Painting the City: Christopher Bennett

There are more and more colourful walls popping up around the City, and we want to introduce you to the artist behind them. 

Christopher Bennett has been artistic all throughout his life. He credits his mother for recognizing he had an artistic talent and nourishing that. Around the age of 12, he discovered graffiti as one element in hip hop and fell in love with the lettering, colours, names and movement. 

“That’s where my passion lies, that’s my history and my foundation, I acquired a lot of the skills for me to be able to paint exterior surfaces. As my career progressed, I was getting known as the guy who does graffiti art but I am a very versatile artist. The inner child loves graffiti, but in the last 10 to 15 years I have been primarily focused on work that makes people say, oh I didn’t know you can do that.”

The first mural he ever painted was in his high school cafeteria at Centennial Secondary School. He has a passion for graffiti lettering, which shifted a bit when he wanted to paint for businesses. Christopher spent many years building the momentum and becoming well-known in the area. Doug’s Bicycle was the first business to hire Christopher to paint their exterior. From there, more and more businesses started to hire him and the last 5 years brought many large-scale jobs.

Christopher recently opened Art Works, located at 257 N Front St., offering youth art and Breaking/Hip Hop dance classes. He believes that it’s important to provide youth with a space to explore their creative side and nourish the arts. It’s actually the only space offering youth art classes in the Quinte area! The studio also hosts adult paint nights and sells work from other local artists. Check out Art Works on Facebook to see what classes are being offered.

Keep reading below to see some of Christopher’s exterior murals that can be viewed around Belleville, whether you are walking, cycling or driving by!

Follow Christopher on Instagram and Facebook to keep up with his work.