Ben's art is straight off the back of a lorry

IT'S a dirty job but someone's got to do it. Artist Ben Long has cast aside paintbrush, canvas and easel - and simply uses his finger to draw in the thick dirt on the back of lorries.

Under his skilled hand, graphic images of people, animals and objects appear in the grime on trucks parked over weekends at New Covent Garden Market, which Mr Long, 23, has turned into his open- air "studio".

He has videoed his work for his first major exhibition at Gallery 198 in Brixton, which opened last week and runs for a month.

Originally from Lancaster, he is calling the exhibition Northern Soul, and it also features the work of his friend and colleague, Brian Hodgson.

"I've always enjoyed reading the things people write on the backs of vehicles and I started seeing the lorries as potential canvas," said Mr Long, who graduated with a first in BA Graphic Art at Camberwell College of Arts last summer.

"I started doing the dirt pictures a year ago to get noticed and for a bit of fun. After a while I've been accepted." He uses wooden pallets from the market to reach the lorries. "This creates the sense of an easel underneath a large canvas," he said. "The lorry is like a moving gallery space."

Each drawing takes him four to five hours, and he has now completed 40. "I do simple things that people can look at and think, 'that is art'," he said.

"I have drawn quite traditional stuff like chaffinches, a horse, a fighter pilot, the Queen and a couple smoking."

He says he doesn't see his work as revolutionary. "I'm just exaggerating what people do anyway. They draw on the backs of vans, so why should I use a paintbrush? Using your finger is a really interesting way of drawing. It's more direct."

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