📢 We need your help, please forward to businesses that would potentially like to own this artwork
👨🎨 My large mural, "Two Dockers" at Woodside Ferry Terminal in Birkenhead has kindly been saved from the demolition / scrap yard by Demolition Technical Services Ltd.
🙏 The owner (Tony Taperell) is kindly offering the artwork to anyone who can house them. Pete Price is helping with the search for a new home for these lads. We are inviting businesses / individuals to come forward and bid for this unique historical work. The bid money will be donated to Claire House Children's Hospice.
✉️ If you think you can help, please message me or email Pete@peteprice.com
Why is this painting being offered to you: The reason this piece needs a new home is because Woodside Ferry Terminal is under going major building work. The physical artwork has been saved by Technical Demolition Services Ltd. Pete Price and myself are now looking for, and hoping we can find a business that would like to own this unique mural.
What will this cost us?: Technical Demolition Services Ltd are kindly offering to transport the piece, free of charge, on your behalf! They are asking for a donation to be made to Claire House Children's Hospice in return for this service and you becoming owner of the piece.
How will your company benefit?: Not only will you get to own this artwork, but this is also a great opportunity for some really positive press for your company. It will make a great story and will give your company a strong link to local identity and history. And furthermore, you will have a unique centre piece of history that is well-loved and will be a major highlight for visitors.
This is a well loved piece - I sell many prints of it. People in Merseyside have close ties to the docks and the river. Many people love the piece as it evokes personal memories of their father / grandfather / uncle etc. More generally, it also brings back memories of everyday life along the River Mersey: the industry and characters that were once an everyday scene. If you take a look at some of the comments on social media regarding saving this artwork, you will see that the public really want a new home to be found!
The hard facts: The mural is painted onto metal panels approx 1/2 inch thick. At the moment it is on a frame of metal H-bars which can be included with the installation. There is a curved top, but it may be possible to trim this down if it causes issues. The dimensions are approximately 6m wide by 3.5m high. It can be installed indoors or outdoors. I will help with any repairs to the painting, but it must be stressed that it remains in great condition.
If you want it: The best thing to do is email pete@peteprice.com and let him know you are interested. I too can be contacted on email replies here. I can supply more photos and info if needed.
Thank you: Thanks for taking the time to read this email. We really hope you can help house this piece and at the same time, help out the children at Claire's House. If you aren't able to become the new owner, perhaps you know others that this may be of interest to. If so, please forward on this info - any help is much appreciated-
About Claire House
Claire House Children’s Hospice helps seriously and terminally ill babies, children and young adults live life to the full by creating wonderful experiences and bringing back a sense of normality to family life.
By providing specialist nursing care and emotional support Claire House helps families smile again when life couldn’t get any tougher.
Offering care whenever and wherever it’s needed, the hospice provides various therapies, day care, short breaks, counselling and end of life care. Claire House offers parents some desperately needed time off with the peace of mind that their children are being well looked after. The hospice provides someone to talk to and specialist counselling and family support. Families also get a chance to get to know each other and meet with other people going through similar experiences through days out, experiences and support groups.
We have two sites, a full hospice on the Wirral and a second site in West Derby, Liverpool, offering day-care, complementary therapies, clinics, play and music sessions, and counselling.
Every year I make a video of all the street art, murals and other artwork which I have created over the last 12 months.
So this here is a year review of Paul Curtis' work in 2024. This year's tally was:
10 Outdoor murals
13 Interior murals
6 Canvases
1 Exhibition
1 Movie
2 Marathons (Manchester and Vienna)
For Paul Curtis Artwork, 2024 was a little different to previous years as it was dominated by Liverpool’s first ever street art exhibition, In One Place. There were more canvases than usual, 5 of which were given away by Paul to raise money for good causes. The street art highlight was the huge KJT mural that now dominates Dale Street in Liverpool.
The year kicked off with some indoor murals that allowed for some shelter from the January weather! Working at Anfield Primary School has almost become a January ritual for Paul. This time he painted 2 murals based on a variety of children’s books. However, he returned to cold to work at Salt and Tar in Bootle. In the snow and ice, and battling a bad cold, Paul painted a huge street art piece celebrating the band, Red Rum Club. The mural dominates the event site and will be a permanent reminder of their inaugural gig there.
All these murals were painted whilst Paul was working hard behind the scenes to plan a street art exhibition. In February, the “In One Place” exhibition was launched at The Royal Liver Building. This was the first ever street art exhibition in Liverpool and focussed entirely on Paul’s work. It was a great success and was extended twice. In 3 weeks, over 8000 visitors attended the exhibition and £4360 was raised for Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and The Whitechapel Centre in Liverpool. Huge thanks to Laura McCann and CBRE that were instrumental in making the exhibition happen.
After the exhibition, Paul worked on four large Beatles portraits but with a twist in that the Beatles were depicted as astronauts. John Paul George and Ringo can be found at the Latham Hall in Seaforth, Liverpool. The Beatles actually played 11 times here and it is said that the fight which ultimately led to Stuart Sutcliffe’s tragic death occurred here.
In April Paul worked with the Birkdale Civic Society on large mural at Birkdale station. This mural celebrates Southport history and nature, in particular the Southport Beach shrimpers and RedRum, who used to train on Southport beach. One of the shrimpers on the artwork, is actually a self-portrait (the first he ever painted). April also saw him take part Manchester and Vienna marathons.
In May, Paul began work on two murals in his local curry house, Spice City. The murals were of two Indian girls dancing in front of the Taj Mahal. Paul would return to Spice City later this year to complete a centre piece mural called the Elephant Parade.
June saw a major piece of street art - the largest in Liverpool City Centre. The mural was of KJT (Katarina Johnson-Thompson) who was deep in training for the Paris Olympics. This was part of a developing collaboration between Paul and KJT. British Gas backed the mural (they are a sponsor of team GB) and Katarina herself took time out of her busy training schedule to unveil the street art. It now dominates the entrance to the Mersey Tunnel. KJT went on to take a close silver in the Heptathlon, and the mural would be awarded Artwork of the Year by Mersey Civic Society.
In July, Paul painted his first artwork in Prescot Village. This artwork, a ship sailing through a clock face, represented Prescot's historic links with sail-making, clock-making and a nod to the clock tower in Prescot which was used for navigation by sailing ships on the River Mersey.
Paul also started work on a floral mural at Victoria Park in Southport to coincide with 100 years of their Southport Flower Show. He would also be a feature of the actual show, doing a live-painting of three large canvases for The 79th Group. These paintings were given away to 3 lucky winners in a competition.
In September, Paul began series of three murals celebrating local Liverpool sports people. These artworks at Liverpool Chiropractic Clinic were of Steven Gerrard, KJT and ex-Everton captain, Tony Duggan.
Paul hard time for one more large artwork before a well-earned holiday in Vietnam. This artwork saw him return to Southport to paint Steve McQueen at David Myers optician. Steve joined one of Paul's earlier murals, namely Audrey Hepburn, which Paul had painted in 2019.
Better late than never...
You'll have seen on Paul's socials that he has been busy as usual, specifically painting his 250th mural (check it out here: my latest mural). However, for three magical weeks in February 2024, he had his very own exhibition, hosted by The Royal Liver Building.
Thank you so much to everyone who attended the press launch evening and the exhibition throughout its time being open. It was really busy but we got it over the line with minutes to spare, thanks in no small part to the hard work of @lauramccannphotos. During the 3 weeks, over 8,000 visitors came to wander around Liverpool's very first street art exhibition and to chat to Paul in person.
There was live painting over the 3 weeks. Paul created a mural that will now be permanently on display to the public in The Liver Building. The artwork is inspired by a visit to the Liver Building archives, which recorded the construction of the landmark. The painting is dedicated to the unsung heroes - the men who built it with their own hands.
As well as the overwhelming number of visitors, there were art classes led by Paul for both children and adults. It was Paul's first time running a class and he was amazed by the level of art talent amongst the students, Paul's Heart Hands Peace mural was the subject and the participants were more than up to the task. Thank you to all the attendees, it was lovely to meet you all and I hope you're happy with your masterpieces.
Along with everything else on offer at the exhibition, Paul painted two canvas murals during the exhibition (the Tiger and the Gorilla). One was offered in a raffle and the other was auctioned (courtesy of Adam Partridge Auctioneers) with every single penny raised going to charity. An impressive £4360 was donated to Alderhey Children's Charity and Whitechapel Centre. Thank you again to everyone who bought tickets and took part in the auction, Paul is really proud of what was achieved for two local & important charities.
Thank you to ITV and Andy Bonner for coming to interview Paul about the exhibition in the run. You can watch the interview here: ITV interview
Thanks to the Liverpool Echo, Danny Haygarth and Colin Lane for the great coverage of the exhibition.
You can read the article here.
Thanks again to everyone who attended. Thanks especially to the Liver Building for being the perfect hosts and really supporting the whole event from start to finish. Will there be another one? There definitely will be but not for a while yet. What's seldom is special, but more honestly, an exhibition is a hell of a lot of work! :)
Special thanks to:
Ian and Laura for their patience and mucking in to help- Royal Liver Building
Scruffy Murphy's for the bar
Royal Liver Suite for the canapes
Claire Bryan of Radio Merseyside for hosting the Q&A
Anyone we may have forgotten, please let me know if I have - it's a pure oversight and apologies for this in advance!
