Results matching “paint”

Italian street artist (originally covered here) recently painted the high profile wall at the corner of Brick Lane and Pedley Street. The artist is inspired by modern art, such as Picasso and the cubism style. Bright colours are often used with the shapes of faces and other body parts, and the work signifies relationships between people. I always enjoy seeing the artist's work as he is a regular street artist in London.

Unfortunately, part of the wall had been tagged over before I was able to get a photograph of the finished piece. This wall never lasts long before it is tagged over, and it's seen some brilliant pieces. Just before this piece, Jim Vision painted on the wall, but I was not even able to get a photograph of it before it was replaced.

Leake Street tunnels underneath Waterloo train station's railway is a designated street art area in London, and it's always busy with street artists. Earlier this year, it also houses immersive theatre and games. The work here constantly changes, and it does not last long. Earlier this year, I was in the area and stopped by to see the new work. Of course, I took a lot of photographs, but I will only be displaying a tiny selection of work.

First up is a portrait of a woman wearing a mask. This is Zabou, a street artist who has been very busy in London earlier this year. (To see more of her work, read my post Recent Street Art by Zabou.)

The photographs do not do it justice, but this is a very large scale piece filling the ceiling of the tunnel. The above photograph is looking from the other end.

Next up, we have a nice portrait by Elno. 

Hannah Adamszek is the next artist to feature with an equally large portrait of a woman. (I snapped her painting of a peacock collaboration with Zimmermann last summer.)

Cityzen Kane's work features next, and his work has been increasing in scale recenty. This time, his bugs are colourful and crawling along the top of the tunnel. He also pasted up more sculptures on Sclater Street earlier in the year. Again, my photographs do not do this justice as the work is huge.

Last up, HNRX painted their massive piece on the ceiling. They painted in several areas throughout London toward the end of last year, and I covered their work here. Next weekend, Femme Fierce will complete their annual paint jam in the Leake Street tunnels. Femme Fierce is comprised of all-girl street artists, and it's a large event in the street art calendar each year.

On Saturday, I caught the first day of the Endangered13 paint jam at Ackroyd Drive near Mile End tube station and posted the progress of that day in my post HumanNature Endangered13 Street Art Paint Jam, which you should read first because I have not repeated the works that were finished yesterday. I went back in the late afternoon on Sunday to see the progress.

If you have not read yesterday's post to know what this street art event is about, it is sponsored by Human Nature and Louis Masai, a street artist whose work supports endangered species. In fact, quite a few of the artists involved do create work based on environmental aspects. The artists painting and installing work on Ackroyd Drive include Louis Masai, ATM, Andy Council, Jonesy, Vibes, Jim Vision, Xeno, Carrie Reichardt, Faunagraphic, and Fiyas.

The photographs of the progress of the murals from late afternoon on Sunday are included below. I overheard a couple of artists say that they would also be painting on Monday in order to finish up their work.

Faunagraphic

Today was much busier with tape put up so that people could not get up close to where the painting was taking place. More people were visiting, and stands were set up for community aspects, teas were being sold, and seeds were given out to plant for the bees. 

Andy Council

Vibes

Xeno

ATM

Masai, Vibes

Louis Masai

Vibes, Xeno

Fiyas

Jim Vision

Fiyas, Louis Masai, Jim Vision

Carrie Reichardt

Masai, Carrie Reichardt, Faunagraphic

Ackroyd Drive is about a ten minute walk south of Mile End tube station.

This afternoon (well, yesterday evening now as I could not finish my post due to the website hosting company having technical issues), I headed over to Ackroyd Drive at Mile End, London in order to see the street art paint mural project ENDANGERED 13. This event is sponsored by Human Nature and Louis Masai, a street artist whose work supports endangered species and who painted a beautiful coral wall off of Redchurch Street last summer (covered here). ENDANGERED 13 brings together several street artists (Louis Masai, Andy Council, Jonesy, Vibes, Dr Zadok, Jim Vision, Xylo, and others) to paint an 120 metre stretch of railway arches about a ten minute walk from Mile End tube station.

The goal of the event is to bring about awareness about endangered species and to show that this issue affects all of us globally. Hopefully, the exposure of highlighting these issues will allow these endangered species and their habitats to be saved before it is far too late. While I was at Ackroyd Drive this afternoon, I spoke to a few of the street artists taking part. One of the artists, Vibes, told me that each artist was randomly given an endangered species to draw. 

The first work I came across was a rhino by Louis Masai. The rhino was in the quilt patchwork pattern that I have seen him use in the past.

This is a finished piece, and it looks beautiful. The three-dimensional effect really makes it come off the wall.

Next to this piece was a collaboration in progress by Carrie Reichardt and an artist who would prefer to be anonymous. Carrie Reichardt created all of the tiles with political and environmental messages on them. Her focus was on bees. I think this will look amazing once it's finished.

Next up, I discovered a colourful bird by Sheffield-based street artist Faunagraphic. The artist was not around when I got this photograph. 

Next, I came across South African street artist Fiyas who was painting this gorilla. The sketches of the gorilla can be seen as the work is in progress. His work is grafitti-style but appears to be experimenting with graphical elements, grafitti, and other topics (such as animals). I did speak to him briefly and also came across Jonesy, who I will mention later on. 

Louis Masai had a second finished piece on the next wall. The finished piece represents to colourful endangered coral reefs with a colourful array of tropical fishes and plant life. It's a beautiful mural that reminds me of the large-scale mural on Redchurch Street near Brick Lane.

The next work was a polar bear by Jim Vision, showing a scene where the world's cities are creating so much heat and pollution that the polar bear is stranded and holding on to a small sliver of iceberg. This highlights global warming's role in extinction.

Next up are two pieces from Jonesy on Ackroyd Drive. I love seeing Jonesy's works as they are unexpected, and you need to look up high to see them. A lot of his work is perched on the top of signs. The first one is an abstract being with broken chains and has a message underneath "break free from fossil fuel". Jonesy's work is usually comprised of environmental messages, so that makes him an excellent artist for this cause. I overheard him tell a person who chanced to walk by and wondered what was going on that this piece was open to interpretation.

There are more photographs of the same piece below as it was very difficult to photograph it. The second piece was the first photograph in this post, and it featured a sitting gorilla with words that we (humans) are also in danger because rainforests clean the co2 in the air.

Next up are two birds by London-based street artist ATM. ATM is a wildlife photographer and artist, and his primary subject to paint is birds.

Next to this piece, Louis Masai was working on his third piece at Ackroyd Drive, a whale. The artist is working on the patchwork quilt pattern for the whale, and I am sure that this will look amazing when it's completed.

Vibes was hard at work next to Masai on a tiger-human hybrid. I've previously covered his work, and I love the style where his subjects are 'pulled out' with various features enlarged into 'squares'. In this piece, he is meshing up a human and a tiger. He told me that the random endangered species that he received was the tiger, and it was a challenge for him as he normally paints people. I can't wait to see the finished piece.

I believe the next artist, who was hard at work with a burning rainforest scene, is Dr Zadok or Xenz. Not much of the wall was complete, but it will look like an eye-catching piece when it's finished.

Andy Council, a popular Bristol-based street artist, was painting the last wall. I've covered his work previously, and the artist was also in London about a month ago and painted a wall near Cambridge Heath station. I have not posted that yet, but some of his work can be seen in last year's Bristol Upfest post. Andy Council often creates futuristic and abstract cityscapes. He's sketched out the image below before filling in the colour and detail, and the image appears to depict an elephant with some of London's recognisable buildings at the bottom.

The words above the railway arches in the photograph below say "all of nature rests in the hands of man's wisedom. Let us not be fools'. The words are by Tanya Dee and the artist is Von Leadfoot.

Here's the different sections of railway arches and the works in progress from the late afternoon on Saturday.

The street art will be continued until 7:00pm on Sunday. Visitors can turn up to see the artists paint from mid-day.

http://www.humannatureshow.com/endangered13/

At the end of last year, street artist Ant Carver painted and pasted up artwork in east London. Carver is an artist based in London and combines spray paint with oils. A lot of his work features bold portraits, which are mainly completed in black and white, and these are then finished with strokes of bright colours. The work is a combination of art and design. Much of the work photographed in this post was captured a few months ago, but I also noticed some newer pieces at the beginning of this year.

I happened to get a photograph of one of the works in progress.

Street artist JimmyC painted up a wall on the southern end of Caledonian Road (near King's Cross) last month. He replaced an older mural that he had painted on the same wall, which was of a similar theme with a wide and sweeping landscape. I happened to be walking down this street when I discovered the piece, and it was also freshly-painted having just been finished a day or two previously. The work is created using the artist's signature pointillist style where he creates different splashes or orbs of colour in varying sizes in order to add detail, light, and shade.

One side of the wall is a portrait, and JimmyC is known for his work with portraits. (In fact, his David Bowie piece in Brixton, which I covered here in January, is now protected.)

The portrait features a young 'futuristic' woman. In the other view, a sweeping landscape emerges with the back of a girl. This appears to be the same girl in the photograph, who is in a futuristic landscape with a white dove, 'star tracks', and mountains. The hanging basket makes one of the trees appear to have green foilage when viewed from the distance.

A photograph showing both walls together is below.

I love seeing this artist's work and hope that we can see more soon.

One of my favourite street artists since he's been on the scene in early 2013 is Italian street artist ALO. I love seeing work by this artist and was over-joyed to see some new pieces go up near Brick Lane recently. The new artwork has a slightly different style than the artist's original pieces; it is simplified. It still keeps with the theme of abstract portraits, however. I previously covered the artist's 2015 work here. ALO first painted in London in early 2013 (my first post can be read here). I've covered his work in the following additional posts 'ALO Part 2', 'ALO part 3', and 'ALO Part 4'.

In addition to the above new pieces, I also discovered an older work by the artist when I was visiting Columbia Road. This piece was probably painted last summer when the artist was in London and added a few additional pieces, but I've only just discovered it. It was also in the same location as an older piece by the artist, and this location marks the spot where work by this artist has stood the test of time since 2013.

This mural off Columbis Road appears to be inspired by the Sunday flower market as the female in the portrait is wearing a flower in her hair.

Many times, street art carries a political or humanitarian message that the artist is passionate about. This is certainly the case for the striking new mural on Hanbury Street, painted by Dale Grimshaw and assisted by Mark Hat and street art collective Global Street Art. This is the first time that Grimshaw has painted the wall at this location, but I've captured a few pieces by the artist in Shoreditch over the years (Dale Grimshaw and others).

The image of a young boy in tribal costume is done to draw support of the "free West Papau" campaign. The people in this area wish that their part of the country was independent, and they have tried to enable this to happen and have suffered. More about this cause can be read here: http://freewestpapua.org

The mural is completed in Grimshaw's signature portrait style with blurred background. Grimshaw's work often features tribal portraits. This one has a bright red background with gold detail and grafitti tag. It is certainly an eye-catching piece and one of the better pieces that we have seen on this wall. I always enjoy seeing new work by this artist as his work is realistic and artistic with extra attention given to detail.

On Saturday, I watched the first showing of award-winning theatre company Antic Disposition's "Henry V" play at Middle Temple in London. "Henry V" is one of the events in the series of events taking place in London for Shakespeare400, which marks the centenary of World War 1 and 400 years since the death of William Shakespeare. (A few weeks ago, I went to see the light show on the Guildhall in the City, which I previously covered here.) The play has returned to London to Middle Temple off of Fleet Street.

The play is set in World War 1 in France. It takes place in a hospital that contains both French and British allied troops. Of course, the original play is about King Henry V and the enemy France. The play is told through the soldiers and nurses in the hospital, and it is a blend of modern and medieval times. We really enjoyed the play, and photographs from the play can be seen on the threate company's (Antic Disposition) Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/anticdisposition/

In addition to watching the adaption of the Shakespeare play "Henry V" during this important year, I also got to go inside the beautiful Middle Temple Hall. This venue was chosen in order to add to the atmosphere of the small and beautiful venue, and Shakespeare knew the hall. In fact, "Twelfth Night" was performed here in early February in 1602.

Middle Temple is one of the four associations (similar to guilds) of barristers in London. The area around the hall was where the barristers lived and stayed, and the hall was the meeting place for dinners, seminars, and other functions that the students were required to attend. The hall maintains its appearance from the time when it was built; it was built in the mid-1500s.

The interior of the hall has beautiful wooden carvings, stained glass, and paintings of kings and queens, such as Charles I, Charles II, Queen Anne, Queen Elizabeth, and William III. The pop-up bar was located in another room of the hall, and that meant that I could wander down and check out more of the beautiful building. 

The pop-up bar was down a corridor with paintings and wooden panels. This led into the most beautiful room with carved ceiling and paintings. I ordered two glasses of Cava for the intermission, and bottles of wine, beer, fruit juice, and confectionery could also be purchased immediately or for the intermission.

After the show, we walked back out to Fleet Street. We arrived via the Thames, but I wanted to head to Covent Garden so walked out via the Fleet Street exit. A wooden door can be opened to access Middle Temple Lane. There are quite a few narrow walk-ways and streets off Fleet Street. This was the area for the newspapers and publishing and courts with the Royal Courts of Justice virtually across the road. The London School of Economics is also near. 

"Henry V" is being shown in Middle Temple Hall until April 6. This is a fantastic way to admire the beautiful building and to watch a magical play in the beautiful setting.

One of London's more unique street artists, based on the medium he uses, is Ben Wilson. He is also known as the "Chewing Gum Man" because his medium of choice is used bubble gum. He paints miniature paintings on top of used bubble gum that has been trampled into pavements. I first came across the artist's work (and the artist himself) at 'Baroque the Streets' in Dulwich a few years ago. I've also happened to come across one of his miniature paintings in Shoreditch, but after working in the area for nearly 2.5 years, that was the only piece I discovered.

However, I'd made my way across the Millennium Bridge by St. Paul's Cathedral a few times in 2014. Each time, I noticed Ben Wilson's artwork and also saw the artist painting there on one occasion. Of course, the tourists were asking him about his work and having a chat with him and having their photographs taken. I didn't speak to the artist this time as I was in a little hurry myself to get back to the office from lunch. 

It appears that the artist created some of the paintings based on the people he met and their requests as I noticed that some of the paintings contain initials and names.

I've included a range of gum paintings below, but there are so many of these all along the bridge. Some of them have been faded, and others are freshly-painted. The gum trampled into the metal frames of the bridge creates unique shapes that the artist has fun with. He uses the shapes to create creatures.

For more information about the artist and an interview about his work on Millennium Bridge, see: http://inspiringcity.com/2014/04/18/the-chewing-gum-man-paints-a-trail-of-400-mini-artworks-on-the-millenium-bridge/