Results matching “paint”

David Selor is a street artist from France. This summer, he visited London and left behind several paintings on walls featuring his dog-like character and witty or thought-provoking slogans. I have photographed and added to this post all of his work that I have managed to come across in the past few weeks. Some of these no longer exist now as London's walls are always evolving.

Visit David Selor's blog here: http://david-selor.blogspot.co.uk

Visit his Flickr here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidselor/

This summer, Hong Kong street artist Roes (SmileMaker) visited London and left behind several colourful walls. The artworks encourage the viewer to smile. I located several and photographed them for you to view here. Many of these have since been painted over. Roes visited during the "Meeting of the Styles" event at the end of June.

What is your favourite mural by Roes (SmileMaker) in London? I like the business man on the wooden rocking horse because it makes me laugh. The large party boy with the pig mask is also funny. I actually saw the artist painting the business man on the rocking horse.

This autumn, nearly fifty painted bus charity sculptures have appeared in London's streets to celebrate 2014 as the Year of the Bus. The bus sculptures started to appear at the end of October and will remain in their locations until early December. The buses have been brought to London by the London Transport Musuem (and Wild in Art, the company responsible for many of the charity art sculpture trails) to raise money for charities.

Stephen McKay - London Telephone Bus

I spent a couple of lunch breaks and had trips up to London at the weekend in order to track down this bus art sculptures across London! I am showing my favourites here.

Sian Storey - Swinging London

The Year of the Bus celebrates London's iconic red buses. This year marks the anniversaries of different types of buses, and a hundred years have passed since the first motor bus, which carried soldiers in 1914. This year also marked the introduction of the new Routemaster buses, which I saw unveiled at the London Transport Museum three years ago, to London's streets. 

Mandii Pope - Buckingham Palace Bus

Four main trails for the bus sculptures included the Olympic Park, City of London, River (around London Bridge), and Westminster/Soho.

Beth Quinton - Moquette

The Great War was a theme common for some of the buses. Another bus was decoated like Buckingham Palace, and another was painted to look like a row of telephone boxes.

Crispin Finn - Ding! Ding!

I honestly cannot pick a favourite bus art design! There were so many that Ioved, and the bus is a great canvas. More photographs are below.

Sarah Jane Grace - Poppy Fields

Cath Kidston

Damien Jeffery - Rock 'n' Royal

Kristel Pillkhan - Spectrum

Jane Callan - Brollybus

Mini Moderns - Push Once

Srokowski Design - Invisible to the Environment

A large selection of buses

Michelle Heron - Tower Bridge Bus

Detail from 'Travels with Edward' by Valerie Osment

Jenny Leonard - Lord Mayor of the City of Westminster bus

These are not all of the buses on display at the moment. Another trail of buses will appear on London's streets before Christmas, and word has it that it will be based in Croydon. I believe that the bus art sculptures will be auctioned off in January.

A couple of weeks ago, a few friends and I went to the "Art of the Brick" Lego exhibition at the Truman Brewery near Brick Lane. I work opposite the exhibition, and it was particularly popular during half-term week and has brought many more people to that area of east London. My friends and I all appreciate the Lego brick, so this was a great chance for an excuse to meet up.

The exhibition features over eighty different sculptures made from Lego bricks by New York artist Nathan Sawaya. The exhibition is located in the middle of Brick Lane at Dray's Walk. 

After watching a short video about the artist and the creative process, we entered the first room, which contained famous classic statues made out of Lego bricks, such as these two below: Julius Caesar and "The Thinker". 

From here, the exhibition changed direction and displayed famous paintings created from Lego bricks. The light and shade was created by using different Lego bricks, in some instances. In others, the Lego bricks created their own depth to create the artwork on canvas. The square/rectangular bricks were primarily used in their different colours, but certain key features could be swapped with a special Lego shape, such as in the artwork of "The Girl with a Pearl Earring" below. My favourite work was the wave as this was a dimensional piece with some of the bricks layered to create a three-dimensional effect.

Some of these sculptures took days or months to finish, and the information about each was displayed to us. This included the time it took to build each piece and the approximate number of Lego bricks to create the piece.

The next room we went to had everyday objects made from Lego, and another room showed a swimmer, created with some Lego bricks, light/reflection, and imagination to allow our minds to complete the remainder of the artwork. This was cleverly constructed but not easy to photograph.

The following several rooms of the exhibiton primarily showed the human figure and the artist's relationship to it through a variety of themes. The sculptures were created with one primary colour of brick. Well-constructed pieces included the image above, with the three figures with shapes for heads and the portraits below. The artist's portrait is the blue one, and his female friend modeled for the red one. The yellow one is less-defined and is meant to represent everyone else.

Two of the most clever pieces are the yellow figure featured at the top of my post, with Lego bricks inside and this fractured blue man. Each piece represented a different emotional state, and some of these states are included in the artist's own suffering and personal experiences, according to the information boards scattered around the exhibition.

A massive dinosaur skeleton broke up the exhibition area. The artist was inspired to create this for the children who came to visit the exhibition. Children love Lego as much as adults, but several of the themes in the exhibition are primarily directed toward adults. The dinosaur provided an element of fun, and I could see this being popular with children.

More emotional and psychological states of human figures followed.

I also saw the artist's signature on one of the large Lego sculptures and photographed it.

The last couple of rooms dealt with popular culture, and several portraits of singers (all made from Lego) graced the walls. The next room featured British icons, such as the red telephone box and a "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster, made with some unique pieces of Lego for the intricate bits.

To showcase Britain as the home of popular music, the boy band One Direction had a prime location. All of the members of the band were constructed from Lego. This represents today's music.

Next to One Direction features the Beatles. The construction is fairly good as I could pick out the different Beatles based on the shape of the head and 'face' features.

I was glad that the exhibition was not as bad as I was expecting, as I had read some poor reviews of it. (I had booked tickets before it opened.) Of course, it was a great excuse to hang out with friends, and we visited Kingsland Road afterwards to eat at one of the many Vietnamese restaurants there. We'd done this previously (just over a year ago) and really enjoyed it.

My only qualm about the exhibition was the cost of the items for sale in the shop at the end. Two pounds and fifty pence for a postcard is extremely steep, even when considering London prices. I also felt that the exhibition was a little costly compared to other events, though I can imagine that the cost of the Lego and transportation is part of the reason for this.

Overall, it was a good evening out. I'd recommend this exhibit to those who appreciate artwork and creating artwork from Lego bricks. There are a couple of gems, and there are some clever creations using Lego. I was impressed that the artist managed to show emotion in some of the sculptures, using just Lego bricks.

The exhibition is being shown off Brick Lane until January 4th, so there's still time to catch it. I recommend to book in advance.

Two weeks ago, I made a visit to "Tina We Salute You", a cafe in Dalston. I paid a visit twice that same week during my lunch hour as I had to do errands, and I had heard good reviews about the cafe, which often has street art painted on the outside walls. My visit was in the run-up to Halloween, so pumpkin desserts were on the menu. On my first visit, I had the chocolate meringue cake, made with pumpkin-spiced meringue (picture at the bottom of this post). This was tasty. 

On my second visit, later in the same week, I visited the cafe and had the place to myself. I decided to try one of the lunch/breakfast items on the menu. I had the bubble, cheddar and bacon sandwich. 

After the sandwich, I decided to take away a slice of chocolate and pumpkin bread, which had just come straight from the oven and was still warm. It was the perfect temperature by the time I completed my errand in Dalston and got back to work on Brick Lane. It was the perfect afternoon snack. 

Tina We Salute You is located at 47 King Henry's Walk, Dalston, N1 4NH.

In July, I subscribed to beauty subscription box Glossybox, and the last three months of reviews are located here: UK 2014 Glossybox Reviews: July, August, September. The Glossybox subscription box contains samples (and sometimes full-size products) of make-up, skincare, and other beauty items.

October's box theme for Glossybox is "Pop Art", and the box came with some full-size products (such as SoSusan mascara and Ciaté nail polish) and sample sizes of other products. Each box contained a full-size NUXE product. I loved the box design this month. Each subscriber got one limited edition box design. (From what I can see, the illustrations are the same, but the "Pop Art" woman's shirt and hair are a different colour.) The cardboard box that this box came in was also decorated in "Pop Art" design.

Below are the items I received in October's Glossybox box. Overall, I am farly happy with the products this month. This box includes a nice range of make-up, skin care, and fragrance.

NUXE Crème Fraîche® beauty mask: This 24-hour moisturising mask is meant to soothe and freshen skin. I love the honeysuckle smell of this product, and it brought back childhood memories of summery June evenings. Honeysuckle is quite possibly my favourite fragrance. The product melted into my skin within the ten minutes.

Être Belle Cosmetics lip peel: This lip exfoliator removes dead skin to create soft lips. This is the time of year that my lips tend to dry out a little bit, so this is a welcome product in my box, but I prefer my Mary Kay (satinlips) brand that I felt is a little more effective in doing the job.

So Susan Flutter Mascara: According to information about the product, two coats of mascara give you dark, curly lashes. The changes are a little more subtle than similar products, and at least the product does not cake on (and then get onto my cheekbones or underneath my eyes when I blink). 

Ciaté London paint pot (in talent scout): The bright colours are inspired by pop art. The colour is thick, but I needed two coats of the polish to cover my nails. I am not too sure about the dark purple colour, but perhaps it will grow on me after a couple more days. I do think this goes best with jeans and a casual top.

Yves Rocher Queleues Notes d'Amour: This perfume came in the cutest little bottle, and it's a decent size for a fragrance. I like the scent and do not currently own a similar scent, which is slightly odd because I do have a small hoard of perfumes. The scent is damascus rose and guaiac wood, and I'm not sure if I could ever pick those scents out on their own.

Rimmel London BB Cream Matte: This facial sun protection cream gives skin a matte finish. I generally am not into this type of product, and the colour is too dark for my skin.

I discovered quite a bit of street art in Belfast, and I am not including the murals that I have already covered in my post Belfast Political Murals. Although street art can be and is often political, it is in a different category to the murals that I've captured in Belfast. Some of the work I recognised from artists who had painted in London, including Malarky and Conor Harrington. 

Yarn-bombing seems to be quite popular in Belfast, and I saw various trees and statues that had been yarn-bombed and knitted over. The trees below were discovered near Queen's University.

I also saw statues that had been yarn-bombed. These two women sculptures, depicted to celebrate the working woman, had bracelets, ear-rings stockings, and other items knitted around them.

I also discovered some street art by Lucas and Malarky (Street Art: Malarky, Mr. Penfold, Billy and Lucas) in Belfast. Anyone who has been to east London and Brick Lane will have seen some of their work on shutters.

I also discovered several pieces in the Cathedral Quarter in Belfast, but I am not sure who the artists are.

The Cathedral Quarter in Belfast hs a lot of street art and murals. I was happy to see a large wall painted by Conor Harrington (Street Art: Conor Harrington), whose work I have seen in London. It features three figures, one watching on while two others sword-fight.

Conor Harrington

Additional art in the Cathedral Quarter in Belfast includes a sculpture known as "The Calling" that features two sculptures of figures high upon posts calling to one another.

The Calling

This weekend, the Truman Brewery hosts The Other Art Fair and the Monkier Art Fair. I received a ticket through my workplace, so I went along to view the artwork during my lunch hour. The exhibition (art fair) was quite busy when I visited it on the Friday. For those readers looking for something to do this weekend, have a browse of this exhibition. There is a price for tickets to enter, but you can see some great pieces of work and buy a piece if you like it enough.

The Other Art Fair showcases work by emerging artists, which has been picked by famous artists. The work is on display and on sale at the fair. I saw illuminated pieces by Rocco Wonderland, sculptures made from books by Alexander Korzer-Robinson, photographs, sculptures, pottery and clay, and artwork made of wire.

(For more information about The Other Art Fair, visit the official website at http://www.theotherartfair.com.)

A craft beer bar had been set up in the gallery, so visitors could sip a beer and admire the artwork.

Another section of the Truman Brewery warehouse, next to The Other Art Fair, hosts the Monkier Art Fair. This fair celebrates urban artists and is in its fifth year. I actually preferred some of the artwork in this section and did recognise several of the artists' work because some of them do create artwork on the street. Benjamin Murphy, David Shillinglaw, and Shephard Fairey were among some I recognised. There were some other pieces I loved, such as the painted stormtrooper helmets (known as Art Wars) by Ben Moore, a series of images made with Lego figures, and various other pieces that I did not photograph.

One of my favourite displays was David Shillinglaw's, which I took photographs of and posted below. He had a large section of wall in a prime area near the craft beer bar.

For more information about the Monkier Art Fair, visit the official website at http://monikerartfair.com/artworks/.

As I left the Truman Brewery warehouse and the exhibition, I saw this painted MINI car parked right outside the door.

After Books About Town Art Sculpture Trail, I've waited all summer for charity art sculpture trails, and then two come along at once! This autumn, the "Year of the Bus" is celebrated by Traffic For London (TFL), and the streets around Westminster, the Olympic Park, and the City will host approximately fifty painted bus sculptures dubbed BusArt. At roughly the same time and to celebrate the new Paddington Bear film, fifty Paddington Bear sculptures will be waiting to be discovered throughout London at various locations.

This morning, the BusArt sculptures (Year of the Bus Sculpture Trail) launched in Trafalgar Square. Unfortunately, the sculptures were only available to view from 8:30-10:00 this morning. I was hoping that they would be available to view at about 7:00-8:00, before I have to get over to work in Brick Lane, and I was planning to get in to London really early to see them. I found out the actual times late last night and realised that it was not possible for me to see them due to the timing. I will just have to wait for them to be placed on their trails. The sculpture trail officially starts on Monday, and it runs until early December. I know that I will be doing a lot of walking over the next few weeks.

Here's a sneak peek of a couple of the buses in Trafalgar Square, courtesy of Transport For London's Twitter feed. [EDIT - added later in the day.]

During most of the same weeks, the buses will be joined by the Paddington Bear Trail. This trail covers a larger area and is ideal for those who are not afraid to cycle in London. All of the bear and bus sculptures are painted by local artists to raise money for charity, and in the case of the Paddington Bears, some are designed and painted by celebrities. Nicole Kidman, Peter Capaldi, Emma Watson, Michael Sheen, Benedict Cumberbatch, David Beckham, Guy Ritchie, Ant & Dec, Jonathan Ross, and mayor Boris Johnson are among the celebrity list. The Paddington Trail begins on November the fourth and ends at the end of December.

I know that I am going to get into shape over the next two months while I track down all of the sculptures.

Find out more:
Paddington Bear: http://www.visitlondon.com/paddington/
Year of the Bus: http://www.wildinart.co.uk/bus-art

Artist Phlegm (Street Art: Phlegm), from Sheffield, finished painting a new mural on Hanbury Street at the weekend. I had the pleasure to see the artist at work on his new mural on Friday. His style is instantly recognisable with black and white figures that appear to come from a dream. A year and a half ago, he was busy creating murals in London, and only one or two of these survivce. 

The work that appears on this wall is normally a striking piece, so I was glad to see Phlegm's work appear here. It replaces an equally nice piece featuring astronauts by Fintan Magee, which remained on the wall for several weeks over the summer.

The mural is located at the junction of Brick Land and Hanbury Street.