Artist Rich Thorne aka Richt is lucky to be from a UNESCO world heritage site. A river port town of 25,000, his hometown of Barnstaple in North Devon, England has a “biosphere status”; a category reserved for places of great natural beauty.

So it made perfect sense when the multidisciplinary artist who is now based in Bristol, UK was chosen to create the first mural in the town. With a background in commercial, corporate, and individual art projects in illustration, painting, toy design, and animation, he has a well-developed sense for what audiences like. He also has up-close familiarity with the UK graffiti scene in the early 2000s.

This month Richt is participating in the new exhibition opening at Urban Nation in Berlin, another city to add to his list of public art projects and commissions in Barcelona, Amsterdam and London.  For today, we are showcasing this new public art mural for his hometown in Barnstaple.

“Returning to my home town to engage young people through art feels very significant to me,” he says, adding that he hopes the new mural can bridge a local conversation on the value of art to inspire positive action. Judging from the workshop he did with local kids to practice their graffiti tags, Richt is also part of that positive inspiration.

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