Street Art – TRAVEL WORDS

Postcards from Around the World

The first thing my daughter and I did on arrival in Barcelona (after dropping our cases off at the hotel) was to join a free walking tour starting from Plaça de Catalunya and finishing at the waterfront. Of course a free walking tour is not exactly free, you are expected to offer a donation at the end of the tour, which in this case was well worth it.

Feeding the pigeons in Plaça de Catalunya

We wandered around the many back streets and the Gothic Quarter a stone’s throw from La Rambla and believe me there are so many narrow alleyways that when we tried to find some of the places later on by ourselves, we got completely lost.

Carrer Petritxol, in Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter – it has a lot of shops, murals, and art – and home to one of Barcelona’s most delectable treats: the perfect hot chocolate and churros.

Just about every shuttered doorway is covered in murals and graffiti and I was frantically snapping shots as we moved on.

Barcelona is a shopaholic’s paradise as well as being full of historical buildings and art. I was fascinated by these tiled murals that decorate the walls in this narrow pedestrian street, Carrer Petritxol, in Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter. It runs from Portaferissa to Plaça del Pi, not far from La Rambla. The murals tell stories of past events and famous residents or visitors.

There are several art galleries along this street as well as shoe shops, soap shops and chocolate shops!

The end of the tour was at El Cap de Barcelona from where we headed down to the beach and the Makamaka restaurant for cocktails and some food.

Created in 1992, the Head of Barcelona is a 64-ft. abstract statue by American Roy Lichtenstein.

(The header photo is the balcony detail on the Casa Pia Batlló, which is located on the corner of Rambla Cataluña and Gran Vía de les Corts Catalanes. The building is in the Modernist style, built between 1891 and 1896 by the architect Josep Vilaseca i Casanovas.)

Street Art: Kingston upon Thames

Colour Your Senses in Kingston (upon Thames) was designed to welcome people safely back into the city after all the covid restrictions. The town centre has been dressed with colourful cross-street banners, bunting, floor stencils, floral displays and exhibition boards, providing a splash of vibrant colour.

Market trader whistling,
Musicians singing,
Oars swhooshing and
Ducks quacking.

It’s a busy city centre and no more so than on a Saturday afternoon so the daughter and I headed off along the riverside whilst the granddaughters went clothes shopping for the all important 18th birthday family meal that evening.

On our way back we came across some hoardings around an empty building plot behind the Bentall Centre that had been artistically and colourfully decorated. I included a few images of the hoardings in my Surrey round-up post, but there were more. I particularly liked this one.

I often wonder what an artist is thinking about when they create their paintings. Split personality? Torn apart? Gender confusion? Hanging by a thread? Who knows.

There can be no confusion about this one though. Swans as we know, mate for life, and the River Thames is well known for its swans. Possibly by Skyhigh.

My first impression of the one above was of penguins, but the one on the right is a woodpecker, not sure about the one on the left. It’s hard to track down these artists, but the A51 tag led me to Aspire who seems to paint animals and birds that are on the decline.

.EPOD His professional skillset (draftsman, fashion designer and illustrator) and the inspirations of his youth manifest vividly in his paintings and murals. Sultry figures draped in elegant materials. Mirrored vessels in otherworldly landscapes. Cigarettes hanging from kiss me lips.

281 bus rounding cape horn in a storm by Tom Pierce

Whatever you might think about graffiti or street art / murals and I confess that a lot are not to my taste, they do often brighten up what can be a dull and depressing area and being in a public space makes art accessible to all.

Little Italy: Part Two

One great thing about Little Italy, is the abundance of public art displays . Walking around the district you can’t help stopping to look at and photograph the walls. There are several very interesting street murals including this one which can be found on the corner of Juniper and India, and was created by Dawn Morrison Wagner, a chalk artist.

Angel Mural (Filippino Lippi)

A mural high on a wall depicts Venetian Gondoliers.

Fragment of the Sistine Chapel on a building wall.

Mural titled I Pescatori by artist Renee Garcia, 2003. Depicts tuna fishermen who lived in Little Italy (many were Italian immigrants) fishing off the coast of San Diego.

Ben-Hur Coffee. A cool old advertisement on the side of an old brick building.

Several murals that together are titled “Eredita Italiana” by Yakov Kandinov, 2004. According to a nearby plaque, this is a Precious Cheese Art Mural Project.

And in Little Italy’s Amici Park you can find four sculptures that depict tables of tasty food. The red and white checkered tablecloths you see are actually glass mosaics. The recipes beside the plates are designed so that inquisitive gourmets can take a rubbing, and bring the recipe home. The entire installation is called “A Recipe For Friendship” and was created by Nina Karavasiles in 2001.

These images date back several years so they might not be there now, but I am sure there will be new ones to discover.

~wander.essence~ photography

International Women’s Day

Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?
~ Frida Kahlo

Andrea Michaelsson is a multi-faceted artist better known by her street artist name, Btoy. Her street art stencils often portray the importance of women, and sometimes incorporate famous portraits. Most of these women are female icons from the 1950’s, often depicted through powerful brush strokes combined with very acute stencil lines.