Abandoned art and Nomads

 When we were down in London recently we went back to the Nomadic Gardens off Brick Lane.  We love this area (see my earlier post all about it here) and it is constantly changing

I decided to abandon a small canvas I made with embossing pastes, paints and ink.

I waited until no one was around and left it

 right next to the sign that explains HOW to use their toilets!

  Love it!

 As I said, this is an ever changing canvas and there are always some amazing new street art going up.

from the really small

to the not so small

 Some of the pieces are HUGE, this one is over an entire end of building wall!

 Simply stunning

and I love this manga inspired one.

and there are several sculptures too-so artistic.

If you are ever down the Brick lane/shoreditch area then I recommend walking along-its free to get in, there is a small coffee cart and of course a toilet!

Kyla

Nomadic Community Gardens

 London, especially Shoreditch is well known for its street art.

However, if you go off the beaten track and walk behind the railway line you find some great art and a fantastic project.  In 2015 a local group approached a developer who bought some land with an idea for a community project.  It encompassed temporary structures, raised beds growing food for the locals as well as a safe place for artists to practise and develop.  The developer agreed and Nomadic Community Gardens was created.

There is so much to see in the area, this is quite a photo heavy blog post but no-where near the total amount of photos I took on the day!

This will just give you a taster, if you are down in London why not pop along and support them (there is even a little mobile coffee cart you can purchase a drink whilst you wander round taking in all the art).

 The piece at the top is by Jimzina  on the womans sawdust 'toilet' and shares door space with a piece by ripartist.

 street art jostles for space alongside some large sculptures

 

and some pieces by famous street artists such as John D'oh and Losthills

 

 There are small pieces like on this barrel

to large pieces over the side of this building (too big to even fit on the screen in one shot!)

 

 all of this whilst the trains run past above the gardens

 whilst we were there they were painting over pieces to form blank canvasses so artists could practise and paint over them to create new art.

 the surrounding park and train tunnels have even more art

 this monkey was painted by fanakapan and 

 this amazing bird by envol.ldn

 It is a great space for the community to use

 and I cannot wait to go back and see how it develops and what new art emerges 

All this is hidden behind the popular shoreditch street markets where there is even more street art but these little known areas offer some fantastic art.

Kyla

 

Upfest 2017

 Hello peeps.  The other weekend I went to Upfest, Europe's largest free street art festival. 

It is SO inspiring and I took over 200 photos!  If you follow me on Instagram or FB then you have already seen these but if you don't then grab a cuppa and skim though a few photos.

One of the main differences this year was how many women were taking part.  Over the years I have noticed this increasing but this year there was a marked difference.  It is great to see the younger generations getting into creating art, many with brushes as well as spray and stencils.

This tapestry is on metal wire mesh attached to a door!

Gemma Compton's work was amazing as always.

There are so many difference styles and subject matter on show

But some of them are HUGE, several stories high!

 There were a lot of faces at this years festival being painted in different mediums and different sizes.  The details were amazing though.

So that is another 3 days of Upfest finished.  If you are ever down in Bristol then I recommend popping over to the Bedminster area to check out the art.  Whilst the temporary hoardings are only up for the festival the art painted on the walls are often there until the next festival and some even longer.

I struggle to paint faces on a sketch book so I am in awe when you see these faces 15 odd feet across!  That is real skill and talent!

Kyla

Street art in London

 I recently spent a few days up in London as my husband was playing in his band 

The Setbacks at the 100 Club in Oxford Street (where the Sex Pistols, Lemmy, Rolling Stones, Metallica, Eric Clapton and Paul McCartney etc have all played).

This was an ideal opportunity to abandon some of my  tags and check out the street art.

This tag is sprayed with inks and dyes and the image I carved from lino, adding some white posca lines for definition and a bought sentiment stamp.  I abandoned this down by Blackfriars bridge and hopefully someone found it and took it because they liked it.

All around the city (if you know where to look, usually back streets) are some amazing pieces.  This one was on the pavement under a street light and during the day it was hard to see, but when the street light came on it really lit the image up!  

The piece below was just below a bridge, no label or plaque, just a really unusual piece of street furniture!

I also stumbled across this whilst out searching for art-never noticed the building before.

Of course, there are lots of small pieces dotted all across the city for you to find by chance, however, street artists like Invaderwashere also have interactive maps where you can track his pieces in different cities across the globe-instantly recognisable for his mosiac space invaders.

Then there are pieces that are SO colourful

Like this pedestrian crossing we found!!  I must admit I really love this idea and would like to see more of them across the country.

 Only a small selection of the art I found across our capital and because it is always changing with something new to find.

Happy crafting

Kyla