Results matching “paint”

At the start of lockdown, Zabou was in the process of painting a new mural just off Toynbee Street on the back of "The Wellington" pub. The mural features the infamous Jack the Ripper peeking out of a wall with trademark deerstalker hat, staring crazily down at the pavement below. Most of the "Jack the Ripper" murders happened in this area with a piece of bloody cloth left with a message on Goulston Street, just around the corner from here and the closest and last murder scene attributed to the Ripper in what was Dorset Street literally around the corner. Dorset Street is known as White's Row today, and the ground where the low income accommodations occupied had included a parking garage in more modern times, but this was replaced with an office block in the past couple of years. A barber shop with the pun-name "Jack the Clipper" is also located nearby.

The Jack the Ripper mural brings back the element of history to this part of east London and the grim reminder that this part of London was very poor and laden with crime and disorder in the not-so-distant past. The Ripper murders took place in the late 1800s, and that's only been about 140 years ago. 

Obviously, the identity of Jack the Ripper was never discovered and will never be discovered now, and there are many theories as to who it may have been. Nevertheless, the Ripper is synonymous with the history in this part of east London. Tourists can take walking tours and ghost tours in order to be transported back into these dark times. Rest in peace to the unfortunate women who became the victims of this crime and of other murders and crimes in this dark period of the history of London.

Previous Zabou murals that have appeared on this blog include:

Zabou: 'Racism is a Virus' Street Art
New Murals by Zabou in East London (Clockwork Orange, Sherlock, David Bowie)
Zabou "The Shining" and Refresh of Salvador Dali in Spitalfields
Villana and Zabou Collaborate on Amy Winehouse Street Art
Zabou paints Sid Vicious from 'The Sex Pistols'
Zabou Paints Freda #2 at Broadway Market
Zabou Paints Salvador Dali on Commercial Road
Koeone and Zabou Collaborate
"Keep Out!" Street Art by Zabou
Zabou's 'Cabinet of Curiosity' Street Art
Leake Street Tunnels Street Art, Spring 2016
Recent Street Art by Zabou
Street Art: Zabou

London-based street artist Zabou painted a powerful "Racism is a Virus" mural on the side of The Bell pub near Petticoat Lane at the end of June to correspond with the "Black Lives Matter" protests that took place across the world (including London). Zabou is known for her colourful and realistic portraits, and her work is always powerful. I was happy to see the new mural on social media although I was unable to get a photograph of it until recently.

The portrait is inspired by a photograph from futurehackney (https://www.instagram.com/futurehackney) and was taken during the Black Lives Matter London protests. It is a powerful photograph as well, and that photograph can be seen here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CBSUnVHHC75/?hl=en. 

This mural is a reminder that there is so much to do to combat racism.

Previous Zabou murals that have appeared on this blog include:
New Murals by Zabou in East London (Clockwork Orange, Sherlock, David Bowie)
Zabou "The Shining" and Refresh of Salvador Dali in Spitalfields
Villana and Zabou Collaborate on Amy Winehouse Street Art
Zabou paints Sid Vicious from 'The Sex Pistols'
Zabou Paints Freda #2 at Broadway Market
Zabou Paints Salvador Dali on Commercial Road
Koeone and Zabou Collaborate
"Keep Out!" Street Art by Zabou
Zabou's 'Cabinet of Curiosity' Street Art
Leake Street Tunnels Street Art, Spring 2016
Recent Street Art by Zabou
Street Art: Zabou

In the last year, I discovered several new walls painted with the toothy smiles and grins from London-based street artist Sweet Toof. The artist often paints these toothy smiles on London's walls as they inspire a sense of identity; the last time that the artist created the work on the streets was about three years ago. The work is sometimes a collaboration with other artists who have been on London's street art scenes for awhile. Below are the newest editions of the artist's work, which was mostly centred on Brick Lane.

For more information about Sweet Toof and to see more of his work, see the following posts:

Street Art By Sweet Toof, Mo, and Gold Peg
Street Art: Gee, Paul Insect, Sweet Toof, Bortusk Leer

Bethnal Green became a popular spot for street art back in 2016, and one of the murals was by Australian street artist Adnante, who lives in Melbourne. The mural was painted in 2016, and it is located on a back street that follows the rail line known as Clare Street. The street is closest to Cambridge Heath overground but is between that station and Bethnal Green on the central line. I walked by this mural at least a dozen times before being able to photograph it without anything in front of it. Adnante creates realistic-looking portraits and women and aborigine people are two favourite subjects. The artist started spray painting as a teenager and was influenced by Renaissance painters.

I love this artwork because it is very striking. The other artwork featured include Mr. Cenz (the left) and Amara por Dios (on the right).

I thought that I would include another series of street art that I had photographed in the past but never got around to sharing. The artwork was located on Long Street, and I believe that this area has been rebuilt in more recent years, so I do not think the murals exist. There were three murals in a row (and other murals on the street), and the artists were The Krah, CodeFC, and Otto Schade.

First up, The Krah is a group of artists from Athens who are based in London and have painted on the streets before with a rough illustration style. Murals of female subjects often feature in their works, and there is an element of fantasy. Read my last post by The Krah here: The KRAH Paints in East London.

CodeFC is another London-based artist, but their work in London is rare. They painted a lot during the 2012 Olympic games in London. Their work can be seen here: Street Art: 2Square, CodeFC, Jim Vision, Mr. Cenz, Peter Drew, Zadok 

Otto Schade is the busiest of the three featured street artists, and his work features often in London. On Long Street, his mural depicts a bird in flight using a style of illustration featuring a 'ribbon-like' style to create the bird; the bird feathers are blue, yellow, and pink. My latest post about the artist can be read here: Street Art by Otto Schade.

Hopefully things will feel safe and I will be able to get out to see what has happened with the street art scene in east London in the coming weeks.

I visited Claremont Landscape Garden, a National Trust property, on Sunday. Claremont Landscape Garden is located near Esher in Surrey, and it is one of the earliest surviving English Landscape Gardens with an original 18th century layout; it was also a place for Queen Victoria to escape to. It is a Grade I listed garden and was created for Claremont House. The gardens were created by famous landscape gardeners of the time - Capability Brown, William Kent, Charles Bridgeman, and John Vanbrugh. 

The landscaping of the gardens took place between 1715 and 1727, and it includes a lake and ampitheatre The ampitheatre was used for an annual event, a country fair, and this event included four days of entertainment, which included music, theatre, and fireworks. 

The ampitheatre is the remaining largest of its kind in existance in Europe. There were others, but they have disappeared over time. This ampitheatre is the focal point of the gardens. It is likely to have been used primarily as a viewpoint instead of as a stage.

Above the ampitheatre is a stone that reads "My Charlotte is gone". The story behind this is a sad one. Princess Charlotte commissioned a teahouse be built above the ampitheatre in 1817, but she died before it was finished. Her husband, Prince Leopold, converted it into a mausoleum as a memorial. Unfortunately, the stone for the mausoleum was used for a path.

There are short woodland trails with rows of rhododendrons on the northern part of the gardens, and I imagine that these look beautiful in the spring. This is probably the best time of the year to visit the gardens, but autumn may also look lovely.

A Camellia greenhouse was built here by Charlotte and Leopold and this is a quiet spot on the northern side of the garden.

Also, on the northern edge of the gardens is Belvedere Tower, which was constructed at the same time as the gardens. The windows are actually painted onto the brick.

Through the little trail in the wooded area are three statues: a boar, a bear, and a peacock. There is also a small thatched cottage (one small room only), and it has items for children to entertain themselves with.

In 1949, the landscape garden was donated to National Trust for protection. It was initially managed by the council but became fully under the control of National Trust in the early 1970s.

I enjoyed a walk around the small lake, which contains a grotto on one end. The gotto is a feature to be viewed from a distance only; it cannot be entered. It replaced a small waterfall. The lake also has an island with a little building in the middle, but the island cannot be accessed.

On the far side of the lake, visitors can enjoy the lake with the view of the ampitheatre.

There are a few seats dotted around the garden in order to relax and enjoy the views.

Have you ever visited Claremont Landscape Garden?

Today marks 100 days spent in lockdown/quarantine, so I thought that I would write a post about my time in lockdown so far. Lockdown happened for me on the 17th of March, St. Patrick's Day. My last day in the office was on the day before, and we were told in the late afternoon that we should work from home. Since then, I have only left the house four brief times for emergencies and once for a quick walk around the block. I have had groceries delivered when I could get a delivery time. Like many others, I am still working, but I know many who have also had to stop working for various reasons. The main disruption for me has been the inability to leave home and visit restaurants, pubs, museums, galleries, shops, attractions, friends, and use public transport. Even though I have worked from home full time previously, I could always occassionally get out at the weekends or visit a restaurant on a weeknight. So, what have I been doing?

March: clapping for carers, house organisation, and adjusting to lockdown

After lockdown was announced, I stayed at home and worked from home. At the end of the month, I had to drive less than five minutes in order to pick up medicine. The first weekend of lockdown had beautiful weather for the first time this year, which is typical of course. Due to the vast number of people leaving home to visit attractions, the lockdown had to be enforced. This did not make any difference to me because I was already adhering to the rules. I actually felt a bit ill after lockdown for most of the remainder of the month. March also brought the start to the ten weeks of "clap for carers" every Thursday night, and this gave each little street the opportunity to wave and connect with each other. My little street had live music that lasted until the early hours a couple of times, at least until someone on the street complained about it. I also re-painted the porch because the building work had left some scuff marks and replastering to a section of the wall.

April: looking to the skies, gardening, and reading

April's weather was a mixture of rain and sunshine, and I enjoyed the spring flowers in my garden and did some gardening at the weekends and after work. I bought some plants online, including dahlia. Easter was low-key and not celebrated. In April, we looked to the skies. April had a pink super moon (April's Pink Super Moon), and new Starlink satellites flew past the sky to provide some lockdown entertainment. We had some nice weather in April as well, and I ordered afternoon tea to have in the garden at home (Afternoon Tea Delivery: Honey Bee Cakes in Ruislip Manor). I also started to read through the stash of "House Beautiful" and random women's magazines that have been accumulating and that I just never got around to reading. My workplace also sent around a link for access to advance reviews of books, so I signed up and started to read more books. I also sorted out more indoors as the renovation work largely finished in January, although there is some remaining work to complete and a long list of "snags".

May: connecting to neighbours, reading, eating, and enjoying the weather

May brought beautiful weather. The highlight was 2020 75th VE Day Celebrations, which was held on the first Friday of the month. It was the May Day bank holiday but moved to the Friday instead of the traditional Monday and many events were scheduled to take place to celebrate 75 years of VE Day. For the second time, I briefly left the house, but this was just a quick walk around the block. The street celebrated with food and drink and music. Despite the circumstances, it was a fabulous day with the little street. I also ordered a few home-delivered treats to break up the boredom as I was missing going out to restaurants. I recommend Cake Pops by Popadoodledoo and Online Cookies from Dollies Cookies, which are two of the places that I ordered from. I also continued to tidying up the house and reorganised my shelves. I feel happy that my shelves are in good order and look nice with my collection of books and items from my travels. All eyes on were on the sky again at the end of the month with the launch of SpaceX to the space station, which was streamed on television and then watched in the sky after darkness came and viewers could see the pass. I continued to spend my time outside after work and on weekends if the weather was nice, and I continued to read magazines and started to read more books. Rioting started to happen at the end of the month for black equality as well and continued into June.

June: birthday, reading, and veterinary emergencies

June brought the final instalment of "clap for carers." June is my birthday month, so I had a Lockdown Birthday. I ordered a cake and also managed to order Sunday Roast on the Sunday before the big day. Of course, I continued to work and read. The weather was not as nice in June, but it doesn't often seem to be nice anyway until the end of June if previous years are anything to go by. I had to leave the house three times toward the end of the month because Merlin decided to eat part of a dried lily that I received in a bunch of flowers for my birthday. This caused me much stress because lilies are toxic to cats. I had to rush Merlin to the vet hospital on the Wednesday and pick him up on the Friday, and then he went in for blood tests to check the toxin levels, and he has just been given the all-clear, so I am relieved. In addition to Merlin's hospitalisation, the cat hierarchy in the house was affected because Merlin had a strange smell when he returned home, so I have had to deal with the stress from that, and I could see that Merlin was stressed and confused by it. Over the past three months has also been hard for family, but there's nothing I can do about that and I am confident that things will be sorted there. 

So, the majority of my time in lockdown has been spent working. When I have not been working, my free time has been spent sorting out the house after renovations, reading, ordering home-delivered treats, connecting to the neighbours, watching the skies, spending time outside in the garden, having baths (I finally have a bath where I can mostly sink into), watching a little bit of television (but not much), and trying to make the best out of having to remain in lockdown. I intend to make up for lost time once it is safe to do so, and I will properly celebrate birthdays and other missed events. I just want to be able to get back to normality now and start to enjoy life again.

I have gone through more of my unpublished street art photographs that I have taken over the years, and this post features some work by HNRX, Frankie Strand, and ThisOne. All three street artists have often collaborated together to some extent. Frankie Strand's work is inspired by painting animals and endangered animals. HNRX's work contains various objects blended together in quirky or comical settings. ThisOne paints animals or other objects using an illustrated style, usually in black and white. I feel that all of their work complements each other and looks good when they do collaborate.

HNRX and Frankie Strand - aligator and shrimp tail

HNRX and Frankie Strand - flamingo and sausages

HNRX with work by Ante_ltd in the foreground depicting prime minister Boris Johnson as a clown

HNRX - sausages

HNRX - a smiling watermelon slice

Frankie Strand - an octopus

Frankie Strand - a lizard - with additional work by ThisOne on the side and and a tiger by Jim Vision

Frankie Strand - girl and lizard

ThisOne

Previous street art by these artists in this blog:

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

Jonsey is a street artist who is somewhat elusive and creates artwork inspired with environmental messages. Not much is known about Jonesy, but their work is a mixture of sculptures (many of them cast in bronze and on miniature scale) and paste-ups. To find work by Jonesy, walk down Brick Lane and look up on the tops of signage, and you will be sure to spot some. I've found most of their artwork on or just off of Brick Lane, but I have also found some in Columbia Road. They are easy to miss, so look up in order to find some of these gems. Other ones appear on medallian shapes and are stuck to walls.

Some of the little figurines contain text. A lot of it expresses against nuclear waste, fracking, global warning, and other concerns related to the destruction of our environment and the Earth.

In addition to the environmental artwork dotted around east London, I discovered a selection of little faces created by Jonesy in Star Yard. I've added a collection of these below. They appear to be built into the crumbling brick wall.

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

Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park Environmental Street Art
HumanNature Endangered13 Street Art Paint Jam
Recent Street Art in Early 2014
Street Art: Jonesy

Carleen De Sozer is a street artist from Birmingham who lives in London, and she creates her murals inspired by life and living. Much of her work features portraits, and the subjects of her portraits tend to be Afrocentric and Afrofuturistic golden paintings. Her work mainly features in east London but can be seen throughout the city. Her work over the past twenty years has been in various mediums including street art - graphic design, tattoos, airbrushing, CD covers, and fashion designs.

In addition to artwork, De Sozer has also focused on creating spaces for children, black, and female artists and founded BBFA Collective to build opportunities for emerging black female talent and WOM Collective for giving female street artists opportunities worldwide. Her work has inspired another street artist, Dreph, to create her portrait for his series of inspiring black females. For more information and to see his work in this series, see Street Art: Dreph.

De Sozer has worked on projects with Mayor of London, Alexandra Palace, Tate Britain, HMP Prisons, Tower Hamlets Council, Adidas, and many more. She has also partnered with Dark Sugars (the chocolate shop on Brick Lane where her murals decorate), The British Council, Facebook, Tate Modern, ITV, Solent University, Southwark Council, and much more.

The photographs above and just below were taken over the past few years in Brick Lane, and there's a few other ones that I have not posted here but that can still be seen on Brick Lane and in London.

Carleen de Sozer painted some larger-scale murals on the side of a  building. "Grime Lords" is around the corner from Camden Market, and another mural with small children is located further down the same street beside a bridge. 

The "Meeting of Styles" event a couple of years ago allowed Carleen de Sozer to produce a mural on Pedley Street, inspired by tourists taking photographs of the street art.

De Sozer's work can be discovered across east London primarily. For more information about the artist, visit her website here: http://www.carleendesozer.com/about