Art in the Arches: Out of the Blue Summer 2025
Art in the Arches 2025: Out of the Blue
Produced by ArtHouse Jersey
Following the success of the 2024 edition, Art in the Arches returns to the Elizabeth Marina with a brand new series of murals, all inspired by this year’s theme, Out of the Blue.
Curator Jacque Rutter, invited five local artists to create new murals: Layla May Arthur, Aimée Cast, Rian Hotton, Abi Overland, and Ben Roberson. Each was assigned one arch and invited to interpret the theme in their own unique way.
In addition to their murals, the artists also led creative workshops with students from four schools. These sessions, held in the Horizon space kindly provided by the Jersey Development Company, led to four student murals now installed along the arches: Fruits of the Sea by Hautlieu School, One Woman for Every Woman by Jersey College for Girls, Blue Marble Project by Springfield Primary School, and Message to My Future Self by Rouge Bouillon Primary School. A further mural, Tide Together, was created by young people and their families from the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS).
What stands out in this year’s edition is the variety of interpretations. From Ben Roberson’s tribute to the Island’s aviation history in From the Sky, to Aimée Cast’s myth-filled fantasy in What’s Beyond, to Abi Overland’s gentle meditation
on ambition in Overnight Success. Rian Hotton explores nature’s power in Beaufort, while Layla May Arthur reflects on the sun’s daily rhythm in Sun Shines. These murals did not appear out of the blue. They are the result of imagination, collaboration, and plenty of hard work. Students and artists painted in all weather, kneeling on concrete or balancing on ladders, armed with brushes, cushions, water, and sunscreen. The results speak for themselves. Locals and visitors alike have stopped to admire the murals, share memories, and sometimes even recognise themselves. One man trained on the same type of plane featured in From the Sky. A young girl stood silently watching Abi Overland paint. A widow shared how much her late husband would have appreciated the art. A fisherman smiled as he found himself immortalised in Fruits of the Sea. And a proud father returned with his daughter to take a photo in front of What’s Beyond. This summer, public art became truly public. The Elizabeth Marina became not just a walkway, but a living gallery filled with stories, memories, and shared creativity.
Out of the Blue Poem by Mary Venturini
Out of the Blue
It came to me Out of the Blue. Just like that on a wet and snowy day, when the roads were flooded and branches were tossed across the fields
Out of the Blue
It came to me Was it good or bad? A nightmare or A multi-coloured dream? What did it mean?
The Island rose out of the blue
On a foggy day
As the ship made its way over the choppy sea.
A safe haven ahead, After a tough crossing?
Or that blinding disaster Of flames, Of an explosion, Of people thrown from a burning building, Unexpected, unimagined Out of the Blue?
Primary blue
To mix at will.
First good Then bad. Then bright Then sad What will you make Out of THAT Blue?
How will you mix your paint? Where will you go next? What choices will you make? Out of YOUR Blue?
From The Sky, 2025
Ben Robertson
Bit by bit, Ben Roberson’s mural
From the Sky has taken shape along the Elizabeth Marina, appearing, quite literally, out of the blue for this year’s Art in the Arches.
In Ben’s vivid scene, early aircraft swoop down onto the beach at St Aubin’s Bay, near the West Park Slipway. Cheering crowds welcome them, some dancing, some simply watching in wonder as the planes descend from the sky. Even the details of the harbour and Elizabeth Castle reflect the era, carefully researched and thoughtfully rendered.
Ben is one of Jersey’s most experienced muralists, known for his versatility and bold use of colour, including a surprising pink that pops up throughout this work. He’s always happy to pause and chat about his historical inspiration, which he found particularly compelling.
The beach at St Aubin’s holds a fascinatin aviation history. A nearby plaque marks th where Jean Benoist landed his plane durin race from St Malo on 26 August 1912, the Island’s first ever landing strip.
In the 1930s, it hosted an air pageant led by the daring Mrs Victor Bruce, showcasing the latest planes. Before the official airport opened in 1937, this beach was the main landing site for seaplanes traveling to and from the UK.
The marina walkway is full of life, with visitors stopping to watch and talk to the artists. One passer-by even told Ben he once learned to fly in the same model of plane that now graces the mural’s corner.
Ben has also led workshops for local schoolchildren, whose murals appear further along the arches. “I’m enjoying this more than any commission I’ve had this year,” he says with a smile.
Sun Shines, 2025 Layla Arthur
The sun radiates from Layla May Arthur’s mural along the Elizabeth Marina, bold, glowing, and full of stories. If you pause for a moment, you might just hear her and her mother talking warmly about each sun: its shape, its colours, and the memory behind it.
One sun, in the corner, is inspired by a pendant Layla’s mother gave her. Another, much larger, is taken from the pattern of a sarong that was used throughout Layla’s childhood for picnics, beach dens, and sun-soaked play. These aren’t just suns, they’re symbols of time, warmth, and shared family stories.
Layla’s take on this year’s theme Out of the Blue is both literal and poetic. Every day, the sun rises and sets “out of the blue” and with it, the rhythm of life continues. Her mural celebrates this daily cycle, repetitive yet never the same. Bold shapes and intricate lines invite viewers to stop, look closely, and notice something new each time.
A Jersey-born paper artist now living in Groningen, Netherlands, Layla is known for her precise paper cutting and has exhibited her work across Europe and the US. Her attention to detail carries into this mural, her first, where the same care goes into every line. When a curve on a sun’s face didn’t quite meet her standard, she quietly reworked it. “It’s easier to amend a mistake in paint than in paper,” she laughs, “but the principle is the same, don’t let it go.”
Overnight Success, 2025
Abi Overland
Abi Overland knows there’s no such thing as an overnight success. Sudden achievement rarely comes out of the blue. As you watch her mural unfold, you’ll see that message brought to life, one patient, thoughtful layer at a time. It began with a few faint lines projected onto the board beneath her arch. Then came swirling black lines, rippling out from the centre of a quiet pond. Gradually, bands of blue appeared. Underwater shapes started to rise, and finally, a water lily emerged—framed by bold red and white curtains, pulled back as though revealing a stage.
If you passed by while Abi was painting, you might have seen her cross-legged in quiet focus, or chatting warmly with passers-by. Some days she worked in the heat of the midday sun; others in the softer light of early evening. Once alone again, she’d pop in her earplugs and listen to audiobooks, smiling as she explained she’d given herself plenty of time, no rush on the path to something beautiful.
You may already know Abi’s work from around Jersey, from the Moorings Hotel to the arcade in De Gruchy’s. She graduated from the University of Brighton nine years ago and started her own business soon after. Her art is known for its precision, sophisticated use of colour, and a striking interplay of black and white. At first glance, her work may seem simple, but the longer you look, the more details begin to surface.
Beaufort, 2025
Rian Hotton
When Rian Hotton began his mural Beaufort, you could almost feel the storm gathering. Within a day, waves of colour, motion, and metaphor swept across the board. Arrows and symbols from the Beaufort wind scale spiralled around a sailboat caught in the storm, its mast leaning as winds hit from every direction.
But by the end of the week, the storm passed. Rian paused, added a final touch: a line from Kipling’s poem If, "If you can keep your head when all those around you are losing theirs." It landed like a moment of calm after chaos.
Rian is a Jersey-based artist known for his expressive landscapes, some recognisably local, others abstract and atmospheric. Still, the mural holds nothing back. It evokes the brutal force of a Beaufort scale 11 or 12 storm, gale-force winds that bring change, danger, even disaster.
Painted during an ironically sunny week, the mural becomes a vivid warning about a world growing more unpredictable, where storms, literal and metaphorical, arrive out of the blue.
Rian’s mural sits not far from some of his other works displayed at the nearby Radisson Hotel, but Beaufort feels more immediate, more urgent. It's not just a weather map, it’s a call for resilience, calm, and clarity.
What’s Beyond, 2025
Aimée Cast
At first glance, Aimée Cast’s mural invites you to peer through the Arch of Grosnez Castle, but what lies beyond is a whole other world. This often-overlooked Jersey landmark becomes a portal into a playful reimagining of local legend, history, and personal symbolism. Through the arch, we enter a vivid fantasy land filled with myths and mysteries, anchored by a curious little pigeon named Cretin, a recurring character in Aimée’s work. Born from her university reflections on the unfair reputation of pigeons, Cretin is an emblem of the overlooked and misunderstood, just like the crumbling Grosnez ruins or the forgotten folklore of Jersey. Here, old stories take new shapes. The fearsome Black Dog of Bouley Bay is recast as a friendly creature. The legendary
Golden Chair teeters in the hands of greedy fishermen. And the infamous Thirteenth Fish, its fifth tentacle torn off to form a cross, is flung into the air in a swirl of colour and motion. These scenes, rooted in tales of shipwrecks and sea witches, storms and superstition, are brought to life not with gloom, but with warmth and imagination.
Aimée’s confident use of bold colours transforms what might be a dark tale into something hopeful, suggesting that not only trouble, but also joy, can come out of the blue. Having just graduated with a first-class degree in Fine Art, Aimée is now looking to stay and work in Jersey, sharing her creative energy with the place that inspired much of her storytelling.
The Fruits of the Sea, 2025
The
Void Beneath, 2025
Hautlieu School
These two murals, painted by students at Hautlieu, make a powerful pair, so different but so dependent on each other. In The Fruits of the Sea there are fishermen hard at work. In The Void Beneath women float leisurely as they stretch out across the surface of the sea. One arch illustrates the harvesting of nature’s gifts, the other the natural world that surrounds us; one the vital role of the fishing industry in the Island’s life and the other its beauty.
The cramped surroundings in The Fruits of the Sea is in stark contrast to the open spaces in The Void Beneath. The physical effort on the faces of the men surrounded by dead sea animals contrasts with the calm expressions of the women, floating above an abundance of living sea creatures below. These beautifully painted figures stand out in the powerful colours, forcing people walking along the arches to stand and stare in admiration.
Photos by the Jersey Evening Post photographer Dave Ferguson were used as inspiration for some of the figures in Fruits of the Sea and Ferguson has in turn paid homage to the Hautlieu students’ work in a recent series of photos in the JEP.
As with the other school workshops, the art teachers have played a vital role, working closely with their students on composition, colour and storytelling. Ben Roberson and Rob Allen, who both have murals in other arches, together with Jamie Cole and Curator Jacque Rutter, have remarked on what a privilege it has been to follow such talented and dedicated young artists at work.
There was a real sense of an artistic community during the creation of these murals. Teachers, parents and residents from the surrounding flats stopped to watch, to talk and to share their views, observations and admiration for the creators of these two powerful murals.
A Message to My Future Self, 2025
Rouge Bouillon Primary School
From a distance, you’ll see a sea of bottles gently bobbing on multi-coloured waves. Step closer, and each bottle reveals a message - a personal note from a student at Rouge Bouillon Primary to their future self.
As they prepared to leave primary school for secondary, all 60 students took time to reflect on their hopes, dreams, and worries. While the messages began as personal letters, they soon unfolded into something bigger: wishes not only for themselves, but for Jersey, for the world, and for life itself.
Some dream of becoming YouTubers, sports stars, or artists. Others hope Jersey stays a beautiful place to live, and that everything becomes a little cheaper. One bottle reminds us: no dream is ever too big and everything will be okay no matter what.
The mural is as thoughtful in its creation as it is in meaning. Under the guidance of their art teachers and curator Jacque Rutter, students first mapped out their design on the floor of the Horizon space, generously provided by Jersey Development Company. Waves, connecting lines, and bottle placements were carefully measured and planned, then brought to life across three vibrant arches.
The workshops were woven into the curriculum, blending art and English. Students explored colour theory, light and reflection, proportion and perspective — while crafting their heartfelt messages. Along the Elizabeth Marina walkway, you’ll often see people leaning in, reading each bottle, smiling, or pausing in reflection. These messages, both playful and profound, remind us that the future is always shaped by the hopes we carry today.
Blue Marble Project, 2025
Springfield Primary School
Springfield Primary School’s students brought colour, care, and cosmic imagination to this year’s Art in the Arches with their mural Blue Marble Project, painted in just one day at the Elizabeth Marina.
After completing a series of creative workshops led by curator Jacque Rutter— hosted in the Horizon space kindly provided by Jersey Development Company—the students headed to the Marina to bring their vision to life. Set against a starry sky, the mural features a collection of beautifully imagined planets. Some are bold and brightly coloured, others are tiny and subtle—you might almost miss them at first glance. Look closer, and you’ll spot continents hidden behind swirling clouds. Each planet is unique, and together they create a moving portrait of our place in the universe.
dedicated to climate action and protec its name from the famous 1972 photo crew, the ‘Blue Marble’ suspended in th image has become a symbol of both wonder and responsibility.
By participating in this project, Springfield students join a global community that includes the United Nations, the WWF, the Dalai Lama, Mission Blue, and many more, sharing a single blue marble to remind us that we all live on one shared, extraordinary planet.
Thank you, Springfield, for this joyful and thoughtful reminder that even from our small island, we can help care for the world.
One Woman for Every Woman, 2025 Jersey
College for Girls
Jersey College for Girls brings bold creativity and thoughtful reflection to this year’s Art in the Arches with their mural project One Woman for Every Woman, created along the Elizabeth Marina.
Working in the early summer heat, students brought colour, energy, and collaboration to the arches. Guided by curator Jacque Rutter—who thought of every detail, from colour mixing to sun cream—this was a hands-on creative experience the students won’t soon forget.
The mural is a powerful visual statement. Two mirrored portraits of women face each other, surrounded by everyday objects. At first glance, the images seem identical, but look more closely—each expression is subtly different, inviting viewers to pause and consider what these women might be thinking or feeling.
The mural encourages empathy, reflection, and a deeper understanding of women’s shared experiences. The students’ inspiration came from poetry as well as paint. As part of their coursework, they took part in a workshop with JCG’s own English and poetry teacher, Danielle Mynes.
Together, they explored the theme Out of the Blue, writing their own poems and drawing from Danielle’s writing to inform their mural design. The result is a rich layering of image and text, feeling and form. The title One Woman for Every Woman speaks to the mural’s heart: a celebration of strength, individuality, and connection between women across time, space, and circumstance.
Art in the Arches 2025: Out of the Blue is produced by ArtHouse Jersey, with special thanks to Soroptimist International Jersey for their generous sponsorship of this mural. Thank you to John Syvret for painting an excerpt from the JCG collaborative student poem added to the finished mural.
Tide Together, 2025
Ocean Culture Life + CAMHS community group
The 2025 edition of ArtHouse Jersey’s Art in the Arches at the Elizabeth Marina opens with the installation of this mural, Tide Together created during a week-
The collaboration during World Ocean Week was created to support family wellbeing through creativity, community, and connection with nature. Through a powerful mix of photography, printmaking, beach time, mural painting, and shared storytelling, the programme offered a safe, welcoming space for families to reconnect, express themselves, and reflect together. It is the first mural to be placed along the arches at the Elizabeth Marina in this year’s edition of Art in the Arches with its theme Out of the Blue. An expression of our connection with the ocean, with our surroundings and with our communities.
New friendships were formed, stories were shared, and the ocean became a place where everyone — regardless of age or background — could feel free and accepted. A non-judgemental, open space for all. We hope this mural continues to spark connection, confidence and care, both for our ocean and for one another.
Art in the Arches 2025: Out of the Blue is produced by ArtHouse Jersey, with special thanks to Jersey’s Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) and Ocean Culture Life for their generous sponsorship and partnership with this mural.
Acknowledgements
Produced by ArtHouse Jersey
Curator & project facilitator: Jacque Rutter
Project conciever: Mary Venturini
The schools and community groups:
Jersey College For Girls
Hautlieu School
Rouge Bouillon School
Springfield School
CAMHS
Ocean Culture Life
Text by Mary Venturini
Photography by Blake Watson
Art in the Arches 2025: Out of the Blue is produced by ArtHouse Jersey, with thanks to; Radisson Blu Waterfront Hotel, Jersey Development Company, Normans, AA Langlois, Vacload, Parish of St. Helier and also to John Baker.
