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Hammo is a freelance illustrator and mural painter based in Manchester

Bee In The City

New Bailey & Ellis Brigham Bees
IMG_1787City In The Bee
IMG_1320Benny The Bee
City In The Bee
My New Bailey sponsored bee echoes the murals that I painted in Stevenson Square after the Manchester Arena attack last year – to show positivity, solidarity with and love for Manchester. With so many bee motifs popping up across the city, I thought it would be nice to have a city, with a stylised Manchester skyline, within the Bee.
IMG_0616Blank bee
IMG_0682Spraypaint background.

IMG_0862Acrylic clouds and first buildings
IMG_0874Progress

IMG_0934Awkward angles
IMG_0904Backside ft. New Bailey and Civil Justice Centre

IMG_1270Concentration face
IMG_1126Losing light

IMG_4776Family portrait
IMG_1216Secret antennae bee

Benny The Bee
Sponsored by Ellis Brigham, Benny The Bee is named after Benny Rothman; a keen activist and rambler who in 1932 led a mass trespass of over 400 walkers on a route around Kinder Scout, to exercise their right to roam, in defiance of the government’s recent decision to deny ramblers access to parts of open country. The map on the base shows the route the tankers took from Bowden Bridge quarry, up towards Kinder Scout. The plaster on Benny’s head hints at the scuffles and confrontations that took place between gamekeepers and some of the ramblers.

IMG_1268Scruffy masking
IMG_1300Cocooning base in tape to cut map details from

IMG_1301Fox, carrying rat
IMG_1309Map stencils

IMG_1334Benny’s plaster
IMG_1324Benny’s backpack

Top Bunk! and Sketch-O-Matic

Top-Bunk-Sneak-01
This Friday 12th October sees the launch of Top Bunk! at Cornerhouse. An exhibition of affordable art (£100 and under), in which I have three new prints. There are some fine local artists involved, so do pop in and pick up a reasonably priced early Christmas present or two (it’s on until 13th November)
The opening coincides with the return of Sketch-O-Matic, which I was involved in last year. Patrons sit in a photobooth, pay their pound (or more, should they wish!) and wait, whilst behind the glass an artist feverishly recreates their likeness, dropping it out of the slot five minutes later. It was a great experience, if a little nerve-wracking, and I can’t wait for the first of my three stints. I’ll be in there between 7-8pm this Friday.