If you travel through upper Ventnor regularly, you’ll be familiar with the ever changing murals on side of a house on the corner of York Road and Newport Road.
The owner, Anne has been painting murals on her wall for many years, they are always topical and always expertly executed. Since the celebration mural of the Ventnor Railway Station, the wall has been blank for some time.
We’ve all been waiting eagerly to see what the theme will be this time round, and it is of course, The Isle of Wight Music Festival. This year, Anne has focused her attention on two old rockers, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and painted brilliant caricatures of them on a huge scale.
The artwork has raised some controversy though, with one neighbour, ‘Harry’, emailing Alex ‘Big Al’ Dyke’s radio programme yesterday slamming the mural. He claims that it brings the area down and affects the value of surrounding properties. One other person wrote in to complain, but there were tons who called and wrote in offering support for what Anne does.
This recent mural (yes David ‘Doc’ Holmes, the word is ‘mural’ not Muriel) only took Anne two days to complete. They never stay up for too long, so if you haven’t seen it yet, get yourselves over to upper Ventnor and take a butchers in person.
