A CREATIVE painter has brought an ugly urban spot to life with his new dotty designs.

Matt Whistler, 48, the Artist Dotty, was approached by Travis Perkins to perk up its car park in Trafalgar Lane, Brighton.

So he took on the challenge with an idea for using spots to create colourful characters on the walls in North Laine. Matt, who also works as a comedian and as a painter and decorator, said it has helped bring colour to the area.

He said: “The company saw my work and asked if I could do the side of their building in the car park. It was really good fun, and was almost like theatre with the characters walking past.

“I never sketch the outline first, I just put the characters straight on the walls, they just jump out at me.

“They are a form of entertainment, and as I was painting people were walking past and asking how many dots there were so far. I told them that by that point they were probably two days too late, it was probably millions.

“The paintings just have a brightness to them, and the area is becoming a place which is like an outdoor art gallery in its own right now.

“It is like urban regeneration with graffiti artists putting something artistic on the walls.”

He said he has been painting and drawing since he was a child, and said people have appreciated the vibrancy of the work.

It isn’t the only creative work he has taken on during the tough past few months. He found hundreds of old records dumped in a skip, and saw the opportunity to bring those back to life too.

Matt, who is based near Norfolk Square in Brighton, teamed up with staff at The Record Album near the station to purchase any records which no longer work.

He said he did not “deface” any records with artistic covers, only the ones from what he described as “out of the Des O’Connor bargain basement”.