Shek O artist's splash of colour dashed by the graffiti busters

Shek O residents are demanding more support for public art after a 4.8-metre mural by a local artist was wiped out by government contractors because it was deemed illegal graffiti.

The brightly coloured artwork, Keep Shek O Beautiful, was painted by village artist Ray Yip on March 14 on slope works at the junction of Shek O Road and Cape D'Aguilar Road. The abstract landscape represented the sea view from above Shek O's main beach.

But on Wednesday morning contractors for the Highways Department painted over the mural after preparing the site by placing green netting over it the previous day.

Friends of Yip who rushed to the scene to protect the artwork found that the job had already been completed.

A Highways Department spokesman said it was responsible for the slope in Shek O and, although it was not the body charged with enforcing the law against offenders who produced unlawful graffiti, as a general practice it would arrange to clear it away. In repeated cases, the department would also report graffiti to the police.

'On March 24, we received a complaint from a member of the public against graffiti painted on the buttress wall of the subject slope and asked for rectification,' he said.