Results matching “paint”

The first incarnation of the "Gromit Unleashed" Bristol sculpture trails featuring the beloved Aardman characters from the "Wallace and Gromit" films took place in 2013. Bristol is the hadquarters of the production company, and the trails became an instant hit. I did the trail that year and then learned how to create my own Gromit figure with employees of Aardman using the same clay used to create the claymation figures. In 2015, there was a 'Shaun in the City' Charity Sculpture Trail in Bristol which also visited London 'Shaun the Sheep' Art Charity Sculptures in the City (London). In 2016, some sculptures from the Hong Kong sculpture trail visited Bristol, and I saw them: Hong Kong "Gromit Unleashed" Gromits Visit Bristol. After a hiatus of nearly ten years, the city of Bristol and Aardman are hosting "Gromit Unleashed 3" sculpture trail.

I enjoyed locating as many sculptures as I could, although I did not get to see all of them as some of them are spread far and outside of Bristol. The trail covered the sculptures of Wallace, Gromit, Feathers McGraw,  Sean the Sheep, and the newest character Norbert the garden gnome, who appared in the latest film that was launched at the end of last year.

The sculptures were placed from the start of July and will be available to see until the end of August, so there is still some time to see them.

As in the previous years, the sculptures aim to raise money for charity - the children's hospital. 

Each sculpture is unique and painted by different artists. They will be auctioned later in the year to raise the charity.

I always enjoy visiting the sculpture trails, and photographs of the last ones can be seen below:

• 'Gromit Unleashed' in Bristol, Part 1
• Gromit Unleashed in Bristol, Part 2.
• Gromit Unleashed 2.0
• 'Shaun in the City' Charity Sculpture Trail in Bristol
• 'Shaun the Sheep' Art Charity Sculptures in the City (London)

Recently (in the summer of 2025), street artists Phelgm and Sweet Toof have collaborated on a few murals across London, including one at Hanbury Street off of Brick Lane. Phelgm is from Sheffield in northern England, and his work features characters illustrated in black and white with fantasy themes. Sweet Toof is London-based, and his work is painted in many areas, especially in more recent years.

There have been a few collaboration murals across London from these artists, so I hope to locate them soon once I have some time.

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

Phlegm Artwork in Hackney
Phlegm 2019 Street Art in Brussels
Phlegm Street Art on Art Mountain in Brussels Celebrates Painter
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

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

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

Over the past several years, I have noted and photographed some street art by stencil artists Cartoonneros and Pablo Fiasco. Cartoonneros is a stencil street artist from Argentina, and he has visited London several times and left various work across the walls. The work is created with spray paint and stencils and uses bright colours. Often, the work covers familiar subjects in the world of art and celebrates them in new colours or some other adjustment.

Pablo Fiasco also creates stencil-based street art, and he has been painting in London for several years his stencil pieces with an element of humor.

More street art by Pablo Fiasco can be seen here.

When I was in Vienna, Austria in late May, I spent a day browsing the art galleries/museums at Belvedere. There are three of these galleries located in the buildings that once functioned as palaces: Upper Belvedere, Lower Belvedere, and Belvedere 21. The Upper and Lower ones were former palaces, but Belvedere 21 is located a short walk away and is a modern building and modern art gallery. Upper Belvedere is the most popular of the three museums with a lot of work by famous artists, notably Gustav Klimt who lived in the city and whose work is popular. I also saw some work by Monet, Van Gogh, Rodin, Munch, and many other popular artists, and they also had an area dedicated to women artists, which have been greatly overlooked.

Upper Belvedere had a lot of different rooms with different works, and each other rooms also had some information about the room's purpose when it was the palace. Much of the beautiful wall and ceiling paintings and decorations still exist.

One room was two storeys tall and beautiful.

It also had glimpses across to Lower Belvedere.

I took some photographs of some of the famous work and work that I also liked.

Afterwards, I decided to see Belvedere 21. I haded to the back of the Upper Belvedere palace. The other side of the building was having some work done, but the grounds are beautiful with pools and fountains and gardens.

Belvedere 21 is a modern building, and there are three floors with the ground and upper floor having most of the artwork.

I got a photograph of one of the outside sculptures, which was actually displayed in London a few years ago.

The modern art gallery was not really my taste in art.

Afterwards, I headed back to the grounds to visit Lower Belvedere. On the way, I discovered an outdoor art gallery, which was ruins discovered now in park area.

Lower Belvedere is a smaller gallery in a beautiful palace, and there is an exhibit on Klimt's artwork and additional displays for religious artwork and a selection by female artists.

I did enjoy seeing the beautiful designs of the rooms.

The other side of Lower Belvedere had some internal gardens.

I enjoyed the visit to the galleries, and I will be covering the park and gardens in a later post.

I visited Potters Resorts Five Lakes in Essex near London at the end of June for a short break. The resort offers all-inclusive breaks with breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and an all-inclusive range of hot and cold drinks, including alcohol. There are games, entertainment, and other activities to enjoy with a schedule that changes daily and to suit all ages and interests.

I stayed in a spacious room. The resort itself is quite small and situated on a golf course.

There was entertainment every night and into the early hours with dancing. The live entertainment included live music, comedy, and dancing. There were musical music and older music, and it was well-presented. Before the live shows, there was also bingo to play, although I did not win anything.

There were also grounds to walk around, and some of the activies were located a short walk away, such as rally karts, archery, and shooting.

The menus changed daily for lunch and dinner, and there were three course meals and a buffet with a large range of choices and always a roast meal. The desserts also changed daily, but they also had a few desserts on a list that could be enjoyed if the daily offering did not appeal.

I spent a lot of time in the twice-daily craft classes. I had a watercolour class, and later that day I painted a canvas bag.

There was also live music and seating outside.

The favourite craft that I did was the "iris folding", and I loved this. 

I also tried my luck at archery (and got a bull's eye) and shooting.

On the last day, I only did one of the crafts, and that was pottery-painting.

I also created "glass painting", but it really wasn't. I won a medal.

There is a huge games room and dance studio too. I also spent a little bit of time in the gym, and there was also a pool and a spa.

I enjoyed my visit to Potters Resorts, but the time went much too quickly.

Earlier this month, I visited Moor Park Mansion in Rickmansworth for one of their "open days" that thy host during the summer months where members of the public can join and visit the mansion and a few of the rooms open to the public with historical significance. The mansion house is set in 300 acres of grounds. It was constructed in the early 1700s and became a golf course in 1923, owned by the council and then purchased by the golf course who have an agreement to open the mansion to the public.

Moor Park is located in northwest London near Rickmansworth. It is about a fifteen-minute walk from Moor Park underground station on the Metropolitan line. After arriving, I walked through the housing estate up through a lane that leads to the golf course through wooded land.

The mansion soon came into view, and there are tennis courts as well as the golf club. Moor Park Mansion grounds have even more history and was used in the 1500s and known as "Manor of the More", but the house there became a ruin by the 17th century. It was rebuilt in the late-1600s inside a deer park and just southwest from the former house.

"The More" was owned by Cardinal Wolsey in the time of Henry VIII, and the French visited it in the mid-1500s to settle a treaty with England, and the house was considered more beautiful than Henrey VIII's at Hampton Court. Catherine of Aragon moved into the house here after her marriage to Henry VIII was annuled, and the king visited here to go hunting.

Tea, coffee, and biscuits were available when I entered to wait for the tour.

We waited in one room that has some photographs. We were shown a presentation that mentioned the history of the house and grounds. We first looked at the Great Hall, which is impressive and reminded me of Queen's House, which I visited in the spring. 

The dome was inspired by St. Peter's in Rome, but it is a painting. The paintings are inspired by Greek classics.

We then headed into the hallway, where we were told about the paintings and the meaning of the paintings here, which was meant to be the origin of the four seasons. 

Then we headed upstairs to admire the Great Hall from the upper level but paused to look at the paintings in the hallway.

More photographs of the Great Hall are below.

Off of the Great Hall on the first floor is another important room. This room was used in World War II. The British Airbourne Corps was based here in 1944 and 1945, and the room was where planning of "Operation Market Garden" for the Battle of Arnhem was conducted. A model with sand was placed in the room with various leaders planning the attack.

The room has lovely views over the golf course. The parkland was landscaped in the 1700s by "Capability" Brown.

We then went into th ground floor and the room on the end of the building that is used for events. The ceiling decoration was amazing and created with skill.

Afterwards, we went into the room just off of the Great Hall and directly back, which faces the back of the building and parkland. This is also a beautiful room with paintings depicting the seasons. 

There are beautiful paintings on the walls and ceiling.

We then went outside and examined the building. The hound was the symbol of the family who owned the house.

In the grounds is a statue "Father Thames", made in the late 1700s. It was discovered in the grounds and had possibly been broken during the time that the house was used during World War II.

We also saw the stables for the house.

We then headed around the side of the building where a few of the fuzzless apricot trees are planted, and these apricots are named "Moorpark" after the location. The owner of Moor Park at that time was Adminral Anson, and he planted apricot seeds around different places where the ships sailed so that if the crew stopped there again, they could eat from the fruit. The seeds came from Asia. There was also one of the first commercial strawberry plants grown at Moor Park.

After the tour, I went to the bar and bought a drink to have inside the beautiful room off of the Great Hall.

I then had a quick look at my own pace around the gardens. 

The day was lovely, and it was one of those very warm days that we had earlier this month. I would recommend a visit to the mansion to see the artwork and learn about the history of the grounds.

In Vienna a couple of months ago, I discovered additional street art by the French and Austrian duo Jana & JS. These artists use themselves as subjects in their street art that they paint across the world. In the piece pictured below, the duo painted themelves with a variety of polaroid camera shots and a camera, and this was painted in 2013 along with some additional work in Vienna.

Columbian street artist Stinkfish has painted across th world, and his work features people that he has seen on his travels. In this large-scale mural for Calle Libra festival in Vienna, Austria, he has painted a portrait of a man holding his child on his shoulders. The artwork was painted in 2016 and uses the colour palette used by the artist featuring yellow for the flesh colour and using bold and bright colours for the backgrounds and other elements, including geometric style.

This is one of the largest-scale murals that I have discovered from the artist.

I also discovered this work by Stinkfish in Vienna:

For more additional work by Stinkfish on this blog, see:

Stinkfish in Penge in 2017
Stinkfish on Hanbury Street
Stinkfish Paints Hanbury Street Ahead of "Portraits in Transit'
Street Art: Stinkfish, Acaro, Mazatl

Street artist Mantra is a French-born artist who has lived in various places in the world and who creates street art featuring butterflies, insects, and nature landscapes. Butterflies are one of his favourite subjects, and the artwork is created using depth and colour across boring building walls. This mural was painted for Callibre festival in Vienna using freehand back in 2017, so the colours are not as bright as they once were, but it is still a stunning piece.

The artwork appears to show the butterflies as if they are in a collection in a framed box. The work is near to a mural by Stinkfish.

To see the Stinkfish artwork in Vienna next to this work by Mantra, see below:

Stinkfish Large Mural in VIenna in 2017

In 2018, SkyHigh and Voyder painted at the annual White Cross Party and left behind some beautiful murals. Sky High painted a colourful bird, and Voyder painted his tag with a silver "metallic" foil glow to it. Both artworks look great together.