Angus the Travelling Artist

Since the early 1990's Angus has made his career out of being a graffiti artist, his project; Coloured Boulevard, was established in 1996 and he and a team of other artists create murals and projects which make a splash.

The shared passion to beautify surfaces in public spaces results in high-quality design for all areas whether it be for life, living and working environments, indoors or outdoors.

Whilst travelling in Thailand Angus stopped off in Phangan and painted a large mural at Beach Village. We caught up with him to find out more about being a travelling artist...

Hi Angus, so did you plan to paint all over Thailand or did it just happen?
I first came to Thailand in 2013 and decided to start from Bangkok then explore the south of Thailand.

I wanted to make vacation a priority so to relax, explore the islands and celebrate the legendary Moon parties - but no matter where I travel, I also paint.

So it was already clear that I at the various stages of my trip I was looking for the possibility of painting graffiti.

What got you into graffiti and mural painting, did you start the illegal way?
Yeah, as a little boy I was fascinated by graffiti and always looked on the way to school from the train window at the ‘colourful names’.

Eventually I also wanted to go and get my name up and so it happened one day that I organised a few sprays after school.

I returned by train and went to the walls of the station and started to paint every day, it appeared to me as the perfect place to spray my first graffiti.

I painted right after I had bought the spray paint at 2pm, so this was my first graffiti piece painted easily in the daytime! Shortly after the first travelers would start to come to the platform but rather than escape I painted, full of pride.

After this I started to paint more at night.

The passage of time made me want to paint more complex productions which would not have been possible under pressure at night.

And what have been your favorite places to paint in Thailand?
I have no favorite place because behind every image hides another funny story.

I painted on the islands Samui, Tao, Phuket and Lanta but my most exciting actions are certainly the productions in Bangkok and Koh Phangan!

You painted a very large mural at Beach Village, what is the concept behind this?
The design should be modern and contemporary. We took our inspiration from the yellow of the sun, purple of the sea, the green of the palm trees and the species-rich nature.

What are your projects for this year?
I plan on some larger murals and interesting projects but I do not want to reveal too much.

But some of the projects you will see on my page www.coloured-boulevard.com or my Facebook account,  let yourself be surprised…

Any plans to visit us again?
I have now visited Thailand for three years in a row and love the country, so it's only a matter of time until I get back!

But on this planet there are so many beautiful places that I have set myself other destinations to visit. But if anyone is interested in an artistic design in Thailand then I will book the next plane with pleasure!

What did you love about Phangan?
I love the people, the great food, the Moon parties, the nature, the beaches - in fact I love everything on Koh Phangan!

And leave us with your life philosophy.…
Who, if not we? When, if not now? So don’t dream your life, live your dreams!