Results matching “paint”

The last time that I posted about street artist Paul 'Don' Smith's work was earlier in the year when I discovered that he had painted a lot in Soho in west London after most of his work had become tagged over in east London. The artwork and that post can be seen here. This post features a large selection of Paul 'Don' Smith's street art over the past year. The most recent piece was painted off Hackney Road and features singer Amy Winehouse.

Paul 'Don' Smith paints another tribute to Lenny.

The story earlier in the year where the gay night club in Orlando, Florida was targeted was remembered.

Another tribute to Lemmy.

A tribute to David Bowie, who died in early January of this year.

'The Kiss'

'A Clockwork Orange'

KOJAK

Rumpsteppers

Tom vs Bane

Richard Asher

Unfortunately, a lot of the work in Soho now has a white cross painted over the top of it. This is a shame to see the work of one of London's busiest street artists painted over so that others cannot enjoy it.

For ten days (until October 13), Shepherd Market in Mayfair is hosting a street exhibition of neon signs, dubbed Neon Legacy. The signs are switched on at midday until 8:00pm, and another exhibit will be taking place throughout the month of November at Bankrobber Gallery in Notting Hill. The signs are the work of Chris Bracey who passed away a couple of years ago but his neon sign workshop "God's Own Junkyard" has remained open thanks to his family. Bracey was responsible for many neon signs in west London and Soho as well as signs for films, such as "Blade Runner." He also collaborated with popular artists, such as Damien Hirst. 

I've not yet made it to "God's Own Junkyard", but it's been on my London 'to-do' list for awhile now. I have always been fascinated by neon lights and holiday lights, and these featured in my paintings (when I had time to paint/draw). The neon signs are located in shop windows at Shepherd Market, about a five-minute walk from Green Park underground station. I managed to capture many of the signs during my visit.

The gun sign above was animated. The gun became a pistol, and this switched angle from a side view to a barrel view.

My favourite sign was the sign above, behind the 'liquour store' sign. This is a colourful sign. I actually want to create a neon sign. I love them!

At different times throughout the year, the London Transport Museum arrange tours of some of London's disused tunnels and abandoned underground stations. In February last year, I got to go on the tour of Aldwych Station on the Strand. At the beginning of this year, I booked to go on additional tours through Hidden London and booked to see the disused tunnels of Euston Station. My tour was early on Sunday morning. I've always wondered how Euston got its name; Euston station is named after Euston Hall, the family home of the landowners.

Our meeting point was at the abandoned tube station at Euston on Melton Street. We arrived early and got breakfast at a coffee shop across the street and then joined the queue of people that arrived in that time. When it was time, we went inside the building to watch slides and were told that Euston was the first major mainline station and used to have a beautiful Victorian arched facade and a beautiful Great Hall. The station became over-crowded as it was a terminus for a couple of different train companies, and different tickets needed to be purchased to use the different lines.

We were then taken into another one of the rooms of this building, where we saw the remaining tiles painted white. Some of this paint was rubbed off to show the green colour, which was used for many of the underground stations. The remainder of this building is used as an extractor with a noisey fan that helps circulate the air through the old lift shaft.

After the visit to that room, we were then led to the new Euston station underground. The new station was built in the 1960s when (sadly) it was cheaper to pull down the old Victorian architecture and build new, so the beautiful building was lost forever. Once we descended into the underground, we went onto Platform 6. This was one of the existing old platforms, and the door at the end of the platform went into the abandoned tunnels.

The only below-ground ticket hall level exists at this station not far from the doorway that we entered at the end of Platform 6. We saw the old ticket window. Visitors would use these tunnels to go from one line to another, but they would have to pay for tickets on different lines. 

These tunnels were closed to the public during major improvement works. They were closed in the mid-1960s. The blue tiles and advertisements serve as a reminder of their days in the mid-1960s as a time capsule, and I wondered how many people walked by and saw these posters. Some of the highlights in the posters include a "Puss and Boots" from the Theatre Royal, an advertisement for "Coronation Street", "West Side Story" at the Astoria, a poster for P&O cruises, advertisements for hair, advertisements for books/newspapers, film advertisements ('Lonely are the Brave' and 'The Valiant'), sporting events, and advertisements for music (Bobby Darin). The subjects do not really differ too much from today. The typeface and colours (bright, bold neons) are so different.

Another gem of a find is a neon-orange poster advertising the movie "Psycho", which is a classic today. The film was launched in 1960, and it appears that at least one poster would have been covering it before it was ripped off to reveal the title of the film. 

Another three gems include travel-related posters. One advertises British Rail, and another advertises the Midway Pullamn train.

After admiring the posters, we walked back down the tunnel to the location of the old lift shafts, which are now empty and used for ventillation purposes. They were actually very chilly. In the image below, the entrance to the lifts is on the left and reminds me of stations that still do have their lifts, including Covent Garden and Goodge Street.

We stepped inside and looked up to see the top of the lift and ground level, which gave us an indication how far down from the surface we were.

The next part of the journey went down to the ventillation chambers in the bare tunnels where we could read the casting years of the metal rings. We walked down the tunnel in the below image and around a tight corner where we  came upon four or five vents in the ground below us. 

These were above the trains on the Victoria line, and the vents allow air to get through to prevent sunction and make the tube a little more bearable in the winter. The tunnels here were nice and cool. We were told to ensure we kept onto our belongings so they didn't fall down onto the vent grids. We saw people walk by and trains pass directly below us. Apparently, on one tour there was a rowdy group of drunks and the people on the tour kept shouting at them and confused them as no one can see into the vents from the platforms.

This was the last part of the tour, and we decided to look at the original gatehouses that marked the original station entrance before leaving. These complemented the style of the original Euston station. One was for entering the station, and the other was used for exiting the station.

The highlights of this tour were to see the 1960s advertisements and the ventillation chambers above the Victoria line platforms. I'm looking forward to seeing Down Street and Clapham early next year.

French street artist Zabou has been painting regularly in London for the past couple of years, and I have published a couple of posts with her work here and here. Her newest piece is titled 'Cabinet of Curiosity', which is located on Goulston Street (Petticoat Lane). This replaced a previous mural by the artist that featured Jack the Ripper. This new piece features a Sherlock Holmes-esque character with a magnifying glass.

In addition to the piece above, I managed to capture more work by the artist over the past few months.

The below is a self portrait of the artist with colourful splashed of spray paint and a mask.

I always enjoy seeing new work by Zabou as it's often clever, eye-catching, and some of her work is also funny. 

Adnate is a street artist from Australia who is inspired by works of Renaissance painters and who started out as a grafitti artist in order to create artwork using spray paint as his medium of choice. His paintings often use bright colours and feature portraits. He recently painted a couple of murals in London, which I have photographed below. His work is stunning and realistic, catching the eye of visitors who pass by it. The first work is painted on Sclater Street, and the other piece is near Bethnal Green.

The artist had also previously been to London and left behind additional artwork, which does not exist any longer.

Street artist Hannah Adamszek often paints in London, and I've captured some of her work in the Leake Street tunnels, Whitecross Street, Camden, in Shoreditch and off Brick Lane. Her most recent contribution to the streets of London is on Great Eastern Street where she painted one of her colourful female portraits with flowers and wildlife in conjunction with street artist Saroj.

Hannah paints female portraits and focuses on the beauty, and she's also been known to paint wildlife, such as the fox below. Saroj's work features the illustrated and coloured flowers, insects and birds. Both artistic styles are very complimentary.

Capturing the whole piece was awkward and impossible due to the construction and road work going on in front of it and a couple of guys who were employed to make sure people do not get too close to the work, but I managed to get a large part of the wall.

Mr. Cenz is one street / grafitti artist who has been painting the streets for a long time. He started painting in the late 1980s and is a regular of the London street art scene with many of his pieces around Brick Lane, Shoreditch and further afield. His work mainly features female subjects with bright colours, and they are often painted with a grafitti style. More of his recent work can be seen in my post here. 

Recently, one of the high profile walls on Hanbury Street became a canvas for the artist with a purple and blue female face and arm. I'm happy to see this new piece on the wall as it has not had the best artwork in the recent months.

Jana & JS are a duo of street artists from France and Austria who feature themselves as subjects in the artwork that they paint in different cities. The last time that they were in London, if my memory is correct, was in the summer of 2013 when they painted a large-scale piece and some smaller pieces in Shoreditch. You can see their work in my previous post Street Art: Jana & JS.

The duo had returned to London for an exhibition and left three new artworks, which I was able to track down along Brick Lane. 

I enjoy seeing work by these artists as they are unexpected little treasures with clever placement in the locations that they are painted in. At the time of writing this, the piece directly above has been painted over.

Earlier this summer, street artists Louis Masai and Birdo collaborated on a large-scale mural of birds near Bethnal Green tube station. Louis Masai has painted quite a lot in London (where he lives), and he's recently collaborated with artists such as Fanakapan during 'Meeting of the Styles'. His work showcases animals and environmental causes, and he was one of the masterminds of the Endangered13 Paint Jam, which I covered in detail near the beginning of the year and raised awareness of endangered animals. One of the styles that he has used often is the quiltwork pattern with bright colours, but he also creates more realistic depictions of animals. He painted the bird heads and the bird on the left.

Birdo, also known as Jerry Rugg, is a Canadian street artist; he was in town in July to paint at Bristol's annual street art festival Upfest. He painted another piece off Brick Lane, which was a collaboration with Fanakapan and Horror Crew. He painted the body of the bird on the right, using the bright colours with geometric shapes.

This is a beautiful collaboartion of two complimentary styles.

There are four canvases on Great Eastern Street, across from the Village Underground, and these change regularly to feature a new work of art approximately every week. This is part of the White Canvas Project. Over this year, I have been eagerly awaiting to see what will come next. I've included a taster below of some past pieces.

Animaux Circus

Hughs Odgers

Twesh

Another inspiring project that appeared early this spring was "I am grateful", which combined the use of Twitter (#IAMGRATEFUL), visitor interaction, and art. The four panels were transformed into a large 'whiteboard', and markers were provided for those passing by to leave a message about what they were thankful for. Photographs are below.

Advertising also plays a part of the work that is painted here. I have seen food products advertised on these walls, albums, and films advertised here. In addition to street art and advertisements, grafitti taggers also paint on the wall. You can see more artwork with these themes below. In particular, I think that combining street art with advertising is unique. I have seen several examples of this being done in east London. I wonder if it does influence sales.

Vova Zomb, Himbad, MyneandYours, Ant Carver

Unfortunately, it's more difficult for me to see what is painted on these walls now as they change so often and I am not working in the area anymore. There's been some stunning pieces over the past year that I have seen photographs of but have not been able to photograph.