Neil Arms’s paintings have been admired by thousands of people. But his work has never hung in a gallery. His audience is mainly in pubs, clubs and restaurants.

Neil is one of the UK’s leading chalkboard artists. He lives in Kirkby Thore, near Penrith. From there he drives to all corners of the country, spray-painting famous faces onto blackboards.

  • An image of Macaulay Culkin and the words: ‘Don’t be home alone this Christmas. Join us for a three-course festive lunch’.
  • Daniel Craig’s James Bond: ‘When you Ex Spectre great steak, relax, we’re licensed to grill 007 days a week!’
  • Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh in Gone With the Wind: ‘Show your loved one that you do give a damn this Valentines.’

Neil, 50, talks to The Cumberland News in the Woodrow Wilson pub on Carlisle’s Botchergate. He suggested the venue as it’s one of hundreds of places where his work is viewed.

Two impressive likenesses of the 28th President of the United States look down from above the glass collection hatch. They were carefully sprayed with an airbrush five years ago.

Neil is a friendly chap, and confident about his work. “I just really love what I do,” he says. 

“I like seeing it all come together and customers’ reaction to it. It’s all quite humbling: ‘I never thought you’d be able to do that.’ ‘I’ve never seen anything like that.’”

He admits: “I’m just a little bit cocky with it because I’m totally self-taught and I’m regarded as probably the best in the UK now. A lot of chalkboard artists are art students who think they can do it. They can’t. There’s probably five in the UK that are any good.”


Neil Arms Neil has worked for many of the country’s major pub, club, restaurant and leisure companies.

Sometimes his signs consist only of lettering. Neil usually suggests the words as well as writing them.

The most eye-catching signs also feature a face. Such as a steak offer in a Manchester pub last year.

This was just after Jeremy Clarkson had been suspended by the BBC for punching a Top Gear producer over the lack of late night steak at their hotel.

Neil painted a scowling Clarkson with the words: ‘Cheer up Jezza. Our steaks are served until 10pm.’

“I did this two days after the event,” he smiles. “He’d only just been suspended. I just couldn’t help myself. They wanted to advertise their steak. I just thought ‘Jeremy Clarkson might be able to get his steak here’.

“I was quite clever. I didn’t use the words ‘Jeremy Clarkson’ or Top Gear . If you keep away from names you can wing it.”

Has anyone ever complained about their likeness being used? “Not yet, luckily.”

Neil is from Essex and spent his early years in the south. He was always interested in art and isn’t sure where his talent comes from, although it may have filtered through the family tree. “Apparently a great-great uncle designed the Bisto Kids.”

He stresses that in his youth he never did graffiti. “I only paint on a wall if someone asks me to do it.”

Neil’s first chalkboard art was 30 years ago when he lived in Oxford. These days he uses a photograph of his subject on his tablet as a guide.

These subjects vary enormously. For one recent job Neil painted The Queen at a pub in Preston. He felt a sense of pride at portraying Her Majesty. “Although obviously she’s not going to see it. Well, you never know.”

His subjects are not always famous. Neil created a mural at Carlisle Golf Club depicting the club’s former professional John More.

At a sports bar in Ross-on-Wye famous faces came together with an ordinary man. “I was there all week doing a selection of sports legends. A few weeks later a local rugby player, only in his twenties, had a tragic accident and died.

“It was suggested that we should put his face up there. Which we did. His family were invited to come in and reopen this bar. That was the first time his mother and father had looked at his face since he died. That was emotional.”

<div class="PullQuote">Now I get excited about coming up with the next idea and artwork. Every day is completely different</div>

Sometimes Neil paints things rather than people, such as a Vulcan bomber at Robin Hood Airport in South Yorkshire.

His biggest creation was 800 feet long: a selection of film stars at Southport Pontins.

At a pub last month he advertised a Tour de Yorkshire-themed barbecue with an image of Bradley Wiggins. Neil put this on his Instagram account and hashtagged Wiggins, who ‘liked’ it on his own account. “I was absolutely gobsmacked,” says Neil.

He clearly cares about his work. So is it frustrating to know that most of it will be blacked out within a few months when Neil is asked to paint a new offer in its place?

“It used to be. But now I get excited about coming up with the next idea and artwork. Every day is completely different.”

Reaction is important to him. He admits to sometimes feeling slightly nervous while working. “The pubs are open. You’ve got an audience. You get the odd comment. At Woodrow Wilson, someone was saying something about my pen. I said ‘Alright, Da Vinci – I know what I’m doing.’

“If you’re painting someone famous it’s got to look like that person, which invariably it does. Because if it didn’t I’d just black it out and start again!”

He and his wife Susie moved to Cumbria in 2009. Susie’s parents are from the county.

“It’s the best move we ever made. Being from an area like Essex, it’s just amazing waking up to the Eden Valley every morning. The only thing that gets me down is the being away from home. I leave home on Monday morning and get home on Friday night.”

A quirky diversion came five years ago with Britain’s Got Talent. Neil was one of 30,000 people in the Glasgow auditions, and one of just 48 invited back to perform for the judges.

He planned to paint a portrait of Michael Bublé while singing Cry Me A River. The judges gave him little time to demonstrate either skill.

“I was on stage for about 20 seconds. It was all a bit surreal. It was the year David Hasselhoff was on the panel. He kept calling me Alan.”

Singing is one of Neil’s sidelines. Another is stand-up comedy. Tim Vine is a good friend.

But painting remains his main creative outlet. While the vast majority of Neil’s work is in pubs, clubs and restaurants he also paints on canvas, usually famous faces.

And he creates murals in people’s homes, particularly children’s bedrooms. “I’d like to start doing more of that. It’s lovely when somebody presents you with a big blank wall and says ‘We’d like a Disney theme.’”

He and Susie have four children. The youngest are daughters Lola, eight, and Ruby, seven. Perhaps future generations of celebrities will be depicted in pubs around the country, courtesy of Lola.

“She’s a really good artist,” says Neil. “She’s got it really bang on. She’s now convinced that she’s going to take it over from me when I pack it in or drop dead.”

To see more of Neil’s work visit www.neiljarms.com