From the printed page to the walls of Bangor
By Gabrielle Swan
BANGOR is on its way to become a city of art and famous faces, as a mural of literary giant, Colin Bateman, was unveiled on Monday.
The piece was completed on September 9 by talented city street artist, Johnny Hamilton, also known as Jossiepops.
The piece was a five-day labour of love for the city-based artist, who vows to increase tourism to the city by covering bare walls with fantastic black and white portrait pieces.
A particularly Bangor-themed piece, with a Bangor subject painted by a Bangor artist, the reference image was taken by one of the city’s own, Gerry Coe.
The local photographer, like his painter counterpart, is also known for his preference for monochrome pieces.
In the past, Gerry has captured other famous faces such as Olympic legend Mary Peters, former President of Ireland Mary Robinson and artist Basil Blackshaw, among many more.
Jossiepops recalls one surreal experience of meeting the subject of his mural, coming face to face with the very man he was painting.
“During the painting of it, Colin Bateman nipped down briefly,” said the local artist. “It was quite a surreal moment, because I was looking at his face on the iPad and I was painting his face on the wall. Then, I turn around and there is Colin standing beside me.
“He was a really friendly, lovely guy, he is such a humble nice man. He came down when he was getting photos with the Ulster Tatler. He also signed the wall for me.”
In the past, Jossiepops has graced Bangor’s walls with a series of famous faces. Liam Neeson, Foy Vance, Gary Lightbody can also be seen about the city, along with the famous author.
“I am on a mission to make Bangor great again, as cliché as that sounds, by sticking up artwork about the place.
“Everybody wanted a local person this time, because Liam Nesson is from Ballymena, though the Ballymena idea was to get people from there down to Bangor, to increase footfall in the city.
“I set up a GoFundMe page to help ‘make Bangor great again’, as such. So people would pay into that, so when it got to a number that I could work with [to cover the cost], then I would stick up a mural for them.
“I was looking through Gerry’s images and saw a really good black and white portrait of Colin.
“I love his work, he is the same as me, but he is a photographer, and that is my forte, black and white portraits. His image was absolutely perfect.
“I got in touch with him to see if he would be game for me using it, so we could have a triple threat. The subject of the matter is Bangor, the photographer is from Bangor and the artist, me, is from Bangor.
“In the original photo, the books stacked up in front of him. I wanted to give Colin more context, because he is mostly behind the camera directing and producing and writing. So, all of his books are there with ‘Bateman’ written on it,” added the local street artist.
Commenting on his vast portfolio of work throughout the years is the photographer himself, Gerry.
“I have been photographing local personalities for over 40 years, I have a whole range of them. Colin was one of the people I wanted to photograph, so I got in touch with him,” said Gerry.
“Johnny has done a superb job with the mural. It came out really brilliantly. I took that picture last year. The original photograph has the books in front of him, not to the side of him the way Johnny has them.”
The creation of the mural, located near the vacant Flagship Shopping Centre, comes shortly after the September 2 premier of Colin Bateman’s new four-part psychological thriller on BBC One, Dead and Buried.
Also premiering on this date was a special feature about the local author’s early career, where the former County Down Spectator Deputy Editor returned to the office where he started his early writing career at 16.
For this special feature, he was quizzed by TV presenter and Strictly Come Dancing star, Angela Rippon.
