village.

Until this year, the painting was part of Benigembla’s annual culture week, but the festival was put on hold because of the Covid- 19 pandemic and instead the artists went to work at the end of last month.

CBN was invited to inspect the finished product by deputy mayor Trini Torres and councillors Herminia Mengual and Jenny Hart – pictured in front of one of the huge artworks - who said next year will probably see the final act of ‘ graffiti’ – one of the challenges is finding suitable walls for the murals.

Entering the village from Parcent, it is difficult to miss the 3D effect hand offering keys of welcome and a bunch of olives – a key crop in the surrounding fields. Travel south and approach from Castel de Castells and on the side of the Bon Aire bar there is a honeycomb and bees.

Jenny Hart, who is proud of the butterfly painted on the end of her home, said all five artists were well known in Spain. “It is not graffiti despite the name of the project, this is ‘ wall art’ by some talented painters.

“It has again caused quite a buzz in the village, everyone is talking about it and the kids have been out watching the artists at work and cars have stopped as people take a look; it is a real talking point.”

The council pays the artists and provides the necessary scaffolding and ‘ cherrypicker’ for them to be able to complete the pictures – each a pre- designed ‘ painting by numbers’ work of art.