MUSWELL HILL, England - When first exposed to the art of Ben Wilson, or to Mr. Wilson in the act of creating it, people tend to respond with some degree of puzzlement.

“When I first saw one, I thought it was a fruit sticker,” said Matt Brasier, who was walking through this north London suburb the other day.

A woman named Vassiliki said that when she came upon Mr. Wilson on the sidewalk, “I thought he wasn’t very well.” She added: “I was like, ‘What is he doing?’ And they told me: ‘He’s painting the chewing gum.’ ”

That is exactly what he was doing. Mr. Wilson, 47, one of Britain’s bestknown outsider artists, has for the last six years or so immersed himself in a peculiar passion all his own: he paints tiny pictures on flattened blobs of discarded chewing gum on the sidewalks of London. Weird as the pursuit might be, the result is lovely: seemingly random spots of color amid the gray that, on closer examination, turn out to be miniature paintings of just about anything: animals, landscapes, portraits and, often, stylized messages of regret, thanks, commemoration and love.

His pictures have become a chronicle of the neighborhood . Among those dotted outside the post office, for example, are a rest- in-peace painting for a postman and a picture of a tiger in honor of a postal worker from Sri Lanka.

Mr. Wilson has achieved much attention as an artist . He created some of his earlier pieces - mostly enormous wood structures built in forests and fields, some commissioned, many not - in places as far away as Australia, Finland and Baltimore. Several years ago, he was an artist in residence at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Though his girlfriend’s salary from her job as a teacher’s aide helps, as does the occasional sale of his (normal-size) paintings, Mr. Wilson does most of his work for no pay, feeling, he said, that the paintings and how they relate to the community are enough of a reward.

His current project was inspired by a variety of concerns: the scourge of chewing gum on city sidewalks, people’s carelessness about the environment and how advertisements, not art, rule the urban landscape.

His technique involves softening the gum with a blowtorch, spraying it with lacquer then applying three coats of acrylic enamel. He uses tiny brushes, quick-drying his work with a cigarette lighter as he goes along, and then seals it with clear lacquer. Each painting takes between a few hours and a few days, and can last several years.

Mr. Wilson said he did not mind if his paintings were washed away or torn up for repaving or ruined by urban grime. “Everything is transitory,” he said. “What’s important is the creative process.”


By SARAH LYALL