What can you do in 5 days in Qatar?

Street painters Peter Westerink and Gregor Wosik recently returned from a street painting project in Qatar in the Middle East.  They worked together on a series of street paintings under a tight time frame.  I’ve heard of speed painting, but speed street painting?!  Read on to hear about Peter's experience!

 

Why did you decide to go to Qatar to street paint? 

PW: I received an invitation from an event marketing company just a week before, to take part in a big Street Theatre Event in Doha, at the Souq Waqif, a famous Bedouin Market, in honor of the  annual Offering Fest (comparable to our X-mas). They specifically asked for a 3D streetpainting performance. We exchanged information on the phone and the next day our participation got confirmed. One week later we were on our way to Doha, Qatar.

 

 
Was this your first time street painting in the Middle East?

PW: Yes, I have traveled to a few European countries, (Holland, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Switzerland), participated in festivals in Italy, visited the Youth in Arts festival in the US twice, but I never streetpainted outside Western Europe. Hopefully this year I/we will also visit Zagreb/Croatia and Toulon/France, and who knows perhaps Asia and Mexico.

 

Did you have an overall theme in your street paintings for this project?

PW: No, not really. We were asked to create something that was surprising, fun and exotic. We had hardly time to prepare anything, so we came up with a few ideas beforehand, but only very rough ones. In the end it came down to improvising on the spot, since we were appointed a new location everyday, only a couple of hours before.

 

 
How many street paintings did you and Gregor create?  What were the sizes?  How much time did you have to work on each piece?

PW: We created 5. Different sizes, varying from 3 x 4,5 meters (race car) to 6 x 9 meters (flying carpet). We only had a day (8-10 hrs) to finish a streetpainting, five days in a row.  We came up with a new idea every day, than decided on who did what and helped each other out when possible or needed. It is fair to say that Gregor, being a very experienced streetpainter, was the senior and I the junior artist, but we worked very well together and had a lot of fun.

 

Who was the general audience and how did they react to your street paintings? 

PW: The general audience consisted of the people of Doha, which is quite a melting pot of people from Lebanon, India, Pakistan, Arabia, etc. There were approx. 40.000 people visiting the Souq Waqif during the Festivities. Although we worked all day during that time, the actual program started at around 4 PM and ended around 20.00 PM.

 

 
What was your overall experience like in Qatar?

PW: The overall experience was wonderful. The entourage was fairy-tale like, especially at night, the atmosphere in our group of 40 artists was very good, the hotel was pleasant, and the people were very excited to actually see a 3D streetpainting-in-the-making, not to mention having their picture taken while being part of it. Most of them already knew 3D's of course from the web, but had never seen a real one before. So we did get a lot of attention and positive responses.

 

How did children react to your street paintings?  Did any kids ask if they could "help you out" as they love chalk?

PW: Children were oftentimes the first ones to take pictures. By the time the people arrived at the Souq Waqif, late afternoon, we already were quite underway with our painting. We did not get any request regarding helping us completing the paintings. Everyone was very aware of the fact that we were part of the international artist group and festival program, and respectfully kept a distance.

 
How did you feel about sharing this art form with a new audience?

PW: Yes, it was wonderful - everybody really seemed to enjoy and appreciated it. What was personally rewarding for me was the fact that we managed to five 3D streetpaintings in only 5 days with hardly any preparation, at five different locations and street surfaces. It was pure improvising and above all a very educational. I learned a lot.

 

What was the most difficult thing for you on this trip?

PW: As I said, most difficult was the lack of time to prepare, and as a result not being able to create our best work. We created the best work possible given the circumstances.

 

Did you have free time to see local sites and if so, which was your favorite and why?

PW: Unfortunately we had much less free time than the other artists, since our working day started at around 11 AM, while the others started at 3 PM. But we did make a city trip on the fifth day, and completed our last work in the afternoon and evening, and we all had an extra day to relax before departure, which we spent at a beach on the Persian Gulf.  Gregor and I also share a love for ice cream and we were lucky to find a Ben & Jerry's very near to where we worked!!