Results matching “paint”

Before the holidays, street artist My Dog Sighs and Midge collaborated on some artwork that were pasted up in east London. Earlier this year, My Dog Sighs collaborated with other street artists on a house in Dulwich, which I covered here: Open Day at the Street Art House, Dulwich Arts Festival: Part 2. The artist most recently had a show in Bristol this autumn. The artist leaves objects around, such as faces painted on cans, for others to find. I would love to find one of these. My Dog Sighs paints faces on recycled materials, such as cans and cardboard, and another common subject for the artist is painting realistic eyes. I love the way that the artist captures eyes, reflections, and droplets of water. All of these subjects (eyes, reflections, water drops) are a bit tricky to paint.

The collaborations with street artist This Is Midge (originally from Southsea) are displayed below. There's a lot more on the streets than my selection photographed here suggests, but you can see a sample of the style of artwork. The artwork that shows My Dog Sighs' style are the characters with the more-defined faces. These same faces are the ones painted on the bottoms of cans.

Selection of work by Midge and My Dog Sighs

My Dog Sighs also created a range of paintings with the colourful characters with quotations below.

My Dog Sighs

I will keep my eyes open for some of My Dog Sighs' 'found' artwork on the streets in east London, but I have a feeling that it may only be in Bristol.

For more information about Midge, visit the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/thisismidge

For more information about My Dog Sighs, visit the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Dog-Sighs/115489371467

Earlier this month, I went on the Christmas Cookie Tour of Inns, held in the Amish Country in Ohio. The tour involves a stop at one of twelve inns or hotels as designated on the map. At each stop, the visitor can look at some of the facilities and rooms that are designated as on display; each of these hotels were decorated for the holidays.

Visitors could help themselves to snacks and drinks at each stop, and many of these followed the holiday theme. In addition to free snacks, those visiting with tickets could also pick up a free special cookie at each hotel. The cookies were individually-wrapped, and the tour book contained a recipe for each cookie. The tour theme this year was 'gingerbread'. Many of the cookies contained ginger, and at each stop, the visitor could find a special gingerbread man. Some of the hotels also had gingerbread houses, and the visitor could vote for their favourite one.

Cookies

Barn Inn

Barn Inn is located near Millersburg, Ohio. The inn is a converted barn and former home of the Honey Run Dairy Company and contains its original beams. The barn was restored in 1997. The rooms on display were decorated with Christmas trees. In the main lobby above the doorway and shelving on the top along the ceiling were various Christmas items, such as a sleigh. The chandelier in the lobby had Christmas baubles hanging off of it. A neat idea seen in the hallway on the top follow, behind the gingerbread man, is a Christmas wreath made with deer antlers painted silver.   (Cookie: Gingerbread). 

The Barn Inn

The Barn Inn also included a wonderful table setting. I thought that this would be perfect afternoon tea. (I asked if they did do afternoon tea here, but they do not.) The table was decorated with a gingerbread and reindeer centrepiece with tinsel and baubles. Each setting included a gingerbread cupcake and a miniature gingerbread house over the side of the teacup. I loved this idea.

The Barn Inn

Ferngully Creek Cabins

These secluded cabins are located a few minutes from Berlin and Millersburg, Ohio. They are just off the main road and are located in a quiet grove of trees. The tour included visiting a couple of the different cabins to see how they were decorated. Each cabin contained all amenities needed for visitors expecting a relaxing trip: a kitchen/lounge, bedrooms, television, fireplace, Jacuzzi, and comfortable-looking bedrooms. The fluffy snowmen stood around the Jacuzzi was a cute touch in one of the cabins. Another cabin contained a Christmas display with trees and snowmen above the interior front door. One of the cabins had a large porch. (Cookie: Butterscotch Gingerbread)

Ferngully Creek

Hannah's House

Hannah's House is a five-room Victorian house located near Berlin, Ohio in a wooded area with waterfalls at the back of the house. When we visited, we parked up the road and waited for a horse-drawn wagon to take us and several other visitors to the house. We had a snowy horse-drawn ride down a lane and through a wooded area. The main dining room table in the house is laid with Royal Albert plates. (Cookie: Peanut Butter Oatmeal)

Hannah's House

Berlin Hotel and Suites

The Berlin Hotel and Suites has a movie theatre, fitness room, indoor pool, hot tub, sauna, and racketball court. We did not spend long looking around the hotel. The tree in the main lobby is decorated with lime green and red ornaments (a modern twist to Christmas), and I enjoyed the cute gingerbread house on the lobby desk. (Cookie: Pumpkin Ginger Chocolate Chip)

Berlin Hotel & Suites

Guggisberg Swiss Inn

Guggisberg Swiss Inn is located near Charm, Ohio. A duck pond is located at the back of the inn, and the Amish Country Riding Stables are located on site; guests can take horseback rides with this company and wintertime horse-drawn sleigh rides. The inn resembles a Swiss chalet with a high ceiling in the lobby with a carved wooden clock and stuffed bear. (Cookie: Orange Jello)

Guggisberg Swiss Inn

Comfort Suites Berlin

Comfort Suites Berlin is located in Berlin, Ohio. The rooms we visited were decorated with Christmas throws and cushions on the beds and lights and pine branches throughout the room. The lobby was particularly nicely-decorated with a fireplace, Christmas trees, and other decorations. (Cookie: Pennsylvania Dutch Light Ginger)

Comfort Suites Berlin

Lodging on the Square

Lodging on the Square is located in the middle of Berlin, Ohio, with all of the tourist shops on the doorstep. (Cookie: Swiss Treat Bar)

Lodging on the Square

Berlin Grande

The Berlin Grande hotel is a four-storey hotel with modern design. Most of the decor was dark red and white with dark wood furnishings. The lobby was very large, and they served up warm cookies along with other nibbles and drink. We saw a choice of three different types of rooms, and they also have special rooms that pets can stay in. (Cookie: Red Raspberry Top)

Berlin Grande

Carlisle Inn Walnut Creek

Rooms at the Carlisle Inn in Walnut Creek are all decorated differently. The hotel has multiple stories with nice views. There were several areas throughout the hotel that were decorated Christmassy. (Cookie: Maple Snickerdoodle)

Carlisle Inn Walnut Creek

Wallhouse Hotel

Wallhouse Hotel is a new hotel with modern, energy-saving rooms and earth-friendly design. The hotel is located near Walnut Creek, Ohio. The decor uses lime green and grey and white colours. While I do like the colour combination and used it for my UK reception party, I think that is a bit strange for a setting in the Amish country. (Cookie: Holiday Ginger)

Wallhouse Hotel

Grapevine House

Grapevine House is accommodation located in Winesburg, Ohio. The accommodation contains different options - a house, converted barn. There are various amnieties on offer, and some of the rooms come with a living area and kitchen. A large porch spans the side of the house at the back, and there is a sculpted garden area. The rooms all looked comfortable and attention to detail was made to make the rooms and areas look Christmassy. One neat idea was a pair of old-fashioned ice skates making up the centrepiece of a wreath and a small bag of Christmas sweets tied onto the door knob for one of the rooms. (Cookie: Fudge Nut Bar)

Grapevine House

For more information about the tour, visit http://www.christmascookietour.com.

At the end of November, I visited Frankenmuth in Michigan. This was approximately a four-and-a-half journey from my parents', and it marked the beginning of the Christmas season. Frankenmuth is a tourist town, and it has the largest Christmas shop in the world amongst other attractions. I spent about three days here. This is probably enough time to see nearly everything, though there are more attractions open in the summer - such as a riverboat and other boat tours. The river freezes in the winter, so these river tours are not available until spring.

Looking down the main street in Frankenmuth

One of the highlights was a horse carriage ride. The ride is set at a fixed price, and the carriage can accommodate up to four adults. (They say that up to six can fit in a carriage, but perhaps they mean children as well as adults.) We rode on the carriage at dusk and took advantage of seeing the beautiful Christmas lights. 

Horse-drawn carriage

One of the prettiest buildings in Frankenmuth is the Bavarian Inn. A clock tower rings a melody of bells at each quarter of an hour and wooden figures come out on display on the clock tower on the hour. The Bavarian Inn has several restaurants inside it and a large gift shop in the basement. 

Bavarian Inn

Bavarian Inn and clock tower

I had dinner at the Bavarian Inn one evening. The speciality seemed to be chicken dinners, which consisted of chicken and potato and gravy. The food on offer had a Germanic theme. For dessert, I had pumpkin ice cream.

Pumpkin ice cream

We were lucky with the weather in Michigan. The weather was cold, but we did not have any rain. 

Crab apples

The frozen river

The frozen river from the covered bridge

I walked across the covered bridge and got some photographs of the frozen river.

Covered bridge

Covered bridge

In addition to the Bavarian Inn, another restaurant (Zhender's) serves chicken dinners and is one of the largest restaurants with several dining rooms and shops and bakeries on the basement level. We also ate here one evening, and the dessert was especially nice: peppermint ice cream and a chocolate brownie.

Zhender's sign

Another place to eat in Frankenmuth is Tiffany's, an old-fashioned bar with beautiful lamps, stained-glass windows, wood paneling, and painted ceilings. The bar area on the floor even has ceramic tiles created into a trough; I'm assuming that this is easier to clean and any drinks that are spilled go down the drains in the trough. It is worth stepping inside for a drink or a meal to see the decor.

Tiffany's stained glass window

Interior of Tiffany's

Gift shops of many varieties and sweet shops (fudge, taffy, ice cream and so on) are in abundance. In many shops, you can watch fudge being made and taffy being made.

Taffy being made

Frankenmuth has a brewery and a couple of wineries. In one shop, chocolates and wines can be paired together and bought. The company also operate small boat trips and a chocolate-and-wine-tasting boat trip. If it had been spring or summer, I would have gone on this. However, the chocolate-and-wine-tasting is available in the winter. 

Chocolate and wine sampling

Christmas decorations and wreath outside a shop

Christmas-themed cupcakes

Iced Christmas sugar cookies

The Cheese Haus is a popular shop. The shop has free samples, and visitors can try and buy chocolate cheese.

Cheese Haus sculpture

Cheeses

Another attraction in Frankenmuth is the Michigan Military and Space Museum. The museum contains stories about different soldiers (pilots, nurses, and so on) in one of the different wars from World War I to the war in Afghanistan. The museum shows items used by these people and also contains the largest display of medals. The people had all come from or lived in Michigan at some point.

Tank outside the Michigan Military and Space Museum

Christmas tree

Christmas lights

On the first night, Frankenmuth's River Place shopping area hosted an evening of candle-lit Christmas carols, free cookies, and hot chocolate to kick off the holiday season. 

Candle carol ceremony

I hope that you have enjoyed my photographs of Frankenmuth.

I previously blogged about Dublin here (Dublin:Goal, Whiskey and Cathedrals) and here (Dublin: Guinness, Castles, Colleges and Culture). On the third morning of our visit to Dublin, we visited the market on Moore Street. They were just setting up the stands, but a cafe/bakery on the street was open, and we had breakfast here. I took a few photographs of some of the stands, and the street was slightly busier by the time we left the cafe.

Fruit for sale on Moore Street market

Our first stop was to the museums. We visited the National Gallery, the National History Museum (the "dead zoo"), and the National Museum. The National History Museum is filled with fossils, a dead insect selection, and taxidermied fish and other creatures, including the Irish deer. (The Irish deer is now extinct.) The National Museum contains hoards of gold discovered in Ireland, bog bodies, and artefacts from all over the world.

Dublin's National History Museum

After the museum trip, we walked to St. Stephen's Green. The park is not too large, and it contains a small lake and a few statues. On the fencing outside the park was artwork for sale, and I admired the paintings. There were so many to look at, and I really liked a few of the ones I saw.

St. Stephen's Green

After the walk around the park, I walked back through the gates to Grafton Street. This is the main shopping area, and there are many street performers on this street. There's a few department stores and indoor shopping centres, such as Powerscourt Townhouse and George Street Arcade.

The gate from St. Stephen's Green to Grafton Street

One popular place to visit on Grafton Street is Bewley's Tearooms. I had a cup of tea here. I thought that it was a little bit over-rated and very touristy, though.

Bewley's Tearoom

In the late afternoon, we explored more of the touristy pub area Temple Bar. We never stopped for a pint, however. I took some photographs of the more interesting pub fascades. 

Temple Bar pubs in Dublin

We had an early night and walked back to the hotel as the sun was getting ready to set. I got some nice photographs of Ha'Penny Bridge (Half Penny Bridge) and Upper O'Connell Street. Upper O'Connell Street was the backdrop to Irish history in the early 1900s. There's a large spire in the middle of this street and several statues to famous writers (James Joyce) and residents. On the next day, we only had the morning to look around and see a few last attractions before getting back to the hotel. There was a big game going on, so we had to leave a little earlier to ensure that we were not stuck in traffic and missed out flight.

Ha' Penny Bridge

Upper O'Connell Street

The last attraction that we visited the following morning before our flight was the Jeanie Johnston tall ship, which is located on the harbour.

View of Dublin along the river

The Jeanie Johnston ship was remodelled after the coffin ship by the same name. The ship is historic because miraculously, no one died on board. The ship carried immigrants, and the conditions were less than ideal for new people leaving Ireland to go to the new world. Many people left Ireland during the famine years. A few yards away from the ship is the Famine Monument. These depict starving Irish individuals, with their families, leaving Ireland on the coffin ships that left from this area.

Famine Monument

On the ship, we were told the history of the immigrants and introduced to some Irish history. We were also told about the ship and its reconstruction. 

On board the Jeanie Johnston

That wraps up my short break in Ireland, but I could have used one more day in order to visit the zoo and the botanical gardens. 

Street artist David Shillinglaw creates murals across the world with tribal, abstract, and pop art influences. Earlier this year, he painted the four panels on Great Eastern Street and also painted the building next to the Village Underground. Some photographs of work from this artist that appeared this year are below.

'My idea of fun' by David Shillinglaw

Various views of David Shillinglaw's building next to Village Underground

A panel; next to another piece of steret art (a group of signs)

An abstract piece

For more information about the artist, visit his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/David-Shillinglaw/148897111800570.

Milo Tchais is a street artist from Brazil whose work is colourful and fluid. His work is easy to spot in London because of the bright colours of paint and shapes used to create the subjects. His work can be seen in The Foundry (near Old Street), off Brick Lane, and on shutters in east London.

'The Cage' in The Foundry

More images of 'The Cage'

Chivitz and Milo Tchais collaboration (has been painted over)

For more information about the artist, visit his website here: http://milotchais.carbonmade.com

Visit his Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/milotchaispage

Pablo Delgado, originally from Mexico but now based on London, has been adding artwork in walls in London since 2011. He is now one of the most well-known street artists. His work has included paste-ups of doorways and scenes featuring people and animals. The paste-ups are located at ground-level and are easy to miss unless you are looking for them. They feature dark shadows on the pavement in front of them, which do help to locate them. Recently, a few scenes have appeared around Brick Lane, and I managed to photograph these. Often, his subjects are a bizarre juxtaposition of events that tell a story. I've included his newest work below.

People with a giraffe

A dog on a car

Nuns and boys fighting over a goldfish bowl

A selection of work from Pablo Delgado, including the new piece at the top

One series of his work covered trees. An A4 sheet of paper was printed out and hung on walls around east London for each "Missing" item. The item was 'cut out' of the sheet of paper, and the user was given a radius to search for the item. Some examples of these and earlier work is pictured below.

Examples of earlier work from Pablo Delgado

Some of the artist's work is in a bad state, but you can still make out the shadows, and often you can see remains of the paste-ups. In some cases, the walls is painted yellow to portray light. Unfortunately, a lot of his work spanned a couple of years ago, so not much remains. Piecing these together with 'before' and 'after' shots of the work in the open weather was also difficult as it looks as though some of his work was not photographed or seen before.

Older work from Pablo Delgado

However, I was able to track down a 'before' and 'after' shot of the image below. It features a lady in an elegant red dress with a row of what looks like perfume.

'Before' and 'after' shots of one of Pablo Delgado's paste-ups

The trees are always one item that makes me smile. It is as if it is another world, a smaller world. I discovered the following tree recently, and it was located underneath a tree, so I believe that this was protected from the elements.

A tree

A series of work seems to depict soldiers. This one isn't too badly-damaged.

A soldier

Others are hardly recognisable now.

Very worn examples of Delgado's work

Others features a series of working girls dotted around the east part of London. I managed to track down a few of these.

Various work from Delgado

And, the following pieces, only the shadow and possible pieces of worn paper remain.

Shadows

A small fish also appeared recently, hanging from the top of a building. It has been attributed to Pablo Delgado.

A fish

A figure that looks like Jesus

Pablo Delgado and work by Pang, Phlegm and D7606

'The Little People Project' began in 2006. I have yet to see these tiny sculptures in real life. I imagine that it would be difficult to locate them, and they would probably would not last long before being removed or trampled over. The artist behind these is known as Slinkachu, and his profile lists him as living in London. In an interview (1), the artist states that he wants people living in the city to take note of their surroundings. For more information about the artist, view his website: http://www.slinkachu.com/.

The Little People Project

'The Little People Project' features tiny plastic figures of people set around various world cities. Many times, these tiny figures interact with their environment. Some shelter under banana skins while others slide down railings. Others sweep up leaves or play on top of broken glass bottles.

http://little-people.blogspot.co.uk/

Inner City Snail

The artist also uses live snails in his artwork. He creates miniature sculptures and sticks them onto the backs of snails or paints the snail's shells. This project is known as 'Inner City Snail'. I like the idea of coming across one of these snails.

For more information and photographs, view the blog: http://innercitysnail.blogspot.co.uk/

1) Spotted by Locals. http://www.spottedbylocals.com/blog/street-art-at-its-smallest-the-little-people-project/ [29 February, 2012] 

Over the past few months, I have been photographing London's street art. I've added a few here that I have spotted around east London, and these are from various artists. London's street art changes so rapidly.

Roger Malloy

Roger Malloy is a photographic street artist based in east London. He recently created the four panels on Great Eastern Street. The above photographs show his work in progress and completed.

Rodrigo Branco is a street artist from South America, and he painted the piece above just off of Brick Lane. (Unfortunately, I was unable to photograph this without a car over part of it.)

'Rob the dog' creates paste-ups, such as the ones above.

'Sell Out' has been creating a lot of work recently, including famous toy Lego and video game characters, such as Sonic. They have also been pasting up many butterflies around existing artwork around Brick Lane.

Endless is a stencil artist, and his work can be seen around east London.

Prozak and cheese

Prozak is a street artist that uses colourful paint to create works of art. The artist is from Brazil, and the colourful work is always recognisable.

Ketones and Kemet painted the pieces above.

Tw@t painted a series of ears with the American flag around east London.

Unknown 'goodbye blue sky'

Thrashbird created a series of imagery at the start of the year, and these often featured racy imagery of women. Not surprisingly, many were painted over quite quickly. The artist is from California.

Tizer is a street artist and grafitti artist who keeps busy painting walls in London. I've added a couple of pieces here, but his work consists of characters, and the work is recognisable. 

The Hackney Peace Carnival Mural was designed in 1985 by Ray Walker. The mural is located outside the Dalston Junction railway station. The mural's subject is the 1983 Hackney Peace Carnival, with street entertainment and peace protesters processing down Dalston Lane. 

The artist died before his work was painted, but family friends Mike Jones and his wife Annie Walker made sure that the piece was finished and painted onto the building off Dalston Lane.

The artwork recently appeared on the album cover 'Home' for the band Rudimental (an east London group). It is one of the oldest street art murals in east London.