Why did you visit Coventry? I visited Coventry because I wanted to see the final outcome of the new development in the City, which started when I was a student at Coventry University. What was it that inspired you to paint from the city?
 | | Coventry-inspired work by Jamie Fowkes |
While I was a Student in Coventry I designed and painted a mural for the Phoenix Initiative. The brief given was to design a mural that will reflect the future of Coventry. We were given plans for the new development so that they could be used as part of the design of the mural. This was when I became aware of structures such as the Frank Whittle Arch (I used this structure in the final design of my mural). The Frank Whittle Arch is an unusually shaped structure because it has been based on the look of a propeller blade. It looks futuristic and space age, as if it has just landed from another planet.
 | | Detail of a painting by Jamie Fowkes |
At night it looks even more spectacular. The surrounding lights bounce off the shiny metallic surface of the arch, illuminating the whole structure. On viewing the arch for the first time I was inspired to make an artwork of it. How do you feel about the recent changes in Coventry? The changes are fantastic. A generally ran down, gloomy area of Coventry has been transformed into a bright and optimistic place, where art, architecture and city landscaping meet to create a vision of a city that challenges the very notion of the structure of a city itself. Is there anywhere else in Coventry you’d like to paint? Yes, I not only admire the new development in Coventry, I am a big fan of 1960s Brutalist architecture, which Coventry is renowned for.
 | | Arches in a painting by Jamie Fowk |
I would like to make models of a few of these buildings to paint from, especially the U.F.O. looking building in the centre of Coventry’s shopping precinct. That’s a great building because it doesn’t look dated even though it’s over 30 years old! Have you thought about exhibiting here? Yes. I would especially like to exhibit my paintings in a public space in or around the area of the new development in Coventry. An ideal space would be in the new Transport Museum so a relationship can be made between my artwork and the environment I’ve been inspired to work from. | 
