What would happen if you blurred the line between graffiti and traditional painting? What would you do if you could have an original one-off painting simply for being in the right place at the right time? The most telling question is though; if you found an original Adam Neate, would you even realize it was an original one-off painting for you to keep for free? Here’s what Adam had to say about the street, his temporary art gallery for your eyes only.

Steal-Life.com - Where did your interest in painting begin?
Adam Neate - I was one of those toddlers who drew on walls at every given opportunity. I remember at playgroup, if I had the choice of playing with the sand toys or painting, I always chose to paint. We were allowed to use that runny poster paint which went everywhere and I loved the idea of being able to make a mess.

SL - How long have you been painting for?
AN - Most of my life really, in an ideal world I would paint non-stop until I get bored of it.

SL - Did you take a traditional route and study art at university?
AN - I always knew I wanted to paint and would continue to paint regardless of a qualification on a piece of paper. It has always seemed hilarious to me to have a whole educational system based on grading other people's art. I decided to do a degree in illustration and design anyway, at least that way I could leave with a degree that may help me to put food in the fridge.

SL - Leaving your work in the streets is a unique way of distributing your work, how did you get the idea?
AN - It started about four or five years ago. I was living in a small town called Ipswich; I had just finished my degree and wanted to get back into painting for myself again. I started painting portraits of my friends on pieces of cardboard that I had found in the streets. Forty of fifty paintings later I had ran out of friends and friends of friends to paint for. Everybody jumped at the chance of a self-portrait, especially as they were free. I then decided to put my paintings to some kind of use. Once I’d painted a batch of six to twelve cardboard paintings I would wrap them in bin-liners and leave them outside one of the many charity shops in the town.

This was all well and good, till one day I was walking back from my job and noticed one of my collections of paintings were still outside a charity shop I had left there earlier that morning. The only difference was somebody had opened the bag, taken one look at the paintings and then left them for the bin men to collect. This was a big turning point. My art was a charity shop reject, worthless in its entirety. I gathered up the paintings and started walking back to my house. Whilst I was walking I realized I didn't even have enough room for the paintings back in my house. Out of pure laziness I decided to leave them in the streets propped up against walls and lampposts. Whilst I was doing this I was laughing at how surreal and funny it looked to hang paintings in the streets. That one street had become a makeshift gallery for whoever happened to walk by that night. I love the idea of my art being temporary.

SL - So how many painting have you given away?
AN - I didn't even want to document my first few series of paintings, lots have been left with no signatures, until a friend told me I was an idiot for giving all these paintings away. In fact most people thought I had lost the plot when I told them what I did. I'm not really counting but its well over a thousand in London.

SL - What do you think of the recent increase in street artists using stencils and stickers?
AN - It's difficult for me to comment sometimes, I'm a real fan of any artist who can show and use originality and instantly connect with people. If your not being original then what's the point? Everyone remembers Neil Armstrong.

SL - Do you consider yourself a graffiti artist?
AN - I hope so. My main passion for art is graffiti. I paint with different crews and writers most weekends. The most important key to my art is to have fun, leaving my paintings in the streets is more of a sideline to my graffiti. If each one of my paintings was a mural on a wall I would be in prison by now, painting on bits of found wood is merely an outlet for me.

SL - You’ve been commissioned to do some commercial work; do you feel it’s in anyway a compromise of your integrity?
AN - Not really, if anything I'm just playing a game with the ‘art world. The art I leave in the streets is in some ways worthless and priceless at the same time to whoever finds it, though it is my art regardless. It is in some ways exempt from public criticism as it’s just a scribble left in the streets. In modern society, as soon as you scribble on a designer shoe or
perfume bottle, then people start to question it's worth in the form of commodity.

SL - Are there some things you wouldn’t do commercially?
AN - I've seen many ‘street artists’ do allot of degrading stuff. I think the whole commissioning artists to do a drawing on a trainer exhibition tie-in thing has hopefully died a death. People should be over all that by now and start concentrating on the art for art sake. My integrity is very important; I’ve turned down more work than I have accepted.

SL - What’s next for you?
AN - Good question! There's no real game plan to what I do, just do alot more paintings.

http://www.adamneate.co.uk/