Chalk characters make brief appearance

Tony Gillies has been putting smiles on faces in Richmond lately with his quirky chalk drawings on the pavements alongside positive messages.

They popped up all around central Richmond and, though they didn’t last long, they left an impression on people, prompting about a thousand likes on Facebook and more than 100 comments.

When he’s not chalking up another design on the pavement, he’s on the road with his partner in a purple house bus with unicorns painted on the side, which is more than a hint that there’s an artist inside.

They have been on the road for seven years, travelling to festivals where he spins fire, but his first chalk drawings on pavements were in Richmond just eight months ago. Since then, he has decorated pavements in towns around the South Island.

“The feedback blows you away,” he says. “I consider I’m spreading the light and everyone needs a little pick me up now and again.”

It’s social too, as people “stop and have a wee chat”, so after such a good response, he reckons he’ll “smash these out around New Zealand”.

While chalk is a recent addition to his artwork, Tony isn’t new to creating art in public spaces.

He spent 20 years as a signwriter and has used those skills plus talent to create sand art on beaches, including one that stretched 100m along Tomahawk Beach in Dunedin.

“The sand art started when I wrote ‘Happy Birthday’ to my son on the beach and took a photo to send to him.”

From there, it grew to not just sand, but nature art on beaches with stones and driftwood. He’s even done snow sculptures. He’s not adverse to oil paintings and has done those in the past, and his business, Tony Gillies Intuitive Artist, has work he has created over the years.

As his own Facebook page states, he is an “on the road artist doing beach art and whatever my universe wants me to do”.

But right now, before he heads to festivals in the North Island, it’s the dragons, bunnies, tigers and characters on the pavements attracting attention, albeit briefly.