Paint it anything but black: street artists hit Gympie

STREET art has hit Gympie, with a pair of travellers hoping to breathe life into what they see as an ugly interior.

FROM BLAND TO GRAND: James Ellis and Jesse Jensen are brining the artistic flair of street art to Gympie.. Picture: Renee Albrecht

STREET art has hit Gympie, with a pair of travellers hoping to breathe life into what they see as an ugly interior.

Adorning the wall of Goodyear Jewellers with crazy clocks and Gympie iconography, Jesse Jensen and James Ellis said the city was crying out for artistic life.

"We just saw heaps of walls which were just crying out for it,” Mr Ellis said.

Covered in simple street tags and the occasional word, they said Gympie's inner city heart resembled a "squalid ghetto”; a haven of graffiti name tags and lines with no artistic quality.

The duo's work on a water tank. Picture: Contributed

They were paid for the Goodyear wall with simply a bucket of paint but they hope to inspire others to bring new life to the city.

"If it's left it will usually develop and get better over time,” Mr Jensen said.

"That's what happens in big cities... (they) become the art galleries of the future.”

Hoping they were starting a trend, he acknowledged there was no guarantee their work would remain untouched by vandals.

"You can't stop a twit who's just picked up a spray can for the first time,” he said.

Having painted in towns across Queensland, they said regional areas were easier to work in as the property owner was available, unlike the "faceless” owners in major cities. It also made designing the art easier.

"I like to consult with the person we're working for and see what they want and then blend that with what I do,” Mr Ellis said.

Mr Jensen, though, takes a more organic approach to his art.

"I'll start something and then I'll usually just start painting over the top of it and changing it into something else.”

And the best part?

"It's always different every time...You don't get stuck painting the same thing,” Mr Ellis said.