Contemporary duo SNIK – Nik Ellis and Laura Perrett – have just finished creating their mural at the soon-to-be demolished Aberdeen Market building.
“The nature of street art is temporary anyway, things sometimes don’t even last a day,” said Nik.
“So, for us, it’s not such a problem if it’s being knocked down. If anything, I quite like the transient nature of it – it comes and goes and you enjoy it when it’s there and that’s the beauty of it.”
Laura added: “I know this building means a lot to the locals as well – there’s a really big uproar about this being knocked down and I kind of hope the right thing falls in its place rather than it being something very commercial.”
Returning to take part in Nuart Aberdeen
The creative duo previously worked on one of the city’s most-loved Nuart murals in 2018, Hold Fast Hope, which faces out to the harbour from a wall on Virginia Street.
Now, SNIK created a sister mural to the one already gracing the streets of Stavanger. While the mural is different. the model is the same, so the artists believe it links to Nuart 2021’s theme of re-connecting nicely.
Both Laura and Nik said they really enjoyed painting in the Granite City.
Laura stated: “We don’t do the tourist things when we come to a new city, but what we do is that we meet local people and they show us their favourite things in the area.
“You know you can rock up to any city for any project and people will look after you. We’ve been bought a lot of cakes and coffees as well.”
Nik added: “Personally, for me, my nan was from Aberdeen as well, so I’ve got a connection to the city.
“People are always so friendly and everyone always appreciates the artworks.”
Developing unique stencil style
Laura said: “We’ve developed our style over the past 10 years and we’ve worked in different phases.
“I’d say SNIK five years ago was all about movement and keeping it in still motion with white backgrounds whereas now we’ve gone down the pre-Raphaelite style and we’re trying to really hone the skill of stencils.
“It’s a popular medium – if you don’t push yourself, you become the same as others, so we push.”
Nik agreed and added: “We also like showcasing what can be done with a stencil, so, even though it’s only one layer when you step back a bit, you actually get a lot of depth and more detail.”