Results matching “paint”

This post features artwork that I discovered a couple of years ago in London but have not had the chance to post until now. All three artists paint a similar style of portrait in a realistic/impressionist manner. The street art features portraits, and the artists come from all over the world. Alaniz is from Germany, Desi Civera from Spain, and Gomez was born in Venezuela but lives in Italy.

Alaniz is a street artist from Germany who creates artwork in Berlin (on the wall) and has a knack for creating portraits of people in emotive states. The paintings inspire discusion and also exhibit political or social themes. Two works were painted in London.

Next up is a piece by Luis Gomez de Teran, a street artist from Venezuela who now lives in Rome. He painted a couple of walls previously off of Brick Lane, and I loved the realistic style of his work. This piece, near Ely's Yard on Brick Lane, features three women holding a chain.

Desi Civera, an artist from Spain, creates portraits that show a lot of expression of people caught in different emotions or situations. She also collaborated with artist An Wei. The below portraits feature a series of people.

Desi Civera and An Wei collaborated on the next piece, and this seems to feature females that appear as statues or trophies.

Although these photos were taken awhile ago, I'd love to see more work from these artists.

At the end of May, the annual street art festival "Meeting of the Styles" took place on Pedley Street off of Brick Lane. I've yet to post any of the brilliant work that has come from this festival, but I have decided to start with this large-scale piece by Louis Masai and Fanakapan. The piece is entitled 'Freedom?' and features an orca, dolphins, and sharks in a plastic bag (or small aquarium) filled with water.

Louis Masai's work typically features endangered species and animals. This spring, he was one of the lead artists for Endangered13's street art paint-up in Mile End. He painted his patch-work sea creatures in the piece.

Fanakapan's style has changed a little over the past few years, and one of his recent pieces at the start of the year was chrome mask, sunglasses, and spray paint can. Last year, he created the silver foil balloon style. This style returned again this year. Previous styles included balloon animals and sweets. Fanakapan made the return to the balloon silver foil style by painting a mixture of silver foil balloon dolphins.

Prior to painting at the "Meeting of the Styles" street art festival, Fanakapan also painted the silver skeleton riding on a balloon horse on Rivington Street. 

His tag was also painted on off of Brick Lane.

This is a brilliant collaboration and I hope that we have more to come.

After 'Hello Kitty' Afternoon Tea, we celebrated my birthday at Junkyard Golf, London. Junkyard Golf in London is located on Brick Lane and is a pop-up. The company Junkyard Golf have courses in Manchester, but this is their first in London. All items used in the course are manufactured from junk or finds from charity shops and boot/yard sales.

There are three courses in London: Pedro (Polluted paradise), Frank (Putt up or shut up), and Helga (In da house). Each course has nine holes. Cocktails and street food can be enjoyed between courses. During the day, the courses were not so busy, but this place is pretty busy in the evenings and after work.

Course: Frank:

This was the first course we played. The first hole was a shot with a mobility scooter. We then walked up a ramp and across a bridge for the second hole, which was potted around a creepy clown in a jacuzzi. The third hole was a little bit of a treat, and the first shot was putting the ball down a wooden slide, which when then had to slide down ourselves to finish the shot.

Hole four was entitled "who let the dogs out" and featured tacky plastic dogs and a dog house; the hole was up a ramp into the dog house and dropped out on the other side of the dog house. The fifth hole was also a bit different with the ball needing to go up a ramp and over a laid-out table and underneath a plastic crocodile where the hole was.

Hole six was very interesting. We came to a moving treadmill. Our shot was to get the ball over the moving treadmill to the opposite side where the hole was. It looked harder than it was, though. The seventh hole was a little bit of a gamble. The starting point was on top of a pool table, and depending on which pocket that the ball was put into, a different course through a series of pipes was made, with some pipes putting the ball at a better position to the hole than other ones.

Hole eight was a long strip with wigs and hair dryers on both ends. The ninth was like an old pin ball machine where the ball had to be shot up a very steep ramp. Depending on its course, it was pocketed into one of six holes with a different number on it. The directions told us to take three shots and take the lowest score from those three. 

After completing Frank, we went to the bar "The Bunker" and had a cocktail before starting the next course. I had a cocktail named "Who's your Caddy". This was made of gin, strawberry, lemon and cranberry. It was very refreshing and fruity. The bloke had the "Golf Lundgren", which was rum, ginger beer, lime and apple.

Course: Helga:

This was the most adult-themed of the courses, and it may have been my favourite or a close second to Frank. The course started out very well with a hilarious motorboat occupied by three manequins dressed like street ladies. Oh, and the motorboat is being devoured by a Jaws-like shark. The course was played on/around the boat.

The second hole was a baleric wendy house, filled with plastic dolls in various poses (or states of unconsciousness) while a doorman keeps guard to ensure only invited ones can enter. This is a little like something out of a nightmare.

Keeping up with the theme of photographic designs for the holes, we moved to the third hole. It contained a large plastic cow with a sign "do not mount the cow". The hole had to be played underneath the cow and between its legs.

The fourth hole was accompanied by a video and had to be completed within 21 seconds or points would be deducted. (We just played the hole as normal, though.) The fifth was constructed with parts of a car, including the tyre that formed part of the course. The sixth hole also had the car theme and contained two working traffic lights.

After finishing those holes, we went into the final room, which was darker. The light shone onto flourescent paint of the last three holes. This little room isn't too large for three courses with larger teams. 

After we completed the course, we decided to play the final one, which I did not book in advance. The course was located back at the front.

Course: Pedro

The first hole was the most challenging out of all of them. It went underneath a straw hut with masks and a plastic parrot on top. Luckily, the other holes were better. The second hole featured the back bumper and license plate of a car on a graffiti-wall, and the hole was played through a series of bricks. After this, the fourth hole was not too complex and featured a couple of Easter-Island-esque small statues. 

The fourth hole brought us to disused washing machines, and the holes went on a ramp and up through one of the machines and out the other side to where the hole was.

The fifth featured limbs and limbo, and it encouraged players to limbo over a bamboo stick in order to play the hole up a ramp. The sixth hole, known as 'Steven Seagull', had an element of humour. The hole is played over the top of oil drums that are on top of seagulls via a long bridge. The ball must be played straight over the narrow bridge and through "Steve Seagull's" mouth.

The seventh hole was another standard course accommpanied with graffiti, and the eight featured one of those boards that you often see on the beach where you can poke your head through and get a photograph. This one featured "The Girl from Chipanema" and had a drawing of two larger women on it. The final hole was interesting in that it was a ramp leading up to a metal 'volcano' with the hole on one side. After we finished playing the hole, we both tried to get the ball to go into the volcano, but it was at the wrong angle. We determined it must be a fluke if the ball finds its way into the volcano instead of down one of the sides of the course.

Have you played at Junkyard Golf in London yet?

One street artist that I discovered last year when I went to Bristol's Upfest was French artist and photographer Olivier Roubieu. (His work impressed me so much that I made his portraits of a woman the cover image for the blog post about Upfest 2015.) The artist has also come to London and painted a bit now, and I photographed and posted some of his work toward the end of last year. I was unable to get a photograph of all of his work due to the ever-changing nature of street art.

I was impressed to see the artist has created more pieces around London this summer. The pieces appear to work as a series where the artist has left out the detail of the faces and focused on the form of the bodies, often demonstrating with light and shadow in the structure of the body and drapery.

The above piece features a girl (painted in black and white) reclining sideways on a chair, her legs lifted over the arm rest. Attemtion to her cut-off denim shorts and plaid shirt are given as well as the dimples in her leg and the shadow around her arm and her hair.

The second features a female with attention to shade, colour, and pose of the model.

Last, but not least, is a study of a female torso standing. Attention is given to how the light and shade appears on her body from her hands to her shoulders and her overall bones/texture. Also, important to note is the drapery of the cut-off denim shorts that she wears.

These are brilliant works, and I wish I could draw the human form half as well as this.

Italian street artist Mr. Thoms painted the Village Underground wall this month. This is one of London's highest profile street art walls, and it was some time before the wall was refreshed with new work. Mr. Thoms hails from Rome and has painted large-scale murals across the world featuring his often-comical sketches and illustrations. Instead of a large single piece, he transformed this wall into several smaller pieces accompanied with text.

I caught the artist finishing up the wall earlier this month.

The artist claims to change his style into something new, but the sketches and wit remains. For more information, the artist's Facebook page with additional images can be seen here: https://www.facebook.com/MrTHOMS-133580520060657

The London street art scene this year has been a pretty busy one after it got off to a pretty slow start. I've been too busy to keep too much up-to-date and post regularly about it, but here's several works below from the ever-changing street art scene in east London from earlier this year. I have a lot more to come, so keep returning.

Himbad

First up, Himbad painted a large-scale piece on the side of the building on Sclater Street. This whole street is undergoing rennovations at the moment, and the car park at the Brick Lane end where we have seen so much great street art over the years has been converted into a block of expensive flats. This is such a striking piece in a popular area. (I covered a collaboration with the artist that took place ohis same street last year.)

Himbad

Next up, street artist Neoh has been busy this year painting his ballerina girls. (I've covered his work previously here.)

Earlier this year, I captured this mermaid-esque woman wearing a tribal mask. The artwork was created by Frida Stiil Vium, an artist from Denmark.

Hunto's colourful abstract images of people engaging and communicating with each other area always a popular find in London. I've covered his work many times. The artist hails from Italy and is inspired by modern abstract art.

Street artist Beastie, who is from Gloucester in England, created this cat stencil on Brick Lane, and the cat looks as if it has walked through wet paint. I've seen work by this artist in London before but I've never posted about it.

Ben Eine, who specialises in typography street art, has recently been in London this year after having a bit of a break. He updated one of his walls on Ebor Street earlier this year, and I covered that here. However, he also created a mural on Sclater Street around the same time, but I was never able to get a decent photograph of it due to the market and cars parked along the street. The piece reads "Rebel Rebel" for a new motorbike business that has been set up there, where an antique and odds-and-ends shop used to be.

I've not covered Endless' work in detail on my blog before, but the London-based artist creates paste-ups and stencils. These contain brand references. The below piece was created on the popular wall at Pedlety Street and features a brand of perfume. It isn't often that the artist completes a specific piece designed for a wall as most of his work tends to be smaller images and paste-ups.

The below pieces were completed as an advertisement, and I thought they were done well.

The Doodle Man created a few doodles in London earlier this year, and I saw three different walls that were designed. This was the largest-scale piece on Great Eastern Street. This scaffolding tunnel was transformed into thousands of doodles over a few weeks. I also caught the artist in action.

SpZero76 is a regular to the London street art scene and often paints with collective Lost Souls. (I've covered his work here previously.) I enjoyed this witty doughnut-gone-rogue while a cop shaped like a pistol chases him with hearts -- because cops love doughnuts.

Autone1 created the colourful pattern below in a collaboration with Itaewon. I've seen Autone1's work in London before but have never covered it in detail.

Graffiti Life painted a happy snowman character from "The Snowman" for Christmas last year.

Andy Council is an artist from Bristol, and I've covered his work in both cities a few times, including earlier this sprint for Endangered13. His abstract works feature abstract cityscapes that take on an organic feeling and can create a new image. The below cityscape appears to also become a dragon when looked at from a distance.

Love Pusher and El Jerrino collaborated on the below piece.

Airbourne Mark, a regular to London's street art scene and covered here, created several new works around east London. The titles of the pieces were called "Origami Riots" and featured items, usually smiles, that appear to have been drawn on paper and folded. I caught the artist at work in one piece. It's a little different than his usual style, but I've seen him paint in London previously.

I loved the quotation by PlasticJesus, but it's one I've heard before. This stencil artist often pokes fun at popular culture. This newest piece by the artist is "Stop making stupid people famous." It also features two children holding "Need work" sign.

Chinagirl, an artist from Germany who creates plaster and ceramic street art and installations, has been to London recently a couple of times now, and I've previously posted her work here. The most recent additions to London's street art scene were the rabbits holding grenades, and I discovered them in a couple of different areas.

Itaewon and Joey Baker created the colourful fantasy scene below.

Elno, a Spanish street artist, paints detailed portraits. She's been quite busy in London so far this year, and I have most recently covered her work in Leake Street. 

Kaes (Jay Caes) painted this colourful blend of wolves. Kaes' work is common to London's street art scene.

Brazlian artist Decolife painted a new wall in London earlier this year in a hidden spot not far from Brick Lane. I originally covered Decolife's work here.

I am not sure who painted the artwork below in Star Yard, off Brick Lane, but I liked it.

Also in Star Yard, the work evolved along with the above piece.

Saki & Bitches, a Japanese artist who has created much work in the city, has also created a new  puzzle game where people who pass by can interact with the piece to match up the different portions of the artwork. I enjoy seeing her work, and I most recently covered her last spring when she collaborated with other artists.

I've not covered Syd's artwork in detail, but his work is common in the city. His works are stencil-based and often small-scale pieces. However, this piece appeared on a wall with the message "welcome to the machine".

Pang, a London-based artist, came into the street art scene only a few years ago. Since then, she's been making a real name for herself and more recently collaborated with Nagel on a large scale piece off Brick Lane. She typically creates black and white illustrations of ash trays and the cowboy character.

Mutiny's (also known as Janie Laurie) artwork often portrays endangered wildlife. I've previously covered some of her work here. This was created at the beginning of the year and features colourful 'golden shouldered parrots', which are endangered.

French street artist Annabelle Tattu created many paste-ups across London earlier this year. Her work always features her characters in different situations, and there is often an element of wit involved in the detailed illustrations. I enjoyed the piece below, which seems to feature a lady with a hat and glass of wine and the television character "Mr. Bean".

Japanese street artist Masagon creates his work using a geometric style, and he painted the following bright geometric shapes on Sclater Street.

I'll try to post street art more regularly. I've been very busy with work over the last few months and I've not been able to dedicate a lot of time to my blog and other personal projects.

Last weekend, I celebrated my own birthday as well as Queen Elizabeth II's official 90th birthday. Her actual birthday is in April, but June weather is meant to be nicer, so the public celebrate it in June. London (and the whole of the UK) was buzzing with street parties over the weekend. I decided to see what was happening on the Sunday, which was the big day for the Queen's "The Patron Lunch" and the main day for street parties.

I ended up in Lamb Conduit Street near Russel Square first. When I arrived, I wish I had arrived earlier as they were just finishing up the dog show. There were prizes based on the size of the dog, waggiest tail, most handsome, prettiest, best sit, and best trick. I saw all types of dogs, but someone said the daschund won the top prize.

The dogs and their owners stayed in the area for awhile as there were food and drinks to consume (I tried a champagne made in Hampshire), a competition for the best crown, temporary tattoos, and other prizes.

One of the shop fronts had a display dedicated to the queen. Many shops had some patriotic display.

And of course, there were Morris dancers....

Bunting hung from the trees and in between lamp posts. Red, white, and blue balloons were floating.

The crown-making competition looked fascinating with different styles of crown on display. My favourite was the red and gold one, which was made from painted coffee beans.

After wandering around, I walked through Holborn, through Covent Garden, across Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus before walking all the way down to Green Park. Well, before Green Park I took a peek inside the cordoned off area to watch a band playing the "Star Wars" theme down the Mall and a glimpse of those soaked people sitting around the tables at "The Patron's Lunch".

Green Park had a television broadcasting the events unfolding at the end of the park. Flags were being given away, and there were plenty of places to buy food and drink.

I did not stay for long.

London itself was decorated with Union Jack flags on many streets. Many of the shop windows also had birthday messages and imagery.

I believe that more people would have been out had the weather been nicer. The continuous intermittent showers seemed to keep people away, but it was certainly one of the most memorable events of the year. I only wish my street would have had a street party.

I visited Brick Lane the weekend before last and noticed that the huge wall at the end of Hanbury Street was painted and getting ready for a new piece after the previous Nagel and Pang piece remained for some time. Today, I went to Brick Lane and was happy to see a huge mural by one of my favourite street artists, Dan Kitchener (DANK). This artist often creates street scapes with a light or rain effect as well as portraits of (mainly) Japanese ladies.

This work is titled 'London Rush' and features the artist's "Liquid Light" style of painting. According to the artist on his Facebook page (1), it took 1.5 days to paint and was sketched out in free-hand and spray-painted. It's the largest piece by the artist that I have seen so far, and it really made me feel almost like a part of the image or that I could step through and be in another dimension.

Next to the piece is a separate shutter, and it also features a city street scene by the artist.

Recently, a portrait of a Japanese lady appeared in Shoreditch too, and the artist's work has appeared on this wall many times and is often refreshed. The piece is titled "Butterfly" and it was painted for the artist's recent solo show "Queen of Neon". 

Although I have not been to Croydon to see it in person, Dan Kitchener has also been extremely busy painting there. The below photograph shows some of his work, and the one above is only a small section of a 36-panel wall. The below section is a separate area in Croydon.

Prior to this work, I captured additional pieces by Dan Kitcher at the start of the year, and you can see this post here.

1) https://www.facebook.com/DanKitchenerART/

Last weekend, I visited Birmingham (England). My first stop was a walk around different areas where I expected to locate street art. I started by walking to Moor Street train station in Birmingham before walking down Fazeley Street and Floodgate Street, Heath Mill Street, and some of the other areas. I discovered The Custard Factory, a location for the creatives with several shops and a gallery. There's quite a few great pieces of street art here. The city also hosts its own street art festival, City of Colours. It takes place later this month, so be sure to catch it. The event takes place over the 18th and 19th of June. For more information, visit the official website here: http://www.cityofcolours.co.uk. It looks like there's a lot of brilliant artists lined up this year.

N4T4

N4T4

First up is a stunning portrait of a young female by N4T4. N4T4 has been painting with spray paint since 1985 and tends to paint portraits of females mainly, and he is inspired by aboriginal influences and uses patterns. The above piece is brilliant because the artist actually uses the building material to create the piece. The female appears to be wearing an earring and holding other jewels, and these are actually a part of the building itself and painted and used in the piece. 

Mr. Penfold and Tempo 33

Mr. Penfold is from Cambridge, and I've originally covered his work in London on a previous post (Malarky, Mr. Penfold, Billy & Lucas). He paints characters in bright colours. Tempo33 is a Birmingham-based street artist and often pastes up black and white faces. In this example, he's used colour to create one of the faces. More of Tempo 33's work is below, and he's also pasted up many pieces in London, but I've never covered his work before.

Tempo33

Tempo33 and Toasters

In another collaboration, Tempo 33 painted with Toasters. I have previously covered their work in London here.

Unknown and g-anders

This whole building on Frazeley Street is covered in street art. The portrait of the lady is unknown, but the monochrome piece is by g-anders and is an optical illusion.

Unknown

N4T4

Unknown street art robots

Unknown street art magnifying glass; corpse; Golden Boy

Newso and Gent48

The above piece was only just finished in February this year and celebrates 40 years of The Body Shop and its "enrich, not exploit" campaign. The artists have both been around the street art scene for awhile. Newso has been creating work all over the UK for the past eight years and has done mainly community work. Gent 48 studied art at Birmingham and has painted around Europe.

Philth

Philth (Phil Blake) is a graphic designer and illustrator who often paints female forms. 

N4T4

Unknown

Amara Por Dios

Amara Por Dios hails from Sweden but is a regular visitor to London, and I have covered her work many times (Street Art: Amara Por Dios).

Unknown

Dscreet

Dscreet (covered here) is a regular to east London's street art scene. 

Unknown

Masai

Masai is a popular artist in the street art scene and often paints endangered species or animals. The giant fly is on a wall near The Custard Factory. I've recently covered his work at Mile End for Endangered13.

Inkie

Another high profile street artist is Inkie, who often created vintage-inspired 'advertisement' pieces. I last saw the artist's work last year at Bristol Upfest.

Jim Vision

Jim Vision is a London-based street artist, and he's created hundreds of pieces there. I last covered his work here. In this piece, titled 'High Rise' shows a burning building.

Dank 

Dank (Dan Kitchener) is another London-based street artist who creates portraits of Japanese women and street scenes. This stunning piece reminds me of a busy Tokyo street. Some of the artist's work is covered here.

MYL

coLor, Eugene Bloom, Corpse

Newso

Lost Souls Crew, Spzero, Squirl, Kaptain Kris

The Lost Souls Crew are also regular street artists in London, and I've covered them here.

Andy Council

Andy Council is a Bristol-based street artist, and I like this piece with ice cream and ice cream cones. He often creates illustrations showing different perspectives and architecture. He also painted at Endangered13 in London.

Philth

Rainbow Christ

Liskbot

Liskbot paints robots and often pastes up robot characters.

Senna

I've covered Senna's work when he went to London a few years ago. Senna hails from Brazil.

MEF and Gnasher

I've covered Gnasher's work at Bristol Upfest.

Jim Vision

Gent48

Gent48

PST

Annatomix - David Bowie

Annatomix creates work with different planes or dimensions, and many of her work is monochrome. Her tribute to David Bowie must have been painted at the beginning of the year. I've previously covered her work here.

Newso and Gent48

Have you been to Birmingham to explore the street art, or can you tell me who created the pieces in the 'unknown' ones in my collection above?

I went to the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) Chelsea Flower Show on Satrrday. The RHS Chelsea Flower Show has been on my "London Bucket List" for a few years now, and I can now tick that off my list. The show is a popular event in London's calendar because it gets a lot of press, and the Queen, royal family, and celebrities visit nearly every year. (They visit the day before it is open to the general public.) The show is only on for a few days at the end of May each year and is held at the Royal Hospital Chelsea near Sloane Square. The show gardens are created the weekend before, and it is open to the general public on Tuesday. The final day of the show is on the Saturday when all of the plants are auctioned off at 4:00.

Royal Hospital Chelsea

I got up very early so that I could queue for the show to get in before it got too busy. Having never been before, I read tips online that mentioned seeing the show gardens first as they get busy later on. The night before, I looked at the guide and map and decided on a plan of action for seeing the show gardens. I'm glad that I followed this tip as I scrambled to see the show gardens, which did get busier as the time progressed, but I was able to see all of them. I've heard that some people do not get to see all of them because they can be several people deep later in the day.

Below are my photographs of many of the gardens at the show, including the prize won by each garden. In the prize category, Gold is top place; silver-gilt is second, and silver is third. 

M&G Garden - (Show Garden - Gold)

This garden was inspired by the designer's memory of ancient oak woodlands in Exmoor National Park (England) and includes 'forest' trails, wildflowers, and a pool of water. This garden won the 'Best Construction Award'.

LG Smart Garden (Show Garden - Silver-gilt)

There were a couple of gardens that I loved, and this was one of them. This garden advertises smart home technology but also brings it to the garden as well. I loved the pastel colours of the flowers, the minimal interior of the home, and the difference in textures with the furry skins on the back of the chairs. This seems to combine the home and garden together. The purple, white and green colour scheme seems to be popular this year.

Watahan East & West Garden (Show Garden - Silver)

The Watahan East & West Garden is created by Japanese designer Tea Yano, and it combines English and Japanese styles and plants. I liked the reflections in the pool.

St. John Hospice - A Modern Apothecary (Show Garden - Silver-gilt)

This was another one of my favourite gardens. This garden was inspired by doctors and care professionals when asked about improving health and the context of the healing power of plants based on the quote by Socrates "Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food." Plants that are known for their health benefits are included in the garden as well as a bench where one can sit and take in the aroma of lavender and other plants and watch the small fountain of water. The garden contains red-leaved herbs (Atriplex, Beta and Brassica) which contain anthocyanidins are known to relieve oxidative stress (stresses from toxins). Several of the plants in the garden can also be eaten.

The way plants clear toxins and freshens the air is very important to me. Studies have been shown that certain plants purify the air and get rid of toxins, and this is why house plants are important to remove toxins in plastics, furniture, products that we use, and vehicles. Since moving into a house in October and having more room, I have researched different house plants to buy to purify the air and to remove toxins and fumes from car pollution. Note that a lot of plants can be posionous to animals if eaten (cats are attracted to plants), but they can be placed up high on shelving where the animals cannot access them.

The Chelsea Barracks Garden (Show Garden - Gold)

This garden looks onto the Chelsea Barracks, so the garden was built to enhance the heritage and architecture of the building. Roses are prominent in the garden, and the bronze sculptures reference those who resided here.

Morgan Stanley Garden for Great Ormond Street Hospital (Show Garden - Gold)

This garden will be moved to the Great Ormond Street Hospital (a children's hospital) permanently after the show. It is a centrepiece for families and children to come to gather while the children have their treatment at the hospital. The building is inspired by Japanese architecture. I love the metalwork on the ceiling of the building, which reminds me of leaves and the reflections that this would create to feel outdoors around the foilage. White and pastel purple/blue flowers also feature in this garden.

Antithesis of Sarcophagi (Fresh Garden - Gold)

This granite cube has writing on one side and looks just like a solid cube of rock. However, there is a surprise inside. Visitors walk around the cube and discover small holes in the stone to look through. Inside the cube is a beautiful garden. This unique garden won the 'Best in Show' in the Fresh Garden category.

The 5000 Poppies Project

For Rememberance Day in Australia, 5000 poppies were knitted. It took three years to create the poppies, and many have been donated. This reminds me of the famous Poppies at the Tower exhibition in 2014. This is one of the most photographed pieces of the Flower Show this year, and it has received a lot of press.

Grand Mirror Form

This sculpture was inspired by folding paper several times to come up with different shapes and angular forms. 

The Husqvarna Garden (Show Garden - Silver-gilt)

This Australian garden offers reflection and relaxation. The sunken lawn areas and layered hedges make the garden feel more private. The garden uses a lot of deep purple/pink/red shades of flowers along with sage-green leaves and red ferns.

Vestra Wealth's Garden of Mindful Living (Show Garden - Gold)

This is a modern garden for a busy client inspired by the Far East and yoga. It combines views of the city with a garden space to enhance life's balance.

Brewin Dolphin Garden - Forever Freefolk (Show Garden - Silver)

The message of this garden encourages people to think about natural resources and threats of the environment. This garden contains many brightly-coloured flowers and brightly-coloured gravel instead of following a limited colour scheme.

The Telegraph Garden (Show Garden - Gold)

This garden won 'Best in Show' this year, and it is inspired by the landscape with the slabs of bronze representing mountains. 

Winton Beauty of Mathematics Garden (Show Garden - Silver-gilt)

Mathematical patterns help to describe beauty and is commonly used in design, art, and music for composition. 

Royal Bank of Canada Garden (Show Garden - Silver-gilt)

This garden was inspired by a recent garden that the designer designed for the royal garden in Jordan. It contains scultped basalt pyramids and water reflections. The primary theme is the importance of water. The plants used are what can be found in Jordan and what suits the climate there.

L'Occitane Garden (Show Garden - Gold)

The brand is celebrating 40 years of its beauty and skincare products. The garden is inspired by its home in Provence, France and is made to look like the countryside of this area with lavender, cornflowers, poppies, and other flowers and plants found in this area.

Hartley Botanic Garden (Show Garden - Silver-gilt)

This garden has a glass house sitting on the water. The glass house contains carniverous plants, but the outside is decorated with pastel plants.

Cloudy Bay Garden (Show Garden - Silver-gilt)

This garden is simple, and the wooden frame suggests that there are no boundaries. 

God's Own Country - a Garden for Yorkshire (Show Garden - Silver)

This garden celebrates Yorkshire and its important gardens and heritage sites, including Yorkminster. The stained glass is a replica of Yorkminster, and it was created using methods from the 1400s. The garden contains flowers of multiple colours. Although I loved this garden and its multiple colours, I think it would have done better to plant flowers that complement the stained glass windows as I feel that they distract from it. There is a little too much going on. 

This garden won the BBC and RHS People's Choice award. 

Oh, and I noticed that these brown irises were in quite a few of the gardens on display. I've never seen a colour like this before.

The Harrods British Eccentrics Garden (Show Garden - Silver-gilt)

This was a very beautiful garden to photograph with a variety of beautiful flowers and hedges. It was inspired by the British eccentric with mechanisms engineered and inspired by the likes of the creations in Wallace and Gromit and others. This is also a memorable garden because the bay trees twirled, the garden boxes on the shed moved, and the roof on the shed lifted. Other hedges spun or lowered. 

The Modern Slavery Garden (Fresh Garden - Gold)

This garden also won the People's Choice award. It symbolises the hope for the end of slavery, but the bad still happens behind closed doors. The doors symbolise a way to open to freedoms.

Imperial Garden - Revive (Fresh Garden - Silver)

This garden is designed by a Ukranian designer and had lace-like elements that join the different elements together. It tries to redefine the world by removing politics in the world to create a harmony.

Pro Corda Trust - A Suffolk Retreat (Artisan Garden - Silver)

I loved this little garden, which contains a fountain, a summer house, and green and pale purple flowers. The garden is constructed as a retreat for young people with educational needs so that they could engage and create.

Senri-Sentei Garage Garden (Artisan Garden - Gold)

This garden is for a car enthusiast and complements the car as well as provides a relaxing garden space.

After visiting the show gardens, we went into the Great Pavilion. Inside are exhibitors and plant sellers as well as community/education exhibits. One of the displays featured the Queen's 90th birthday. We actually saw a few pay tribute to the Queen, and the show had an area with photographs over the ages.

The Olympics also played a part in a large and colourful exhibition. Around this exhibit were several microscopes where we could see work by Willard Wigan. He creates artwork that fits inside an eye of a needle, which is barely visible with the naked eye. Looking through the microscope allowed the pieces to be seen an admired. I was wowed with this. Painting and constructing these tiny artworks was impressive. My favourites were the Olympic torch and Olympic symbol (how did he do this?) and the four seasons with the changing trees.

Exhibitors tend to specialise in one plant area. There was an exhibit of orchids, roses, cacti, lillies, rhododendrons, peonies, carniverous plants, tulips, daffodils, irises, and other plants.

A special exhibition to the Queen was also created with multiple colours. The other side of the artwork contains a mock 'stand' with buckets of flowers similar to what may be discovered at a flower market. This celebrates New Covent Garden flower market.

A church frame was also created with beautiful pastel pink/purple, cream, and orange flowers.

I liked the colours of the beach huts with the different colours of the plants.

Before we wandered around the vendors, we bought a half bottle of champagne. The area was getting much busier, and we had seen nearly everything so decided to call it a day instead of waiting around for the auction. I did try to reserve a couple of plants in the Great Pavilion, but they were spoken for. This always happens to me, and I must have good taste.

My tips for visiting the RHS Chelsea Flower Show are to arrive early to beat the majority of the crowds and to see the show gardens before they get too busy. Get the guide beforehand and decide which route you want to take. Also, always have your guide with you and watch it carefully; I had someone walk off with mine. The sellers that sell the guides told me that people just try to take them for free. They are £10.00 a pop at the time of writing this, so I was down £10.00 when someone took mine. Also, the queues for the toilets can be very long, particularly around lunch time, so plan ahead if you need to go.

Food and drink can be purchased on site, but it is very expensive and the food that I had was not good quality. I went to Thames View for an early lunch at about 11:30 to avoid the crowds, and the service was also appalling. It was so appalling that different people in the queues around me (I had to go to two queues to get two different items) were joking about how bad it was and how some staff just stood around, would not make eye contact, and would ignore serving. Picnics can be brought, and there is ample space on the grass inside to eat for a fraction of the cost; you could even sit near the bandstand and listen to live music while eating.

If visiting on the Saturday, some of the exhibitors do reserve plants for the big sell off. Reserving seems to be quite popular, and if you really want something specific, it is the way to go. However, the best bargains are probably made when turning up for the auctions instead of making a reservation for something where the price is determined by the exhibitor.

If you have any additional tips, include them in the comments below.