Paul Curtis Artwork Year Review 2024

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.