Results matching “paint”

Earlier this year, I visited Brussels in Belgium and walked around to find street art. One of the newest street art murals in the city was painted by Phlegm in 2020. Phlegm is a street artist from Sheffield in the United Kingdom, and his work is fantasy-based with monochrome illustrated characters with long legs and patterned clothing. His work is easily-recognized.

The artwork is painted on the side of the royal library on what is known as Art Mountain (Mont Des Arts). It was inspired by painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

Bruegel was a painter and print-maker and famous for landscapes showing everyday peasants and folk scenes. The artwork was painted in conjunction with an exhibition of unique black and white prints from the artist, marking 450 years since his death. 

Phlegm created his own interpretation of Bruegel's artwork "The Seven Deadly Sins" and "The Seven Virtues" in the mural.

For more street art by Phlegm on this blog, see:

Cranio and Phlegm Collaboration in Dalston - War
Plegm Paints "Hydra Towers" on Ion Square
Newcastle Street Art
New Mural by Phlegm on Old Street
Phlegm's Mural on Hanbury Street
Phlegm and ROA Street Art at South Bank
Baroque the Streets: Dulwich Street Art
Street Art: Phlegm

At the weekend, I went to explore the Paws on the Wharf charity sculpture trail across Canary Wharf. The sculptures depict guide dogs, each designed and painted differently by artists. The charity sculpture trail, which was held from the end of March, is available for eight weeks over the spring months. The sculptures will be auctioned off and raise money for charity Guide Dogs. It was put together with Wild In Art.

I had fun locating the sculptures, and a lot of others were also out locating them too. The weather was very bright and warm, and I located all of the sculptures.

Dot to Dog 

Dog Stars

Baskerville

Every Man has their day - painted by street artist Dom Pattinson

Where's Theia

Bark to the Future

Life is Golden

Spectrum

Day off At the Beach

Straight On

Jurassic Bark

Herby's Tail; Hearts of Gold

Baskerville; Cobalt

Paws for Thought; Poncho

Life is Golden; For the Love of Dogs

Trusty; Visionaries

Guide Dog Adventures; Guide Lines

I visited Brussels in February, and I had had two tours of the Brussels Town Hall, located in the UNESCO World Heritage Site square. There are two types of tour available, and both are different although a couple of the same rooms are toured twice, but both tours feature different rooms. The Panaromic Tour allows visitors to view the square from the balcony from a large room, which can be booked for weddings and also allows visitors to climb stairs to view the square from the top. The tours are conducted in different languages. Tour of the Brussels City Hall is by guided tours only.

The town hall was built in the early 1400s and is gothic in style. Extra wings were added to the hall later. The city hall was actually located here until more moderns times when a new building was erected. I did the panaromic tour first, and we explored a couple rooms.

One of the rooms was the Wedding Room. Here we stood on the balcony.

I got some close-up photographs of the statues.

I admired the view of the square from the balcony.

Afterwards, we headed into the Gothic Room. There are photographs of the guilds on the wall.

From here, we started to climb stairs.

Until we reached the top where we admired the view over the square.

I booked the standard tour for later on in the evening, and this toured the rooms including th wedding room and gothic room again.

We had a look at the first main room - the States of Brabant Room. We were told the history of the hall and the governance of Brussels and historical aspects. 

A lot of the rooms were filled with tapestries. Below is the Maxmillian Room.

We also went to a room filled with paintings of Brussels, but they are not recognisable as Brussels today. The paintings were commissioned by an artist before major works were carried out to demolish parts of the city and to bury the river and harbour under new streets of Brussels. 

We toured more rooms with tapestries.

Overall, I found both tours enjoyable. Both tours were different, so I think it depends on if you are more interested in getting a nice view over the square with some history or you want to see more of the rooms and learn more history about the building, governance, and the use of the rooms. 

Annatomix has been spray painting walls since 2012, and her work has appeared across London. Her style is geometrical shapes which create animals mainly, and foxes feature a lot in her work. I discovered the following bird mural off of Brick Lane and Pedley Street.

More work by Annatomix on this blog can be seen below:

• Street Art from Leicester's Bring the Paint Festivals in 2017 and 2019
• Bristol Upfest 2018
• Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park Environmental Street Art
• Street Art Tour of Birmingham
• Street Art Round-up: Winter 2015-2016
• Bristol Upfest 2015

Dan Kitchener (Dank) is a London-based street artist who often paints walls in east London. Commercial Road in one spot that he has been painting a lot recently, and there is another spot on Brick Lane that often includes a mural by him. The artist is known for painting night scenes and usually features Japanese city streets and sometimes female figures.

The first mural of 2024 is "Tokyo Alleys", which was painted at the beginning of March.

The following work was completed in autumn of 2023 on Brick Lane.

The other two were painted on Brick Lane and Commercial Street again sometime last summer.

For more work by Dan Kitchener (DANK) featured in this blog, please read the following links:

Dank Kitchener 'Arcade' Street Art on Commercial Street
Dan Kitchener "Tokyo Dreams" Murals in Evelina Road, Penge
Round-up of Dan Kitchener Street Art in East London and Camden
Dan Kitchener Paints "London Colours" at NYX Hotel Holborn, Southampton Row
Dan Kitchener Addition to "East London Geisha" on Commercial Road
Dan Kitchener Paints "Midnight Drive" on Hanbury Street
Street art by Dan Kitchener in Summer 2020
Dan Kitchen Returns to Clifton Street with "Tokyo Graffiti" Mural
Latest Street Art by Dan Kitchener
Dan Kitchener Paints 'Ghost Cities' on Pedley Street
Dank Paints 'Ghost Cities - Bristol' for Upfest 2018
Dan Kitchener Paints "Meeting of Styles"
'Future Tokyo and Tokyo Ghosts'
Dank "London Rush"
Dan Kitchener's Street Art on Sclater Street and More
Street Art: Dan Kitchener
"Downtown" Mural by Dan Kitchener
Goswell Road

While I was in Brussels last month, one of the attractions I visited was the Brussels City Museum, which includes a diverse collection of information important to the city of Brussels from Manneken Pis to a fire to city planning to porcelain. The museum is situated in The King's House in the square, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The building is beautiful, and there are several floors with different exhibitions. 

The first room had some early history about the architcture and the previous buildings that occupied the site, including some stonework and carvings. The Prophets are pictured below, and there was also a very old gargoyle and one of the earliest carvings.

The next area included porcelain made in Brussels. Brussels was also known to create altars for churches and tapestries were another famous export (if not the most famous export of the city). I liked the porcelain in the shape of vegetables.

On one of the upper floors, there was a discussion about the city planning and a model of the old city. The city used to have a river through it and docks, but the docks were unclean and smelled bad. The river was covered. There were paintings depicting Brussels with the riverside and parts of the town that no longer exist. A painter was commissiond to paint the streets of Brussels before demolition of areas. 

One of the exhibitions at the top of the museum is the weather vane that used to grace the top of the town hall. It depicts Saint Michael, who is regarded as the important saint of Brussels. It dates to the middle of the 1400s. This same room housed information about the fire and seize of Brussels.

A final room at the top was dedicated to Manneken Pis. The original Manneken Pis statue is located here, and a few of his outfits and tributes from other countries are shown. He's so famous that he has a book in China. Entrance to the Manneken Pis Garderobe museum is free of cost with a visit to the Brussels City Museum. For informtion about that museum, see: Manneken Pis.

I enjoyed my afternoon visit to the Brussels City Museum, and it is a good museum to learn about the history of the city.

Street artist ALO has been painting London's walls since early in 2013, and I loved the work I saw. It takes me back to a good time when I worked on Brick Lane and explored the street art. ALO is Italian-born and does visit London to add more murals. The artist was back in the city earlier this year and left a couple of new murals around Redchurch Street and the surrounding area. 

Additional work by ALO featured on this blog:

New Street Art by ALO in East London (2020/2021)
New Street Art in London by ALO
ALO paints new street art near Brick Lane
ALO returns to London and paints abstract portraits (2015)
ALO: 2013
'ALO Part 2'
'ALO part 3'
'ALO Part 4'

In 2023, I came across a couple of walls of street art at Allen Gardens off Brick Lane in London. The street art is signed, but I cannot read who the artist is. I really like the street art, so if anyone can help identify the street artist, I would be very happy to know who the artist is. The work reminded me a little of Lora Zombie's work, but I know it's not hers.

The first one shows a female police officer and a female robber with bags of money. The gun being pointed has a flag on it, and it is painted on a pink background.

The second mural shows a woman blowing bubblegum with tattoo arms and wearing an ammunition belt. Unfortunately, it has been tagged over so I cannot see the full image.

Earlier this month, I visited the city of Brussels, and one of the items on the agenda was to visit the Atomium and the site of the 1958 Expo. The Atomium has become one of the symbols of the city of Brussels, and it was built for the 1958 World Exhibition. The Expo was a huge event that included various countries coming together to showcase innovations in science and technology. After the Expo, the Atomium was due to be torn down, but it remained and was renovated in 2004 and 2006 for visitors and attracts over 600,000 per year. 

I visited the exhibition site on my first full day and got up early to visit. The sky was very cloudy, but some sun tried to shine through. The site is located a short train twenty-minute ride from the centre of Brussels. 

Outside the train station at Heysel are the exhibition grounds. Actually, two Expos were held here. There was one in 1935, and the second was in 1958, soon after the second World War and near the beginning of Cold War tensions. The above building is an Art Deco exhibition centre built for the 1935 Expo. Grounds were also built and sculptured and illuminated at night with fireworks displays.

As I arrived early and before the Expo opened, I first had a look around. As mentioned above, grounds (next to the Atomium) were created and landscaped in 1934 for the 1935 exhibition, and I visited them. Jules Buyssens was the inspector of parks and grounds and promenades in Brussels, and he developed the Parc d'Osseghem. The grounds include forest, which is steep in places due to its former use as a quarry. This was incorporated into English-style gardens with curves and viewpoints to encourage painting. 

The grounds also includes an open-air theatre. This open-air theatre had excellent acoustics for orchestras and performances that took place in 1935 and 1958. It also hosts a jazz festival. The cylindrical beech trees are one of the park's features.

The 1958 exhibition site covers over 200 hectacres and divided into sveral areas of pavilions, squares, palaces, fountains, gardens, and statues. New architecture designs and materials were experimented with to create the buildings. Most of those buildings are torn down, but Atomium is one of the structures that remains.

Atomium was built to showcase the iron and steel European community founded in the 1950s, but aluminium was used instead. The structure itself was designd like an atom, and the material and form were combined to create the name of the structure "atomium". The structure became an icon. It was a symbol of hope to popularize atomic energy. It was the centrepiece of the exhibition centre in 1958.

After wandering around the gardens, I got to the Atomium and took my trip up via th elevator to the top. The elevator takes guests up to the top orb. This is the viewing area, and there's also a restaurant at the top. There is a wonderful view over Brussels, though the Atomium is a few miles outside of the centre of Brussels.

Here are some facts of the Atomium structure: The structure includes 9 spheres, and it is 102m tall. The elevator in the middle of the structure shoots up to the top in five meters per second. 

I visited the restaurant and had a cocktail and enjoyed the view. I enjoyed the view, and I was the only one in the restaurant during my visit. It had a late-1950s feel about it. The cocktail was a special one for winter, and it was delicious. It was called "Winter Fell Atomium" and includd Curacao, amaretto, cocnut puree, basil, and lemon.

After the restaurant, I continued to admire the 360 degree view. One of the attractions that I wanted to see was Mini Europe, but it was closed for the winter. I could see some of it from above. I will have to visit it some other time.

I took a photograph of the park that I visited earlier.

Once I had seen the view, I got the elevator back down to the ground level and was then shown the way to the museum. This was located up some stairs and then to other orbs connected by stairways and escalators. The first part of the exhibition contained information about the Atomium structure and 1958 Expo.

It included some drawings of the structure, a map of the 1958 exhibition, branding materials and advertising worldwide, and information about the running of the Expo or World's Fair. 

There was also a model of the structure.

The other parts of the museum included various artistic light shows. The next escalator brought me to the next orb with different light colours and patterns with a soundscape. There were various rooms with lights too.

The last light room included a relaxing soundscape with benches.

The exit back down to the ground floor includd another light show in the escalator with audio sounds from space and astronauts.

I enjoyed my visit to the Atomium. I would book it in advance and arrive early in the day to make the most of it. Entrance to the structure also gives free access to the Design Museum, located a short walk away.

When I was in east London earlier this year, I came across new Otto Schade street are on the "Bull in A China Shop" cafe near Shoreditch High Street station. Otto Schade has previously painted on the side of this cafe, and an older artwork of his remains on the side. The cafe now contains additional work by the artist. The artwork contains a bull's head, beer bottle, and ribbon designs. 

In addition to the new mural, I am also posting an image of the ape face that is painted on the side of a corner shop on Brick Lane. This wall is always obscured now, so it is difficult to get any photograph unless visiting very early or very late.

I also saw this mural, which I don't seem to have posted yet. It features the artist's silhouette style with two children playing a game with an apple logo during a war.

Another mural has been repainted as it was looking very faded, and this is located on the side of The Viaduct bar in Shoreditch and features a royal guard.

I've previously posted about Otto Schade's street art in the following posts:

Otto Schade - The Viaduct and Other
Otto Schade on Farnshaw Street - Eva's Green Apple
New Snoopy Street Art and Other Street Art by Otto Schade in East London
Otto Schade Paints Donna Summer on "Bull In A China Shop" in Shoreditch and Others
Otto Schade Murals on Kingsland Road
Long Street - Otto Schade, CodeFC, The Krah
Street Art by Otto Schade
Otto Schade Paints "The Lady Don't Protest Enough" Mural on Bateman's Row
Otto Schade "Jack the Ripper 2040" Street Art
Otto Schade 'The Believers' and 'WTF'
'Bull in a China Shop', 'Osch-car' and 'Flies Around Sh*t'
Otto Schade 'Peace and Love on the Streets'
Street Artist Otto Schade Paints Southampton 'Zany Zebra' for Charity (and other work)
Street Art Round-up: Spring & Summer 2015
Otto Schade's New Street Art (Meerkats, Portraits, & More) in East London
New Street Art from Horror Crew, Swoon, Otto Schade, HIN, and others
Street Art: Otto Schade