It looks like chewing gum artist, Ben Wilson, may have been on the Isle of Wight recently.
One eagle-eyed VB reader has called to say that he’s just found a piece of chewing gum art in Ventnor which has the hallmarks of a Ben Wilson.
If you haven’t heard of Ben Wilson before, he’s well known for creating colourful pieces of art from chewing gum, which he works on in-situ.
He’s created over 10,000 pieces of work across the UK and mainland Europe in the last ten+ years and it looks like he may have paid the Island a visit recently.
Found, lost, found
Our source, who wishes to remain anonymous, told us that he initially spotted the chewing gum art whilst running to the parking ticket machine to grab a ticket for his car. After safely depositing the ticket on his dashboard, he went back to try and find the artwork, but struggled for a good five minutes before re-spotting it.
Some of Ben’s artwork can take up to ten hours to produce. He firstly heats up the chewing-gum with a blow torch, then uses special lacquer to harden it before applying acrylic paint.
We can’t think of a better place to lie on the pavement creating a masterpiece than the lovely sunny Ventnor and judging by the work he left behind, he (if it really is a Ben Wilson) certainly thought the same of Ventnor.
So, perhaps it’s not just Banksy who loves to leave his mark on the Isle of Wight.
See Ben in action in BBC video
The BBC made a short documentary about Ben last year, pop over to their Website to watch the video which shows him at work on the streets of London.
Update 17:15
London gallery show this week
We’ve just had a chat with Vivienne Roberts who’s organising a gallery exhibition for Ben’s work runnning in London’s Piccadilly this week.
She told us that Ben started doing canvas in 2008, but there are very few of them – 17 in total – all of which are in the show for purchase.
He’s also arranged a art tour near the gallery – of painted chewing gum on the pavements of the area, naturally.
