SWILFA Sold at Auction Prices

Swilfa is a London based artist specialising in portraits of musicians and film stars made from broken vinyl records and acrylic paints.Each picture is unique and takes upwards of 35 hours to complete.

Bit of background and how you got into art.

I have always been into art from a teenager, especially Graffiti, I was big into Hip Hop and Break Dancing when I was young. This then lead to me DJing for the past 26 years and I’ve built up a vinyl collection of over 2500 records. The bad one’s get smashed up now day’s and are used for my artwork.

My designs are all influenced from the above.


What have you been doing this year?

I participated in a great art exhibition in Cheltenham – Chapel Arts earlier this year called Urban Art, with great artists like Mason Storm, Dice 67 and My Dog Sighs


What do other artists say about your work

Other artists have commented on the uniqueness of using vinyl and the fact I hand paint instead of using stencils.


Tell me about the first picture

One of the first pictures I designed was The Beatles as I wanted to push myself with doing an iconic band that appealed to many. I’m a carpenter by trade so combined my skills and built the frame as well with colour changing LED light’s in it.

I had no idea what I wanted to do with it so I put it up for auction.


Today it currently hangs at Bernie Ecclestone’s (Formula 1) estate in Brazil after he bought at an auction! It was an amazing feeling seeing my art hanging on his wall on a Sky Sports documentary last year.


My personal favourite that I’ve done is of Bob Marley which I did for Upfest last year. I was on holiday in the Caribbean when I received the email saying I’d been excepted for Upfest so I thought it’s got to be one of Bob!

What is important to you about your art?

That I enjoy doing it and that each piece is appreciated. The day I don’t enjoy it is the day I’ll stop doing it,but can’t see that happening any time soon.

Where people can find you at Upfest

St Francis Church which is right opposite the Tobacco factory.

Can you tell me something about what you will be doing?

Let’s just say he’s a Massive Bristolian musician and I’ll have to attack it fast to get it finished in time!