Malmesbury artist ‘excited’ to paint Glastonbury mural

A street artist says he is “excited” to paint a mural for this year’s Glastonbury Festival.

Syd, whose real name is Luke Hollingworth, is known for the creations he paints in his shed onto blocks of wood, as well as larger murals on buildings and canvases.

His 2016 image of Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis with a Ziggy Stardust-inspired lightning bolt on his face “became a little bit of a symbol of the festival for that year”.

Mr Eavis has one of the artist’s piece hanging up in his office on Worthy Farm, “which is fantastic”, said Syd.

He told BBC Radio Wiltshire this year’s mural, which will be on display in his stall in the Greenfields, is inspired by one of the headliners.

The artist said he called his company The Stencil Shed after “pimping out” the shed he used to make art inside and entering the Shed of the Year competition.

He said the project became “a bit of an escape” from his corporate job.

After his shed and the designs inside were featured on the Channel 4 programme, people starting getting in touch to buy his artwork, leading him to start painting full time.

“It’s amazing, I’ve got some customers that have got over 50 Stencil Sheds, all on one wall,” said Mr Hollingworth, who cites Banksy as an inspiration.

He explained his work method was: “Unplanned, unstructured, no strategy, but it seems to work.”

Mr Hollingworth said his “most notable Glastonbury piece” was painted the same year David Bowie died, when he combined the festival’s founder with Ziggy Stardust – a design that took off and was seen all around the festival that year.

“I don’t think I’ll ever match it,” he said, adding that Mr Eavis himself had signed one of his creations.

Each year the artist pitches up at the festival and creates a giant piece of artwork to “catch people’s eye” as they walk through the Greenfields.

He said this year’s mural is “going to be quite underground and it’s going to be to do with one of the headliners”.