Oré spent some time working on containers opposite the HMS Warrior in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. He said “As I was painting opposite the HMS Warrior I decided to paint a huge Union Jack in the background of the mural. Graphically, I love the Union Jack and it doesn’t have the nationalistic impression that some other flags have – it is about ‘union’. This seemed especially apt as the Warrior was the pride of the Royal Navy – so painting the Union Jack just made sense to me. After painting the background I incorporated my symbol which is a huge Mexican feather snake called Quetzalcóatl. I travelled to Mexico and became very interested in pre-Colombian culture and I now incorporate this image into much of my work. I ended the mural with the words of William Blake’s poem Auguries of Innocence. The Union Jack, the snake, and the Blake quote all built together into this completed mural.”

Artiste-Ouvrier used his distinctive two-layer stencilling art on the exterior of the Wedgewood Rooms on Albert Road, Southsea. He said: “Each stencil takes about 100 hours to design and cut, and I bought a whole range with me. It would have been very easy to have used my Blondie or Sid Vicious designs, but I felt that that would have been mere decoration, I wanted to do my own thing. As this year is the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo I used my designs based on Christopher Walker’s Walkerloo toy soldiers; I also used stencils inspired by my love of British Victorian painters and illustrators such as Reginald Knowles, Edward Burne-Jones and John William Waterhouse.”

Geoff Priestley Manager of the Wedgewood Rooms added “It’s been wonderful having Artiste-Ouvrier here, his designs are great, and he did far more of our façade than I imagined he would. I do hope we can tempt him back next year to continue on the second tier!”

Oré also spent a day holding workshops with ten young people from Pompey in the Community, where they created a mural in a corridor in Fratton Park, home of Portsmouth Football Club. Oré said: “I was very proud to be involved with the community project as I know how important football and this club is to the City. We created stencils incorporating words ‘Play up Pompey’, the club’s logo and I reproduced a picture of the grounds. I really enjoyed my day there.”