VERO BEACH — Forrest DeBlois loves painting large figures on giant pieces of paper and then using wheat paste to temporarily glue them onto the sides of buildings. Brick walls, forgotten walls, stucco walls, they all offer equal fascination for this local artist who was born and bred in Vero Beach.
Convinced that public spaces are important and overlooked parts of the human environment, DeBlois, a muralist and figurative painter, specializing in detailed, site specific indoor and outdoor paintings, is passionate about opening people’s eyes to the outside places that they pass by all the time and may have forgotten about or grown too accustomed to notice.
“I am trying to change the context of the urban landscape, hopefully to the benefit of those who inhabit it,” said DeBlois.
The images that are beginning to appear in the Downtown, Dine and Design District are hopefully going to promote, engage and challenge the public to appreciate and look at art in new ways. There are artists all over the world eagerly creating this new art form in its varied genres.
“Forrest approached us about the possibility of showing some of his wheat paste art on buildings in the art district,” explained Lila Blakeslee, an artist-partner at Gallery 14.
“Gallery 14 received approval from the City and two landlords to go ahead with the project. In big cities like New York and Miami, in fact around the world, this sort of art is well received. They even have a whole section of it at Art Basel. Gallery 14 wants to slowly educate the public about this exciting new art form. These paintings are created by the artists without monetary reward in mind and are done for the love of bringing art to the communities and public.”
The work can be seen on the Hibiscus Building across from Pocahontas Park and on Gallery 14’s outside wall. Gallery 14 is located at 1911 14th Avenue in the 3-D Downtown, Dine and Design District of Vero Beach.
For more information or to have DeBlois create a wall for you, call 772 562-5525 or visit www.gallery14verobeach.com.
