Results matching “paint”

This summer in Swindon, visitors can see a new charity sculpture art trail from WildInArt. The Bid Dog Art Trail brings large sculptures of balloon dogs to the streets of Swindon, and each one has been uniquely painted by an artist. There are thirty large-sized sculptures to see and more smaller ones that have been decorated by the community. The sculptures aim to raise money for Julia's House children's hospice. I went to Swindon to look for the sculptures last weekend and enjoyed visiting a new place and tracking down the dogs. Unfortunately, someone had damaged a few of them, so they had to be removed.

Raimbow Warrior - Tim Sutcliffe

Smok - Liam Kelleher

Running with the Dogs - Robert Mach; Love Grows - Judy Guillery

Creative Twist - ASingh

Reflecting on Swindon - Phil Daniels

Spike - Donna Newman

Dog Rogers - Steev Curtis

Viva la Frida - Gem van Gils

Puppy Love - Kitty Shepherd

Pup Art - Glen Brooks

Steam Pup - Morgan Gulliery

Pit Bull Terrier - Pandemonia

Verbal Camoflougue (Splosh) - David Mach; Woolfy Wiltshire - Julia Greenaway

The Life of the Lydiard Fields - Marta Zubieta

Abbe - Abbey Farm

Papillon - Caroline Parrot

Penny for your thoughts - Jane Morgan; Hot Dog - Donna Newman; Tails of Swindon - Hannah Dosanijh; Swin-'E'-Dog Leading the Charge - Mimi Salter

Sparky - New College Swindon Students

The sculpture trail is in place until early September, and an auction will be held in the middle of the month to raise funding for the charity by auctioning off the artwork.

At the end of August, I visited Las Iguanas in Ealing for birthday brunch with friends. We were celebrating a friend's birthday and opted for the bottomless brunch at Last Iguanas in Ealing because of the different options. Visitors can have cocktails or Prosecco, and they were generous with the servings. I tried three different cocktails and also had Prosecco.

The decor of the restaurant is very colourful and contains stree art by artist Elno, who I have covered a few times in my street art posts.

I forgot to take a photograph of my main meal, but the portions are quite small, so it is easy to have too much alcohol. For dessert, I had a chocolate brownie. It was delicious.

Street artist HNRX has been painting across east London in the past several years. HNRX's artwork is an illustrative style and blending two unrelated items together. The below features lemon and bone, banana and sausage, sausage and cucumbers, and other food-related items. The artist uses surrealism to create eye-catching and unrelated items in a blended style. The below were painted some time ago but only just discovered on trips around the city and are the larger murals that I have seen.

Previous street art by these artists in this blog:

HNRX, Frankie Strand, ThisOne
Street Art Round-Up January, 2018
Street Art: HNRX and ThisOne
Street Art: This One
Street Art: HNRX
Leake Street Tunnels, Spring 2016
Street Art Murals in east London by ThisOne
ThisOne and Koctel Collaborate on Street Art in Shoreditch

Street artist Woskerski is based in London and has been painting in London for several years now. His artwork is always eye-catching with interesting characters and portraits that are highly expressive. In the summer of 2021, the below portrait of a girl with big hair was painted on a shutter on Maple Road in Penge.

More street art by Woskerski on this blog can be seen below:

Woskerski Dog Street Art in Penge
Woskerski Street Art Ad on Hanbury Street
Woskerski Street Art in Penge
Recent Street Art by Woskerski in East London
Woskerski Street Art in East London
Woskerski Paints Toynbee Street for London Mural Festival
Most Recent Street Art by Woskerski
Street Art: Woskerski
Recent Spring 2018 Woskerski Street Art

While in Leeds in the middle of July, I visited Kirkstall Abbey ruins. They abbey at Kirkstall was a Cistercian monastary and founded in the 1150s. The ruins are picturesque and have featured in paintings by famous artists. The abbey started its life by the founders of Pontefract who dedicated the abbey after a serious illness, and Fountains Abbey was also founded under direction of the same man. Now in ruins, its ruins are one of the best preserved after meeting its fate after the dissolution of monastaries. After it was abandoned, it fell to ruin over the years. Some of the stone was used in other local building projects.

The first ruins (and the ones to visit without paying the entrance cost of the abbey) is that of the guest house. It was a large house set away from the abbey so that the monks would not disturb the guests.

During my visit, there was a special art and craft sale on, so the monastary ruins were busy with people setting up.

Below are the cloisters.

Sacristy.

The interior of the abbey cathedral.

A small chapel in the abbey.

Some of the other buildings on the site outside of the abbey.

That concludes my visit to Kirkstall Abbey. Across the road from the abbey is the Abbey House Museum, which is also worth a visit.

Last month, i visited Gawthorpe Hall, which is an Elizabethan country house that was redesigned in the 1850s by Charles Barry (designer of the Houses of Parliament). The hall is located in Lancashire. The hall houses portraits on loan from the National Portrait Gallery and Gawthorpe Textiles Collection, which belonged to Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth. The house is maintained by National Trust and Lancashire County Council. I went to explore it on a dry but cloudy day.

The hall is thought to have originated as a pele tower or fortress dating from the 14th century to defend against invading Scots. The land has been occupied by the Shuttleworth family since the 12th century, but the existing house dates from 1600 and was updated in 1850.

There is a small garden at the back of the house, and there are acres of woodland to explore.

The first room upon entering the house is the dining hall with its beautiful fireplace and detailed ceiling. 

Th volunteers explained some of the items in the room, such as souvenirs that the family brought back from Italy. These were displayed in cabinets in the dining hall.

The hallway is a smaller intimate place with a staircase to the first floor.

The other main room downstairs was the living area with beautiful panelling, fireplace, and carved ceilings with high detail decoration.

The rooms upstairs at Gawthorpe Hall contained information about the residents and a collection of textiles from Rachel Shuttleworth, who collected textiles from around the world and was a teacher of them. She also was involved in social charity. Some of the rooms were dedicated to her collection of textiles and some of her own work. The house became a craft house, and she was active in educating people about textiles and creating them.

I took a photograph of some of the collections, which included her own work and examples from all over the world.

Another room upstairs was dedicated to the women of Gawthorpe Hall and their mark on society and social welfare. Many of them contributed to helping disadvantaged people and providing services for the war and for health and wellbeing. One of the women, Freydis, was one of the first women pilots in World War II and continued to fly into her 80s. Marianne was inspired by botany and travelled the world without a chaperone and donated her paintings of plants to Kew.

Another beautiful room upstairs in Gawthorpe Hall is the long gallery, and I loved the wallpaper in this room. 

Thre were also a couple of bedrooms to see with old bed.

I visited the beautiful living room downstairs on the way out as it was busy with people on the first viewing.

Gawthorpe Hall was interesting to visit and included some nice rooms with a lot of beautiful panelling and collections of interesting items. 

Italian-born street artist ALO has been painting in London in the unique style of portraits since 2013, and the style of work I immediately was drawn to when I discovered it. Every now and then, the artist returns to London and leaves more murals and paste-ups across the streets. The below were photographed across the past couple of years.

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'

Back in 2018, I discovered a lot of street art made of cans and spray-painted with words and placed across London's walls. The artwork is not signed, so I am not sure who is responsible for creating it, but if you do know, post a comment.

London

Camden Town

Together we can

What a beautiful smile

If you do know who is responsible for these, please comment.

Kirby Hall was built during the time of Elizabeth I in the late 1500s in Northamptonshire as a status of power and wealth for the Stafford family. It was built around a courtyard as most medieval homes were, and it was built with architectural decorative detail. After Stafford, it was owned by the Hatton family, which Hatton Gardens in London is named after. Much of the property is now in ruin as it was left to decay. Its shell and some rooms (without much decoration) have been preserved to understand how these buildings were constructed and to showcase the retained details. The property is managed today by English Heritage.

The house is simply a shell today void of furniture and decoration in the rooms. Some of the walls have been completly demolished without roof and without plaster. In the 1800s, the families abandoned the house to live in other areas. Until 1831, it was cared for. Then, tenants moved into the house. They consisted of farmers and farm labourers. Animals were allowed to roam the grounds too. 

Cattle came up to greet me, but they are secured inside a fence and visible from the mansion.

The below columns are unique and highly-decorated. The design for these were discovered in a book.

The below detail of the knot symbol was the family symbol of the Staffords.

The Great Hall, pictured below, would have had tapestries hung. It is the first room on entry of the mansion, and it would have been decorated to impress.

Below is the Billiard Room. The wallpaper colour and design is taken from what was actually discovered in the room and recreated.

The Long Gallery remains can be seen from the window in an upper floor at the top of a staircase. A long gallery was used to showcase paintings, views, and provide a place to get exercise in bad weather.

Below is the Great Chamber, which was decorated lavishly. Music, dancing, and entertainment took place in this room.

A lost village was located behind the grounds of Kirby Hall. The village was noted in the Doomesday Book, and it was abandoned by the early 1500s. Cherchberie was the name of the village, and it can be seen in the raised areas in the field next to the formal gardens. The area was developed as "wilderness", which were simply grounds or parkland to get lost in thoughts in.

The garden would have been walled in keeping with the latest fashions in garden design. It would have contained practical plants (fruit, herbs, and vegetables), water features, and statues. It would have been arranged in a geometric pattern. Later on, some of the plants would have come from abroad from Japan, China, and the Americas. Below is a photograph of the garden from the windows of the house.

The Best Bedchamber, pictured below, would have been used a number of times by King James I. It would have been lavishly decorated.

Below would have been the library. Hatton was interested in books and would have had a large collection in different subjects. He also was interested in collecting antique books.

The next part of the tour was the gardens, and I admired the views.

Along the back side of the house are the kitchen rooms, which I photographed below.

Kirby Hall has three resident peacocks. The peacocks wander the grounds and do make a lot of noise.

This one was very curious and wanted to hang out with me in the shop.

Overall, the audio guide and panels about Kirby Hall were informative, and I enjoyed learning about this place. Many of the properties are museums and set up beautifully inside. Although it is a shame that the beautiful rooms, details, and furnishings no longer exist, seeing the mansions in this partial decay state is interesting to understand their evolution and build.

US-based street artist David Puck paints portraits using a graphic design and illustration style. The mural in this post was painted at the end of 2021, but I have only just gotten around to including it. It was painted at the skate park along the South Bank and has since been painted over.

More blog posts featuring David Puck's street art on this blog:

David Puck Street Art in Crytsal Palace