Gas engineer James Gibson has an industry qualification to perform his job – but he could equally pass muster as an artist.
In his spare time he spends hours creating mud and dirt masterpieces on dirty white vans.
His van artwork features boxers including David Hare and Anthony Joshua as well as musicians and film stars.
Mr Gibson drew the hip hop superstar Stormzy after a request from his daughter
James Gibson has become known as the white van Van Goth after his art drawn in mud and grime on the back of vans took the internet by storm
Mr Gibson is a qualified engineer and part time artist
The gas engineer’s attention to detail has won over the critics
Mr Gibson say he regents the fact that when it rains his images tend to disappear
The gas engineer has an abiding passion in his spare time: Creating mud and dirt masterpieces on dirty white vans
The artist uses a variety of instruments including cardboard, toothpicks and the contents of his daughter’s make-up bag to carry out his work
The artist has been pursuing his passion for the last year
But there is a problem. His artwork tends to be temporary.
‘They wash off in the rain. James of Harwich, Essex, told The Sun. ‘I can’t bear to watch.
‘It’s actually quite a delicate process. I am quite lazy so I will usually go off and have a cup of tea before coming back to finish it.
‘I try to get more and more detail into them to give them a bit more life.
‘My mate is a big David Haye fan so I did that one for him.’
The part time Leonardo says that its important when carrying out his mucky skill to take a step back and make alterations where necessary.
‘It doesn’t take much for it to go out of shape and when it’s supposed to look like someone it’s so difficult to get the features in the correct place’.
James has also drawn hip hop superstar Stormzy after a request from his daughter.
‘He retweeted it with the comment ‘Mad!!’ and I was quite honoured to be honest.
‘And he wasn’t offended by it in case he thought it was rubbish.’
James says perhaps his favourite white can work of art was an image of soldiers in a trench, viewed from the back so their faces were not visible.
He uses a variety of instruments to do his work including his fingers and his daughter’s make up material. Toothpicks are also very useful.
‘Hopefully it’s a dry enough day without too much moisture in the air, otherwise you pull too much dirt off,’ he told the BBC.
‘I’ve been doing it for just over a year and I’ve done around eight.
‘It started off as stress relief and it’s become therapeutic in a way, I can get lost in it.’