The SeaSpace coastal mural
A huge coastal street art mural has appeared at SeaSpace over the weekend. We talked to the man behind the brush, local contemporary artist, creative ambassador and all-around community legend Phil Strugnell.
Space to... get creative
As the paint flowed and our huge coastal street art mural took shape, we talked to the man behind the brush, local contemporary artist, creative ambassador and all-around community legend Phil Strugnell.
Eager to tap into the local art scene for the first time in what we hope will be a buzzing series of SeaSpace art projects, one name that kept coming up.
“Whether it's visual arts, dance, or music, I’m just a real advocate for the arts,” says Phil Strugnell, artist, Porth resident and Head of Art at Newquay Tretherras secondary school. “It’s not just about what the arts bring to people’s lives through wellbeing, but also how they strengthen our culture and community.”
“I’m really excited about this commission,” he says of the chance to bring his creativity to the side of SeaSpace’s main building. "There have been about 20 variations of the design until getting to the final image, and now the main challenge is to get it all onto this 11 x 8-metre wall.” The conditions were challenging. Up a high rig of scaffolding, Phil and his steady-handed assistant, John Bevan, worked for close to 100 hours to create the piece.
Meet Phil
Creative champion
Since moving to Newquay over 13 years ago—with most of that time spent living just down the road here in Porth— Phil has championed creativity in all its forms, putting on community art exhibitions, hosting radio shows, and inspiring others to channel their talents both inside and outside of the classroom.
“I’ve organised exhibitions at the Lighthouse Cinema called Art8, with up to 130 students from Newquay Tretherras exhibiting. I also love working closely with local artists and photographers, and I recently finished a project with ALMA art space and their Newquay Monolith project, where I worked closely with artist Robin Sullivan.
As one of the migrating artists who obeyed the call to Cornish shores, he’s excited about the vibrant artistic and creative networks that are bubbling and building in the heart of Newquay, “There are about four or five large co-working spaces that have built up in the last few years,” continues Phil. Now people have that opportunity to move down here and work within the creative industries from a desk.”
But it’s the big skies and wide open spaces of Porth that really fire his artistic spirit. “I live here, I work here, my local surf beaches are right here, and my mum’s ashes are scattered on Porth Island. You’re not right in the middle of the town and the frenzy of Newquay, you’re out on a little leg. It’s a much calmer, place to be, with more of a laid-back feel.”
“It’s a much calmer, place to be, with more of a laid-back feel.”
It’s a love of place that’s apparent in his striking artwork splashed across the side of SeaSpace. As an iconic landmark on Porth cliffs, the building has long drawn the eyes of passing drivers and walkers, a waymarker on the north cornish coast between Watergate Bay and Newquay. “It’s such an iconic building locally and has always been a bright pop of colour against the sky, so I wanted to do that justice, while reimagining it for what SeaSpace is set to be. I’m stoked with the result.”
