āNever Settleā
Dimensions: 120cm x 100cm
Medium: Mixed media on pre-stretched cotton canvas
Final Finish: Sealed with museum-grade archival varnish.
Materials & Process Overview:
āNever Settleā is a richly layered mixed media artwork created on a pre-stretched, triple-primed cotton box canvas. The surface was further reinforced by the artist with multiple coats of interior emulsion, building a dense, matte ground that fully conceals the canvas weave and evokes the texture of exposed urban surfaces.
Beneath the upper layers lies a subtle, metallic warmth, swirling strokes of burnished copper paint create movement and reflectivity within the composition.
To emulate the derelict wall where the original stencil design was first conceived, a rough surface was sculpted using heavy texture paste, giving the piece a tactile, weathered feel reminiscent of neglected architecture.
The central stencil was applied using high-pigment spray paint, uniting the energy of street art with the restraint of a gallery piece. A UV-resistant matte varnish was then applied to fix and protect the painted elements from light and environmental wear.
Around the text, a thick border was crafted using traditional Venetian-style plaster in a rich gold tone. As it cured, natural cracks emerged in the surface. these were highlighted with gilding wax to bring out their organic, timeworn character. The entire outer edge of the canvas was then gold-leafed, creating a hidden ring of opulence.
In a final conceptual shift, a layer of dark, gritty material was used over the gold, a hand-mixed blend of joint filler and black acrylic, applied to mimic the stark, unpolished look of unfinished concrete. This rough coating wraps around the edges and partially obscures the gold details. Over time, as the filler naturally degrades, fragments of gold will slowly be revealed beneath, transforming the piece into a living symbol of value breaking through decay.
āNever Settleā is a sculptural painting that embraces imperfection, time, and contradiction. It refuses the polished and static in favour of a layered, evolving narrative: one of erosion and revelation, hidden value and deliberate distress.
This is not a flat artwork, it is a time-reactive object, crafted through an intuitive process of building up, breaking down, and obscuring beauty beneath brutal surfaces. Every material was chosen with care, every change embraced as part of the final vision. The final varnish ensures archival protection, while the material beneath remains alive and in quiet motion.
For the collector, this work offers more than visual impact: it offers a story that continues, slowly and subtly unfolding across years.
āNever Settleā on display at Colonnade House for CRTL ALT CREATE Exhibition 2025
Never Settle Graffiti - Montague Street, Worthing
2017 - Now
Original instagram post 2017
The Story Behind āNever Settleā
By Alan Riley
The story of Never Settle begins in 2017, after I made the painful decision to cut someone out of my life, a girl I cared deeply for. Almost immediately, I regretted it. With no way to undo what Iād done or speak to her directly, I turned to writing as a form of release.
I created an anonymous Instagram account where I poured out my thoughts and feelings, mostly directed to her, though she never saw them. It was a place for raw, unfiltered emotion.
But just writing posts online didnāt feel like enough. I needed something physical, something that would live beyond the screen. So I started turning some of those written phrases into stencils. In the early hours, when the streets of Worthing were empty.
Iād go out and spray them anonymously under the alias #rebelromeo, inviting the public to share photos of them on social media.
Many did, and images of the work still can be seen under this hashtag on instagram spanning from 2017 to today.
One of the pieces that gained the most attention was Never Settle, painted on Montague Street in Worthing. That particular work struck a chord, not just with me, but with strangers who passed it every day. Itās still there now, quietly continuing to speak.
In 2024, I was invited to recreate Never Settle on canvas for an exhibition at Colonnade House during Worthing Festival week. I used the original stencil from the street version, exactly the same one I held in my hands years earlier, alone and unheard, walking the streets at night.
The piece was shown again in 2025 for my CTRL ALT CREATE solo exhibition at Colonnade House, where it became one of the most personal and talked-about works in the show.
Two more stencils from that era, She Did Not Know and Reflections in the Rain were displayed alongside Never Settle. Together these three represented the beginning and end of my time as Rebel Romeo. Reflections in the Rain was the final stencil I created back then, one that never made it onto the street. It sat quietly, waiting, until now, finally finding its place on canvas alongside the others.
To me this series is more than just painted words. Itās a timeline of emotion, anonymity, and expression intimately intertwined into the history of my life.
Never Settle at Worthing Festival 2024
Public taken photos of Never Settle and posted under #rebelromeo
Recreating Never Settle for Worthing Festival back in 2024 using the original stencils.
Never Settle at CTRL ALT CREATE Exhibition 2025