Results matching “paint”

This is at least the second time that London-based French street artist Zabou has painted musician Amy Winehouse (the piece is titled 'Amy II'). The new artwork is a collaboration between Zabou and Villana, who is from Mexico and who creates artwork (normally paste-ups) using bits of string and yarn. 

Zabou has been painting in London for the past few years (I think that the first street art that I saw from her was opposite 'Last Days of Shoreditch' in 2013), and her work keeps getting better and better. Her subjects feature portraits. The latest work by Zabou that I captured on this blog was in the autumn with her "Alice in Wonderland" on The Bell pub near Aldgate East. 

Villana is a street artist from Mexico who is also a yarn-bomber. She has visited London a few times and left behind little yarn paste-ups, and I have previously covered her work here: Street Art Villanaart.

More work by Zabou that I featured on my blog is:

Zabou Paints 'Alice in Wonderland'
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

Each year, one of the hightlights of street art in London and the United Kingdom is the "Meeting of Styles" paint jam that takes place just off Brick Lane and the Nomadic Community Gardens. This paint jam is always held at the end of May (except for last year when it was organised a few weeks later). One of the highlights of the event is the painting of the wall of the old shell of a building and rail bridge just off Pedley Street, which I covered separately (Meeting of Styles Wall 2018) because I felt that it's a fantastic work. I also covered Dan Kitchener's repaint of the Kinkao wall on Pedley Street here. Below are some of the other work that was created during the event.

Xenzogram

Candie Bandita and Carleen de Sozer

Hull Grafitti

Tom Blackford and Ewan

Tom Blackford and Ewan

ELNO

ThisOne - ThisOne and HNRX

Gent

Nomad Clan

Hull Grafitti 

Evol

EnoraOne and Koye

EnoraOne and Koye

Balstroem

dynamickArt

Welinoo

RevesOne

Balstroem and Weinloo

Lours

Aseb

Nelius

Neist

Nerone - Nerone Paints Great Eastern Street

Woserski - Recent Spring 2018 Woskerski Street Art

Roo

Stedhead

The Krah

Jim Vision - Jim Vision "Battlechasers" Street Art

Captain Kris and The Real Dill

"Elephant Parade" is a charity event featuring a parade of elephants painted or created by artists to earn money for protecting the elephants. Elephant Parade first launched in London in 2010 with 250 elephant statues on display, and these were then shown all in one place in Chelsea before the auction because they were very popular. You can see some of my photographs of the elephants around London and all together in my post "Parading Artistic Elephants in London". In 2013 and 2014, new elephants returned to the UK on a national tour of mainly shopping malls, and I saw them when they were in Uxbridge (UK National Elephant Parade 2013/2014). I've been waiting for them to return, and they announced at last minute that the elephants were returning to London for about a month.

Kashmir Ki Kali - JJ Valaya

The elephants will be on display until the 18th of July, and they are located at Sloane Square and Mayfair. They have been brought over from Elephant Parade India in order to gather support at the auctions to raise money for the elephants.

Kali 2.0 Divinity Revisited - Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla

Ele-Nouveau Deux - Varun Bahl

Savriti - Vikram Goyal

Naari - Tejal Gala; Aranya - Suhasini Kejriwal; Castellum - Michael Howells; Babar Travels to London - Adil Ahmad; Phula - Marissa Bridge; Infinity - Gaurav Gupta

Tara for Mark - Elephant Family

Bar Palladio Ele - Marie-Ann Oudejans

Blue Dimension - Jason Woodside

March of Times - Sonal Ambani; Sheesh Mahal - Rohit Bahl; Gaia - Rafaela de Ascanio; Baby Doll - Adil Ahmad and Kanilea Kapoor; Tramp of Marching Feet - George Martin; Tata Astamangala - Good Earth

Ramrattan - Ravi Vazirani

Marwar Matang - His Highness Maharaja Gaj Signh II of Jodhpur

Sikander Bagh - Payal Singhal

Dahlia - Anushka Khanna

Ridesh - Gayatri Sekhri

 
Monsoon Magic - Michelle Poonawalla; Gulab - Prakhabar Pachpute; Stop! - Little Shilpa; Kamal Kunj - Atelier of Pichvai Tradition & Beyond

 
Me and My Million Voices - Veer Munshi

 
Giving Back Pride without Prejudice - Adli Ahmad, Vasundhara RAje and Prisoners of Central Jail of Jaipur

Spanish street artist Sr X (Senor X) has painted street art in London a few times, and the last time was in the spring of 2017 with an octopus. This year, he's painted an even larger piece on the high profile wall at the corner of Hanbury Street and Brick Lane. The new street art is titled "The Itching" and is illustrated in the vintage graphic design style with a man holding an open lighter. The man's hair seems to be on fire. I am not sure if the man is meant to depict anyone or if it's just a pyromaniac. 

This is the first time we have seen this wall refreshed in several months now. This artwork replaces the politically-charged artwork "Follow the Leader" by Fanakapan, which had hung around for so long (seven months) that I was tired of seeing it and hoping for something new. I think it's a wonderful illustration to be on the wall.

Last month, I visited Milan, Italy. During my visit, Loopcolors (a street art festival that is sometimes known as Looperfest) was taking place. Some of the artists are English, and as I follow a couple of them on social media, I was able to find out where the festival was taking place and went to have a look on my last day, a day after the painting had finished. The location of the artwork is north of the central station in Milan but is a far walk from there.

LoopColors this year focused on a theme "Power of Women" for 2018, with many of the street art pieces created with this theme.

The below image of a female boxer was created by King Raptuz, an artist from Italy who works in the design and art industry in between painting walls worldwide. The technique he created is known as "Broken Window Futurism", which is a fragmented abstract image.

The below image is called "El joven Cesar y su Mascota", and it is by street artist Belin. Belin comes from Spain and creates abstract portraits.

The below grafitti is a tag by RASKO, a grafitti artist from Moscow, Russia.

The woman on the right in the above photograph continues to the photograph below, and this piece is called "Power of Women" and was painted by Brainmash.

The above piece is by Mr. Cenz, a British street artist that I have previously covered a lot on my blog. To see more by this artist, see this post about Recent Street art in 2018 by Mr. Cenz.

The above image is painted by street grafitti artist HelioBray and is a colourful tag. The artist is from Portugal.

The above portrait of a young girl is created by street artist SEF, an artist from Chile who creates photorealistic portraits. The above is very eye-catching.

The above pink woman is created by Georgi Dimitrov Erase (Arsek Erase), a Bulgarian street artist who started to paint street art in 2000 and creates colourful and bright characters with an element of humour. His take on "Power of Women" shows a pink lady.

The above photograph shows the image by Dan Kitchener, British artist who paints Asian female portraits and backdrops of dark city streets in which Tokyo often features with a glow of car headlights and neon signs.

For those wishing to visit this artwork in person, Zuretti61 is the location of the street art festival for Loopcolors Looperfest 2018. The street art is located behind the building and just off the main street. I would suggest not to walk from the main central station as it is a very long walk.

Tickets to see Leonardo da Vinci's famous masterpiece "The Last Supper" sell out about three months in advance, so visitors are urged to book ahead. However, if you are staying in Milan for a few days, you should be able to get lucky to find tickets through a tour operator during a guided tour or an after-hours evening tour as long as you do plan in advance. I was able to book tickets through a tour operator a week prior to my departure in order to see "The Last Supper", which is located at the Santa Maria della Grazie and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Santa Maria della Grazie is a church and monastary, and "The Last Supper" was painted in the refectory on the wall shared with the kitchen between 1494 and 1498. The work took this many years to complete due to the technique that Leonardo da Vinci used by painting the colour onto the wet plaster. This is a slow process but ensured colour and detail to be absorbed into the wall.

The monastary can be seen through a set of double doors before you enter the room where the painting is located, and it is a beautiful building. Visitors have to wait outside the room because only a capped number of people can be in the room at a time, and visits are limited to fifteen minutes. This is due to the protection and restoration efforts of the painting. Visitors to museums bring in humidity and pollen/items on their clothing which can damage artwork, and air filter systems are in place to remove the humidity and damaging items. This is why only a few people can enter the room and visits are capped to 15 minutes.

The artwork is painted on one side of the room. Measures were put in place to ensure it was protected in World War 2, but the roof and another wall did collapse. The room stood open for a while to the elements, and Napoleon used the room as a stable, so the wall would have gotten dirty. Also, other painters would have tried to restore the artwork over the ages and made some changes. Other damage occured due to the humidity of the kitchen on the other side of the wall and a doorway cut into the wall for access to the kitchen. The central figure (Jesus) lost his feet in this change. Another change found while restoring the artwork to the original was that Jesus has his mouth slightly open instead of closed. The latest restoration was completed in 1999 after twenty years where layers of dust and paint were removed.

We learned about these facts and more during our visit to the room, and the tour concluded with more explanation in the courtyard and in front of a large television screen that projects a copy of the artwork so that it can be talked about more in depth. In general, I think this captured the imagination of the people because so much is happening in the artwork, and the figures are arranged in groups of three and interacting. A lot more is revealed in the story of Jesus' last supper for people who study Christianity.

The work took so long to complete, and because of the technique used, the older bits of painting started to deteriorate before Leonardo da Vinci was finished. In fact, some days he would spend hours on the scaffolding creating the artwork and other days he did not do any painting (but he was probably thinking about the painting). There are written accounts about this and I can imagine that the monks living there just wanted the work to be finished.

"The Last Supper" is Jesus Christ and his twelve friends (disciples) who gather around the table as they probably did often. However, on this day, Jesus is in the middle of telling them that one of them will betray him to the Romans where he will be killed. Each of the figures deals with the news and their reactions in a different way, related to the character of the disciple or their actions at some point in the Bible. The hands of the figures are looked at with attention to Judas, the betrayer, who is reaching out to grab with his head turned in an uncomfortable way.  

I thought the figure to the right of Jesus looked like a female figure, and apparently it may be. But others claim that it is John the Baptist as he was young. I am not sure. He has long hair, but then so does Jesus. 

On the other side of the wall is another painting, which was started at the same time as Leonardo da Vinci's bit finished in less time.

I took a picture of the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, which is still a working church and a monastary. The church is located in Milan centre, but it's on the edge of the centre and is about a fifteen-minute walk from the duomo (cathedral) and main town square. Note that we received a lot of information about the painting, and the tour was approximately an hour long, and we got to spend more time in front of the painting than some of the other groups did. The best way to see the "The Last Supper" (unless you're an expert and have studied it) is probably through a tour so that the guide can point out the details in the painting and the story.

While in Milan, I made a stop to see the art gallery Pinacoteca di Brera and then followed this up with a short walk to Eataly, an Italian food shop with restaurants. This gallery, Pinacoteca di Brera, can be explored in a couple of hours, and there are other attractions on site, such as a library. The Pinacoteca di Brera is a unique museum in that visitors do not just see the art displayed in nearly 40 rooms but they can understand it from a research view and see canvases being stored and also restored.

Visitors can see the restoration equipment, including a huge workshop that can hold a very large canvas during restoration work. The gallery is very good in that each painting has a description in the museum, and the description is in Italian and English. (For those who prefer to see the artwork from the comfort of their couch, most of the artwork is photographed and arranged into rooms and searchable on the website http://pinacotecabrera.org/en/collezioni/).

Renaissance and religious art is the most common at this museum. There are some fantastic pieces.

One of the works in the gallery is by Sofonisba Anguissola, one of the few Renaissance women painters. This painting was painted early in her stay at Madrid court, and this portrait of the young women shows a fine attention to detail of the gold, pearls, and fur.

The painting below is by Carlo Dolci and shows David after his defeat of the giant Goliath. The drapery is very detailed as is the face of David, which is very luminous. It is thought that this work was commissioned by John Finch as a gift for the Queen of England.

My favourite paintings in this gallery were toward the later rooms. I'm not a fan of the religious art as the same themes are often reused although interpreted in different styles. One room featured some landscapes by Bernardo Bellotto. He studied under his uncle Canaletto in Venice and then travelled Europe to paint landscapes in a time when photography did not exist. 

The above painting was painted in afternoon light with the workers returning from fields. The landscape is of Lombardy, which is the countryside around Milan. There are also several of Venice, including one that was painted by Canaletto, the uncle of this painter. The work was finished in the workshop in order to accurately paint the architecture.

Another painting of the Grand Canal in Venice is from painter Francesco Guardi, who also studied under Canaletto. It is titled "View of the Grand Canal." It was painted after 1754 because the domed bell tower on the church was added in that year.

One room did not have much to explain about the paintings as they were on an audio guide. This room had modern art.

Guiseppe Bossi painted a portrait.

Franscesco Hayez painted 'The Kiss', which is an Italian Romanticism work. It shows a couple from the Middle Ages kissing, and the kiss is the focus. It is one of the best examples of "the kiss" in art. The work has inspired film and branding.

Gerolamo Induno painted this painting featuring a young woman sitting on a bed in a modest home. The above work "The Kiss" is actually on the wall in the background of this painting.

The above painting was painted by Giovanni Segantini. Many paintings in this room were very similar with landscape country scenes, idyllic settings. This one features cows, and it was one of the artist's favourite works.

On exiting (or entering) the galleries, visitors can have a look through the window at the beautiful library. I believe that the library can be visited for a cost. After exiting, the gallery is on the first floor and the inner courtyard is below.

After a couple of hours spent at the Pinacoteca di Brera, I had a short walk to Eataly, which is a specialised food shop selling Italian products. It's just outside the main centre of Milan. The shop reminded me of a Whole Foods. Different Italian restaurants are arranged on the floors, and I had lunch on the top floor.

I had melanzane alla parmigiana, which is a vegetarian lasagna made with eggplant and cheese. I've had this dish before, and it was very tasty.

The bloke had mixed grill. He doesn't care for Italian food, pizza, or pasta. I love pasta.

I had the chocolate and apricot tart for dessert. This seems to be a common dish in this part of Europe (Austria and southern Germany). You cannot taste the apricot but it is an ingredient. 

I had a look around the food shop after eating and looked at the vegetables. I have not seen horticulture beans or the yellow beans (I forget the name of them) in years. We used to grow both types of beans in the US, and I had to pick them.

Overall, the meal tasted nice at Eataly but was expensive, especially considering that it is on the store's floor and not an intimate restaurant set up. I was not expecting it to be quite expensive for those prices. Have you ever visited Eataly or the art gallery?

I recently returned from a trip to Milan, Italy, and I spent most of the day at Sforza Castle. The castle dates from the 15th century and is named after its builder Francesco Sforza, who was the Duke of Milan. It is located in the city centre, and in addition to the historical castle building, the building itself doubles as a museum and art gallery. This museum is also special because it includes some work by sculptor Michelangelo, including the last sculpture by the artist, which has not be finished. The castle museums contain prehistoric rooms, Egyptian rooms (closed currently), art/sculpture galleries, modern art/furniture gallery, musical instruments, and china/glassware. There is also a current agumented reality game taking place at the castle where you can become a medieval fighter/archer and defend the castle, and this takes you to part of the castle and the upper walls and towers, which are normally off-limits. I did this activity, and it was really fun as it was a game along with a look at the castle as it was historically. 

Although the current version of the castle dates to the mid-1400s, the first castle on the site was built a little over a century before. In the re-designed castle dating from the 15th century, a number of artists worked on the rooms. One of these was Leonardo ds Vinci, whose work is famous in Milan and throughout the world. He made frescos for several of the rooms and worked in collaboration with Bernardino Zenale and Bernardino Butinone, two names who came up in the castle often. The Sala delle Asse was one of the rooms that Leonardo da Vinci worked on. The castle was captured by the Spanish, and re-decorations during this period and bombing during World War 2 had damaged the castle.

The castle has two inner courtyards, and the first one contains the small room with the work by Michelangelo. This is a not-to-miss exhibition as it includes the last sculpture by the artist.

The sculpture is located in the centre of the room, and he worked on this piece for at least a decade. It is called Pieta. The sculptor tried different solutions and had re-worked the figures. It shows Madonna carrying the dead body of Jesus. A modern example of this artwork has been created by New York artist Barry X Ball, and this can be seen in the art galleries in the main part of the castle.

This coin was in the room of Michelangelo's work as well as a sculptued head of the sculptor. The coin below is a new casting of a replica given to Michelangelo.

The funerary altar below was also the work of Michelangelo. 

Progressing in, many used cannon balls can be seen in the moat. It is also thought that Leonardo da Vinci oversaw the construction of part of the castle and was greatly involved in it throughout.

The archeology museum is located in the first part of the castle after purchasing tickets, and contains many items gathered from churches that have been demolished.

After this area, the exhibit continued and blended into the art exhibits along the side of the building and under the Leonardo da Vinci room. The celings and walls of these rooms are decorarated beautifully and some of them are currently being taken care of.

One of the items in one of the rooms is a painting by Leonardo da Vinci. The back of the canvas is exposed so that visitors can see his signature.

Some beautiful stained glass shines between the inner courtyards between the corridor-like rooms of this wing of the museum. Several of the galleries, particularly on the upper floor, had mainly religious art. There were so many different interpretations of the Madonna and baby.

Another room had different furniture; some of it was older, and some of it was very modern.

One of the most unique items in one of the rooms off the galleries is this devil. It was created with a torso that was probably from a church dating from the 16th century. It had a clockwork head attached and could stick out its tongue, move eyes and mouth and make a sound. It also used to have horns, but these are most. This would have creeped me out if I was a child.

This room also contains some interesting items, such as the little boats and globes.

After having the look around and getting lunch, we booked into the agumented reality "Beyond the Castle" to defend the castle! This included a trip to the top of the castle walls and a short history lesson by our knowledgeable guide. Using the headset, we could see what the castle looked like in old times and we could defend the castle using a bow and arrow, which was really fun, and another weapon. The other weapon was a hand-held cannon (pre-gun) and I could not quite get the hang of this one. The arrow was more fun. We had to shoot moving targets (the enemy) and this got tallied up against the other competitors.

Our guide showed us the Milan skyline from the top of the walls and went over the buildings. The tallest building in Milan is located in the above photograph, and this is the financial area of the city.

We could also see the Arc of Peace (Porta Sempione), which looks like Paris's Arc of Triump. This marks the location of the old city gate where the Roman walls surrounded the old city. The arc started construction when Napoleon controlled the city, and then the Austrians took over the city. The arc was finished later and has an inscription mentioning Napoleon.

The arched walls on the castle are unique and apparently only a couple of castles have them. I cannot remember exactly what the guide said about them other than the design is unique.

After visiting the "Beyond the Walls" and winning the game by killing more enemies storming the castle, I had a quick walk around the prehistoric collections. The Egyptian rooms are nearby, but these are currently closed.

Before leaving the castle, a walk along and outside the walls was in order. 

The castle has the city's emblem of a snake-dragon, although the one on the tower pictured below is damaged. This symbol is also used by other brands, such as car brand Alfa Romeo.

That concludes the visit to the castle. If visiting Sforza Castle in Milan, I suggest to plan over half a day at the castle because there is so much to see and a lot to read. Also, there are so many museums in the castle, and there is so much to see so just plan ahead to see the bits that you want to visit. However, it is difficult to leave the "flow" in places as the rooms just join one after the other, and they all flow together. Make sure not to miss the Michelangelo room, and I'd suggest seeing some of the art. I'm not into musical instruments, glassware/ceramic but did go through those rooms but they did not really interest me. I also got a little tired of the religious art and interpretations of Madonna and Child, but religious artwork isn't my interest. However, there are some fantastic pieces by artists so these need to be seen. Also, there is a cafe inside the inner courtyard, and the food here is decent enough. You will need it as there's so much to see and a lot of walking that sitting down is required during the visit.

One of Hanbury Street's most iconic walls has been recently painted by Brazil-based street artist Milo Tchais, an artist that I covered several years ago in my post Street Art: Milo Tchais. I recognised his artwork from a previous visit to London quite a few years ago now. In fact, all but one of those old pieces no longer exist now as they have been painted or tagged over or gentrification has taken the walls. Tchais' style is painting colourful floral patterns, and this time, his work features a bird. The bird takes centre place on the mural.

The colourful murals that Milo Tchais creates add a touch of nature and colour to the bleak streets, particularly in this area of London where there are not many trees, plants, flowers, and green squares. A mural such as this is welcome.

Ben Eine is a street artist from London who has moved to California, but he does often visit London and has refreshed some of his artwork. He is one of London's most iconic street artists and paints typography on shutters and walls. Ebor Street in Shoreditch is one of the locations of his work where both walls have been painted with a message using the typography styles of Ben Eine. These walls get refreshed or replaced from time to time, and I have been following their status over the past several years. Recently, Ben Eine refreshed the work on one of the walls and the other one had a new coat of paint (with an unchanged message) in the past few months. The new message for the other walls reads "Peace is Possible", which is a good message in an era of uncertainty. 

Previous posts about Ben Eine on this blog are listed below:

Street Art: Ben Eine

Ben Eine Paints 'Like Nothing Else' on Ebor Street

Ben Eine Tribute to Grenfell Tower Victims

Ben Eine 'Last Days of Shoreditch'

Ben Eine New Street Art Summer 2016

Ben Eine 'Extortonists' Refresh