Okay, so Bristol has Banksy. So what? Pah! Swindon has it's very own resident artist in Ken White. I'll grant you 'Ken White' doesn't trip off the tongue in quite the same way that 'Banksy' does but he's no less illustrious for all that!  If you haven't heard of him and think you don't know his work then you couldn't be more wrong. An extract from the artist's website will explain:

'Ken White is perhaps best known for his murals, sited in a wide variety of locations all over the world. To date, he has painted over one hundred murals.

He was, for many years, the personal artist for Virgin boss Richard Branson and has completed works for him in many Virgin establishments throughout the world, including record shops, hotels and airport lounges.

With the launch of Virgin Atlantic in 1984, Ken produced what is probably his most well known work: the "Scarlet Lady" emblem which features on all the airline's aircraft'.

So yep. Not only has Ken painted murals all over the world he is the creator of Richard Branson's 'Scarlet Lady'. See, I said you'd know his work. So is he not something to celebrate about Swindon? Well, as far as I'm concerned he's worthy of his own place on my personal selection of 'Ten things to celebrate about Swindon' list - which is not being compiled in any particular order - rather than being clumped under under the broad umbrella of 'Arts/culture/heritage' of which there is so very much here in Swindon. And how fantastic is that for a start?

In Swindon though, he is best known for his murals, though tragically many of them are lost now due to development.  :-(  which is such a shame - I really do love a good 'muriel' -  as Hilda Ogden referred to hers.

You can read more about Ken's Swindon murals on SwindonWeb but better still go to Swindon Viewpoint where you will find numerous films about Ken. Here is one from the early 1980s.