Seawall Permit Program Does Their Art Good : Painting: Huntington Beach officials say three times as many people than they had expected are creating aerosol works.

Three times as many people as expected are now creating “aerosol art” under a pioneering program that makes spray-can painting legal in this city.

During the first six months of the program, the city has issued some 300 free permits, said Naida Osline, the Huntington Beach cultural services supervisor who conceived and oversees the program.

“I thought it would top off at about 100,” Osline said. “On weekends, it’s like a spontaneous art festival because so many people are painting” on a mile-long retaining wall north of the municipal pier. A permit allows the holder to work only on this seawall.

Southland arts officials believe the program may be the first and only one of its kind on the West Coast. Most permits have been issued to people who live in Orange County, but Osline said some artists have traveled from Los Angeles and Riverside counties and as far away as San Diego for the chance to do aerosol art legally.

Huntington Beach police said illegal tagging--crudely scrawled gang names or logos--in the area of the seawall has “definitely” increased, but no one has been cited or fined for painting without a permit.

Osline said she has occasionally painted out initials belonging to a local white supremacist group and has seen some other tagging. But Ron Hagan, the city’s Community Services Department director, said he has observed a “marked decrease” of unwanted graffiti on and near the wall, which he said is the result of peer pressure generated by permit holders.

New and different painting styles have recently proliferated, said Osline, who dubs it all “suburban folk art.” Spray-can artists still dominate, with large, explosively colorful letters spelling out their names or whimsical, comic book-like caricatures.

But more brush-painted pieces akin to traditional murals and smaller, highly detailed designs sprayed through stencils are appearing, she said. All painting is meant to be temporary--one artist’s work is often replaced by another’s within a few days, Osline said.

Peter Greco, a 37-year-old Los Angeles artist who spray-paints with stencils, said now he has no reason to make art illegally.

“Now that they’ve given me that permit, I haven’t done it illegally anywhere, and I won’t,” Greco said. “Any time I have the urge, I’ll just go to Huntington (Beach). Yeah, it’s a long drive, but people appreciate it. My work is small, and you have to be walking by to see it.”

Most passersby have been supportive, said Greco, who can spend weeks drawing a stencil design that ends up as a single, 18-square-inch painting.

“Lots of people ask why (he’s painting on the wall), and I usually say the main reason is to beautify the city. . . . No one has ever argued with that. They don’t always agree (that the work) is beautiful, but they usually just kind of accept that as a good attitude.”

So far, it has cost only about $200 to run the beach art program. Most of that spent printing and issuing permits, Hagan said.

“It’s a great program because it’s something the community does itself and the city just facilitates,” he said.