Lincoln residents may have spotted some familiar faces on the High Street over the last month, as chalk drawings of comic book characters appear.
Whilst he has no art training, Mr. Joseph Finney used to be a painter-decorator. Now living on Lincoln’s streets, Mr. Finney has taken up chalk art.
Mr. Finney says he started doing the chalk art in memory of his late wife, hoping to do something special for her birthday.
“I want to show people how beautiful, and how kind she was,” he said.
Some of Mr. Finney’s art can be seen alongside messages of love addressed to his late wife.
But the artwork has found an unexpected audience for Mr. Finney, being popular with the children of Lincoln.
“They love it. One time I let them have a go with the chalk. They were drawing love hearts and one of them was really good at it. They did a Batman next to mine, and it was nearly as good as mine!” He said.
Mr. Finney says that people, especially the children, liked his Batman artwork the most.
“The most popular is Batman, the dark knight, because of the size of him. But it means I always have to keep going over to him,” he said.
On one of Lincoln’s busiest streets, he says that the various artworks require maintenance on a regular basis and are not permanent.
He bases the artwork on characters he finds on the pages of old comic books and uses a mix of chalk and paint to bring the characters to life.
To make the drawings he uses supplies from an art case donated to him by an art student who graduated recently.
“She gave me some beautiful kit,” he said.
Passers-by aren’t the only ones enjoying the art, with Mr. Finney saying that making it is just as rewarding.
“Art keeps me so calm, especially in hard times,” he said.