Results matching “paint”

Shok-1 (Shok Oner) is a street artist based in London. His style includes spray-painting murals to look like X-ray, but he also creates realistic pieces, such as the heart-shaped rope knot that appeared earlier this year on Commercial Road. The artist created a series of ten murals, known as 'X-Rainbow' in a square just off of Brick Lane. These depict rainbow-coloured bones and insects. Unfortunately, these murals often did not last long before they were tagged over. The last few in the series did not last long at all, and the last one was only around for a day before being tagged over.

I have included the 'X-Rainbow' series that I photographed over the past year. I missed seeing and photographing a few of these, but I've added them here with a credit to the photographer. It is a pity that these were tagged over as I enjoyed seeing these, and I felt that some of them were amazing examples of street art. With each new piece, the artist got better with this technique. (I have arranged the pieces below in reverse chronological order.)

The above and final piece only lasted for about a day before being tagged over. Below, the ninth piece featured an X-rayed insect. It did not last too long before others started to paint on it and around it. This was unfortunate because this piece and the piece below were my favourites in the series.

The hand below, number eight in the series, did not last too long before someone tagged obscene objects over the top of it. It was promptly painted over with the next piece in the series.

I also liked these X-ray tail bones, but it also did not last very long.

The following murals were taken at earlier stages, and I am not particularly sure of the order for a couple of them.

Remi Rough and Shok-1 

Besides the series of X-Rainbow murals, I have also included other work by the artist discovered around Brick Lane.

Shok-1 off Brick Lane

Shok-1 and Remi Rough

Knotted heart on Commercial Road

Fanapakan Horror Crew have painted on walls in a courtyard off of Brick Lane earlier this summer. They painted these walls a year ago with subjects inspired by balloons, such as a balloon crown for the Diamond Jubilee. Their recent work consists of Liquorice All-Sorts characters: a dog and a man drinking from a bottle.

Last year, their work featured a balloon dog and a balloon crown with flowers super-imposed on the Union Jack. The work was created for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

Balloon designs

Portrait

Over the past few months, I have captured some photographs of street art by Alice Pasquini. Originally from Rome, Alice mainly paints portraits of people and enjoys representing human feelings and relationships. She enjoys artwork on the streets as it adds a new level of interaction and unexpectedness, unlike viewing artwork in a gallery. All of the artwork below is located in London.

In addition to her other pieces featured in this post, Alice painted a new mural recently off of Brick Lane, on Bacon Street. I've included this one below.

Other photographs are taken of Alice's artwork that I've taken over the past several months.

A large wall painting of a girl on White Church Lane

Various street art in London from left to right: young girl (off Brick Lane); woman near White Church Lane; kissing couple on Blackall Street; cat and woman on Blackall Street

For more information about Alice Pasquini, visit her official website (http://www.alicepasquini.com/) and Facebook site (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Alice-Pasquinis-Art/141288755915959). Have you seen her artwork? What do you think?

I visited Bristol on the weekend of the Bristol Harbour Festival. Bristol was busy during the festival, but the atmosphere was also relaxed. The harbour was filled with boats and flags, and I saw several specialist boat clubs.

Bristol Harbour Festival started on Friday and finished on Sunday. It consisted of live music, water events, boat parades, harbour-side markets, carnivals/amusements, a fireworks display, and various other attractions. Local businesses were cashing in on the event.

In between looking for the Gromit sculptures, I took in the atmosphere of the Harbour Festival. I listened to some live music and had a quick browse around the markets. The weather stayed fairly nice, but it was not as nice as it has been. There was a bit of rain on Saturday afternoon, which seemed to cut the crowd numbers. The rain fell softly as we watched the fireworks display.

A steam boat club

On Sunday, the water events included stunts on waterski. This attracted a crowd watching the water stunts in the harbour.

Water ski

Water ski stunts

Bristol harbour with boats

The harbour features several other events, such as a boat parade and different types of boat, such as tall ships and steam boats.

The steam train at the MShed leaves behind a cloud of smoke with several different types of boat in the foreground.

Along the harbour, market stalls were set up to sell food and craft items. 

This cute stall sold strawberries and cream; it smelled of strawberry

Bristol has improved greatly from the time that I used to live in the area, which was now several years ago now. The city centre was regenerated a few years ago, and more independent shops have opened. The centre also feels safer than it did when I worked in the area.

This bulldog-painted boat looked menacing as it sailed up and down the harbour

Cranes at the MShed near the harbour with visitors to the festival

On Saturday night, the fireworks display lit up the skies and the harbour. I watched the fireworks launch from behind the cranes in front of the MShed museum. This was the first year in a few years that fireworks have been launched for the Bristol Harbour Festival.

A selection of fireworks from the fireworks display explode with the MShed and cranes in the foreground

A few weeks ago, I visited Bristol to take part in the charity sculpture walk "Gromit Unleashed", and you may have seen my previous entry about locating the Gromit sculptures. (If you have not, you can have a read and view of the photographs here: Gromit Unleashed in Bristol, Part 2). For those who do not know, this charity walk features eighty unique Gromit sculptures; Gromit is the canine companion of Wallace in the British stop-animation films, "Wallace and Gromit". The creators of the films, Aardman Studios, are located in Bristol. The proceeds of the event will be donated to Bristol Children's Hospital. 

'Poochadelic' by Lisa Hassell

Local businesses, artists, and the public are contributing to this cause, and it has had a massive response. At the end of July, over 100,000 visitors have visited "Gromit Unleashed", according to the official website.

For those who have not yet been to visit the Gromit sculptures, there's only about a week left before they are taken away and auctioned. The trail finishes on September 8. If you missed them or will not be able to see them in their trail locations, they will all be in one place from 18-22 September in Clifton, Bristol. More information can be found on the official website: http://gromitunleashed.org.uk/

For those who will not be able to make it at all, please enjoy the photographs that I have selected along with accompanying text about the artist or Gromit. I've managed to track down all of the Gromit sculptures. (I actually do not have a favourite, but there are a few that I do like very much.)

'It's Kraken, Gromit!' by Filthy Luker

Filthy Luker is a street artist based in Bristol, and his artwork primarily features inflatible art objects. For example, he has put eye sculptures in trees, large plant vines emerging from buildings, and large banana skins on street corners. 

'Vincent van Gromit' by Laura Cramer; 'A Close Shave' by Harry Hill; 'Patch' by Emily Golden; 'Five a Day Dog' by Laura Cramer; 'Lodekka' by Ignition DG; 'Blossom' by Emily Ketteringham

Laura Cramer was influenced by the work of classic painters, and her Gromit is a tribute to artist Vincent van Gogh. Celebrity comedian Harry Hill's Gromit is shaved to raise awareness of baldness and fits well in the title to one of the animations. Emily Golden's is based on a patchwork design, and she wanted visitors to pick out their favoruite squares. The 'Lodekka' Gromit features a bus created by the Bristol Omnibus Company. Emily Ketteringham's Gromit is in full bloom, inspired by beautiful flowers. 

'Dog Rose' by Ros Franklin

Flowers were a popular theme for the Gromit sculpture. Ros Franklin's Gromit and the Gromit created by beautiful-pattern company Cath Kidston both feature flowers.

'Antique Rose' by Cath Kidston

Garden-designer Diarmuid Gavin was inspired to create a Gromit out of turf.

'Oops A Daisy' by Diarmuid Gavin

The Gromit by Tom Berry, located in Cheddar, is a maze. The maze is drawn to look like a forest. The maze can be started on Gromit's ear and finished on the tail.

'aMazing' by Tom Berry

Sarah-Jane Grace's Gromit is made to look as though Gromit is peeking out from a hedge.

'Secret Garden' by Sarah-Jane Grace

Cartoons also inspired some of the designs of the Gromit sculptures. Brookes makes political cartoons for The Times of Ed Miliband (as Wallace) and Ed Balls (as Gromit). 

'Two Eds are Better than One' by Peter Brookes 

Creator of Simon's Cat cartoons, Simon Tofield, covered his Gromit with his cartoon cat.

'Doodles' by Simon Tofield

The creator of Roger Rabbit, Richard Williams, created a rainbow Gromit; the cartoon rabbit is on the side of the Gromit. Zoo animals also features heavily in the designs of the Gromit sculptures. Gromit statues were transformed into zebras, tigers, and baboons. 

'Roger' by Richard Williams; 'Grant's Gromit' by Rosie Ashforth

Space was another theme for the Gromit sculptures. One Gromit was inspired by constellations, and a Gromit constellation can be found on the sculpture. The astronaut Gromit was a collaboration of Pixar and Aardman, and this looks very much like the character Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story.  Cheba was also influenced by space and stars for his 'Grosmos' sculpture; Cheba is another Bristol-based street artist.

'Canis Major' by Katy Christianson; 'Gromit Lightyear' by Pixar; 'Grosmos' by Cheba 

Have you been to see the Gromits? Have you taken part? Which one was your favourite?

Martin Ron is a street artist from Argentina, and he visited London and just finished painting a large mural on the Village Underground. His work features surreal subjects. The large mural on the Village Underground features a hand (modelled by his girlfriend), a man (modelled by his flatmate), and a badger. According to an interview with StreetArtLondon (1), he chooses humour in his work because the public appreciate it.

The subject of the mural, named 'Badgergate', focuses on the badger against a large machine. Martin choose to paint this because the first news he heard in the UK was about badgers, and he thought they were a pretty animal (1). The mural took a week to paint. I love the green hatch-marks on the background and the mural and think that the badger and the hand are painted well. This mural brightens up the area.

Detail of the badger

Detail of the tiles

The scale of the work

Martin Ron's work 'Badgergate' in progress

1) Badgergate - Martin Ron Paints the VU Wall. http://streetartlondon.co.uk/blog/2013/08/28/badgergate-martin-ron-paints-the-vu-wall-2/ [28 August, 2013].

A collaborative effort by Pure Evil (covered here), Miss Van, and Ciroschu appeared in the middle of July on a wall off of Great Eastern Street in Shoreditch. Around this same time, I've taken a few other photographs of work by these artists. Pure Evil, who owns a gallery nearby, was also busy painting figures on a wall further along the street and closer to his gallery. I have included a variety of photographs of these artists' work discovered on the streets over the past month.

Pure Evil

Pure Evil

Pure Evil and Ciroschu

Ciroschu and Miss Van

Miss Van and Cirochu

GoGoGorillas is an outdoor animal art sculpture charity trail located in Norwich for eleven weeks this summer. The trail features fifty-three large gorillas (painted by local artists) around the streets in Norwich and sixty-seven smaller ones painted by schools and community groups.

At the end of the charity trail, the gorillas will be auctioned off to raise money for charities Break and Born Free Foundation. GoGoGorillas have been launched by Wild in Art; this group also brought previous events 'Go Elephants' and 'Stroll Discovery Trails', which I visited last year.

The gorilla sculptures also support tourism and local businesses. I visited them today, and many others had the same idea. Nearly everyone that I saw in Norwich today was looking for the gorillas. 

My favoruite gorilla was probably the Transformers gorilla (known as Optimus Primate), although it was a tough decision as they were all very good. I liked this one the best as it reminds me of watching these cartoons when I was younger, and I felt that it was a very creative actualisation of the gorilla sculpture.

'Optimus Primate' by Yewtek

In fact, heroes seemed to feature a lot in the designs of the gorillas. Fictional characters such as Superman, Batman, and Iron Man were transformed into gorilla sculptures. In addition to fictional characters, real-life characters also made their mark. Such real-life heroes include Olympic medalist Bradley Wiggins and local celebrity Alan Partridge. However, the unsung heroes were also noted, such as builders and military heroes.

'Iron Ape' by Martin Wall

'Drilla the Gorilla' by Jessica Perry and Maggie Campbell; 'The Ape'd Crusader' by Jenny Leonard

'Bradley Wiggins' by Martin Wall

'Poppyland Hero' by Derek Blois

Other gorillas feature local heroes, such as this one for the Geoffrey Watling Charity.

'Geoffrey' by Sandy Jones

In addition to hereos, there were several creative gorillas that were more than simply painted. The two below include one made of chrome and one made to look like a tree.

'Chromilla' by Phil Daniels

'Skull Island' by Beau Townsend

Various other gorillas that I discovered and photographed are included below for readers to see the range of different styles.

'Guy' by Bridget Parsons; 'Nelson' by Mik Richardson; 'Yo'Man' by Phil Daniels; 'Whoop! Whoop!' by Daniel Hanton

'Norvic' by Norwich School Design Department

Nature and animals was a popular theme for most of the gorillas, and I have included some close-ups of some of the artwork on some of the gorillas below.

'Jungle Jenny' by Jenny Leonard; 'Walk on the Wild Side' by Pat Kennewell; 'Butch' by Stuart Roy

'Gerald' by Nathan Smith

For those who want to visit GoGoGorillas, they will only be around for another week in Norwich. They will be auctioned in October. For more information, visit the official website here: http://gogogorillas.co.uk/

ROA is one of the most globally well-known street artists. Originally from Belgium, ROA has painted murals throughout cities worldwide.   ROA's work mainly consists of birds and animals. These seemingly interact with the context on which they are painted and share a sense of urban decay. The work is detailed and realistic and painted in black and white.  

I've included several ROA's street art that I've managed to photograph around Brick Lane over the past year. The newest work by ROA in the east end of London was a large group of animals painted on a wall in a housing estate near Bethnal Green Road.

A pig on Bacon Street

A group of animals off Rivington Street

An animal in Hackney

A long-necked bird follows the length of this building (only a section is photographed here) off Brick Lane.

A crane dominates a wall off Brick Lane

The newest mural painted by ROA in London is off of Bethnal Green Road (near the park) and features a pile of several animals. Some of these 'interact' with the contours of the building and have been decapited by it. This mural is amazing. It is a bit difficult to find, and the location was kept secret for a little while. It's off the beaten path, so to speak, in between a narrow passageway between apartments.

The newest mural; a group of animals and birds 

The council threatened to remove his work, a giant rabbit, in Hackey. Members of the public prevented this from happening, though, which is a good thing. Another piece of work (the large crane on Hanbury Street off Brick Lane) was covered up by a banner for a while until the community forced the council to remove it.

Rabbit

A hedgehog

Another view of the hedgehog

Toward Old Street station, at the end of Rivington Street

This was taken from the car park on Great Eastern Street

Rat on Goulston Street

I've combined some street art that I have discovered over the past few months (by various artists) into one entry as the streets have been ever-changing this season with new artwork appearing every week and many artists visiting the east end of London. This entry will feature artwork from Akse, Vhils, Bailon, Sliks, Grud, Drypnz and Vinz.

Akse

As news of the royal baby was being celebrated, this artwork appeared off Brick Lane, which I thought was a tribute to baby George. The artwork is called "Mikel I", according to the artist's website. The artist is Akse.

Akse is a French street artist with Vietnamese origins. He is currently based in Manchester in England. He started painting letters but moved on to paint portraits and has had much recognition.

For more information and artwork, visit: http://akse-p19.com

Portrait of a baby by Akse

An older portrait on a shutter by Akse

Works by Akse and other artists

Vinz

Spanish street artist Vinz has been busy creating new work in east London earlier this summer. This new work includes bold type with a human or human-like character. One of these includes an overweight torso with a fish's head with a fast food restaurant's slogan. I've photographed and added the others below. One of these was reused for Akse's (see above) work. Can you guess which one it is? For more artwork from this artist, view: http://vinzfeelfree.com/ 

Various artwork from Vinz; the 'Walkin' work was adapted by Akse

 
Vinz

Bailon

Bailon, a street artist from Brazil, normally paints murals that use floral imagery combined with birds or fish. The artist has painted quite a few walls in London over the past few months. Two of those have been contributions to the Canvas Project wall on Great Eastern Street.

More of his work can be seen on his website here: http://mateusbailon.blogspot.co.uk/

Various murals painted by Bailon in east London; Four-panel mural on Great Eastern Street (Bailon)

Bailon

Hunto and Bailon

Grud, Sliks, Drypnz

The next pieces feature a combination of artists and an evolution of the 'canvas'. Sliks, a Brazilian artist, was inspired by loneliness. He uses layered textures and colours. The contributions below involve Bailon and also Grud. (For more information about him, visit: http://rafaelsliks.com/)

Narcélio Grud, a.k.a. Grud, is also a Brazilian artist. For more artwork, see: http://www.flickr.com/photos/narceliogrud/ 

Sliks and Bailon

Grud and Sliks completed mural; Grud begins work on the mural; Drypnz adds a mural above Grud's and Sliks' a few days after their work is completed

Sliks and Pure Evil

Jon Drypnz lives in New Zealand, and he has created a series of shapes of running-man paintings around east London recently. More of his work can be seen here: http://statigr.am/tag/drypnz

Drypnz

Drypnz and Mr. Penfold contributed on the next piece. (Read about Mr. Penfold here.)

Drypnz and Mr. Penfold

Vhils

Alexandre Farto, known as Vhils, is a Portuguese street artist. Two prominent murals are located in east London. (At the time of publishing this, the one in Ely's yard next to Ronzo's pigeon has been removed.) The pieces have been carved into the walls - a technique known as 'explosive etching'. Most of the subjects for the murals are individuals that the artist meets in cities.

More of his work can be seen on his website here: http://alexandrefarto.com/

Two works by Vhils in east London

Vhils and Ronzo