Category: Street Art

Murals, graffiti, posters etc.

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.

I tried to drown my sorrows, but the bastards learned how to swim, and now I am overwhelmed by this decent and good feeling. ~ Frida Kahlo

I am linking this image to Paula’s Thursday Special: commanding

Faces

I don’t really take photographs of people unless I am a long way away, it feels intrusive to me, though I do admire other photographers’ street photography. Faces are so fascinating.

I needed to be more to the right to get this face full-on, but then the tree got in the way!

face
The Rocks area in Sydney is a very interesting area to explore on foot. There are a lot of little cobblestone streets and alleyways in The Rocks and a lot of references to the past era around, in information panels, plaques and art. Each helps explain the site’s history and evoke the past. At the opposite end of The Nurse’s Walk to Suez Canal, the route ends at Globe Street, where you’ll find some amazing street art by contemporary artist Vhils on the stairs up to Harrington Street. He has painted a portrait of Sydney environmental activist, Jack Mundey, who worked to preserve some of Sydney’s built environments too, like Victoria St, Potts Point and other areas in the inner city.