Tag: Camden Town

2845. Camden Town, London

Digging deeper into the archives. I took this picture in November 2017 in Camden Town, a full year and five months after it was painted by JXC. Frankly it is probably as good a photorealistic piece you are going to find anywhere, anytime. Why didn’t I post it before? I baffle even myself.

JXC, Camden Town, London, November 2017
JXC, Camden Town, London, November 2017

The picture may feel familiar and that is because it Chunk from the film The Goonies although with the addition of a tattoo on his stomach of JXC. I met the artist at the Cheltenham Paint festival last year, and he is such an incredibly nice guy and so modest with it.

JXC, Camden Town, London, November 2017
JXC, Camden Town, London, November 2017

It can be difficult to process that this piece has been painted with spray paint, and the sharpness of the patterns on the shirt are simply extraordinary. Similarly the out of focus background adds to the apparent authenticity of the piece. A small miracle.

Thursday doors – 23 May 2019

Doors 72 – Doors from Camden Town from November 2017

I am now scraping the residues from a very deep and rather empty door barrel. I had a choice… not to post any doors today, or get something old out of the door quickly and efficiently…I went with the latter.

Here are three doors from a street art hunting trip to Camden Town, London back in November 2017:

Thursday Door, Camden Town, November 2017
Thursday Door, Camden Town, November 2017
Wheatpasted door, Face the Strange (top) and CodeFC (bottom), Camden Town, November 2017
Wheatpasted door, Face the Strange (top) and CodeFC (bottom), Camden Town, November 2017
A rather plain and neglected door, Camden Town, November 2017
A rather plain and neglected door, Camden Town, November 2017

So there you are. I’ll leave you to decide whether this post was worth it. I am (in case you hadn’t noticed) a bit of a creature of habit, so to do this was more comfortable than missing a week.

Maybe I’ll have time to do something a little more imaginative next week.

For more doors take a good look at the Norm 2.0 blog – the brains behind Thursday Doors where there are links to yet more doors in the comments section at the end.

 

by Scooj

1318. Castlehaven Road, Camden Town (1)

My not-so-recent trip to Camden Town took me back to some places that I had been to on previous visits. This was a particular joy to behold. Always, seeing Dzia pieces is thrilling but to see one so perfectly worked into a wall with an existing piece is just perfect.

Dzia, Castlehaven Road, Camden Town, November 2017
Dzia, Castlehaven Road, Camden Town, November 2017

I first saw this wall, with only the Dotmaster piece in September 2016, but the additional character that the Dzia pigeon has given it works so well. I love the clever touch of the pigeon’s heart, as if it is saying I love this piece.

Dzia, Castlehaven Road, Camden Town, November 2017
Dzia, Castlehaven Road, Camden Town, November 2017

One just has to marvel at the way the lines and shapes that Dzia draws, which on their own don’t make any sense, come together to create such astonishingly lifelike creatures that appear to be animated. Such clever work from this exceptional Belgian artist.

1270. Camden Town van (2)

Following on swiftly from my last post, I have another van from Camden Town, beautifully decorated, this time by Sr.X, a Spanish street artist who now resides in London.

Sr. X, Camden Town, London, November 2017
Sr. X, Camden Town, London, November 2017

His work reminds me very much of the cartoons created by Glen Baxter. There is a retro feel going on here which is peppered with contemporary references and some quirky dark humour.

Sr. X, Camden Town, London, November 2017
Sr. X, Camden Town, London, November 2017

This is a beautifully worked piece that I feel very lucky to have stumbled across. It always pays to keep your eyes open. You can see more of Sr.X’s stunning work on his website.

1269. Camden Town van (1)

On a trip to Camden Town in November 2017 I took a very long stroll around the area part of which took in this backstreet where market sellers parked up their vans. This being Camden Town I guess it should have come as no surprise that the vans would have been finely decorated by London street artists.

Himbad and Dotmaster, Camden Town, London, November 2017
Himbad and Dotmaster, Camden Town, London, November 2017

This van played host to Himbad and Dotmaster whose collaboration works beautifully as Dotmaster’s stencilled children pull back covers to reveal a cutely frightening Himbad monster and host of monster eyes. I really love this piece and would love to see both of these artists make a trip to Bristol. One day maybe.

1219. Stucley Place, London (3)

Immediately adjacent to Gnasher’s chimpanzee in Stucley Place there is a door with a couple of wheatpastes on it. The higher of the two is by Face the Strange and features four brightly coloured suited gentlemen with half fruits or vegetables for faces. I am guessing that this has been around for a while. The piece is actually made up of four individual strips.

Face the Strange, Stucley Place, London, November 2017
Face the Strange, Stucley Place, London, November 2017

The lower pasteup is by Codefc featuring one of his characters with a camera head. Both pieces have similar themes and yet the individual style of the artists shines through.

Face the Strange and Codefc, Stucley Place, London, November 2017ERA PICTURES
Face the Strange and Codefc, Stucley Place, London, November 2017ERA PICTURES

I posted a piece by Codefc from Upfest 2016, but it seems that more recently he has favoured freestyle spraying, judging by his Instagram feed. I enjoy seeing artists moving through different techniques and expressing their work in different ways. This is a nice door.

1218. Stucley Place, London (2)

I was lucky enough to pass by this wonderful abstract piece while it was being sprayed by Mr Jiver, a London artist who told me he had his roots in wildstyle writing and that there are echoes of that in his current abstract works.

Mr Jiver, Stucley Place, London, November 2017
Mr Jiver, Stucley Place, London, November 2017

The intention for this piece was that it was meant to be a collaboration, but there was a ‘no show’ from the other artist which accounts for the gaps that have been left.

Mr Jiver, Stucley Place, London, November 2017
Mr Jiver, Stucley Place, London, November 2017

I would guess that artwork like this is at risk of being criticised in the same way that art by Jackson Pollock has been criticised…that old chestnut ‘I could probably do that with my eyes shut’ kind of thing. The retort might be ‘well go ahead then’. Mr Jiver has created a thought out piece with deliberate colour selections, shapes and shading and I celebrate it.

Mr Jiver, Stucley Place, London, November 2017
Mr Jiver, Stucley Place, London, November 2017

I enjoy meeting artists when they are at work and trying to understand a little bit more about what motivates them. Insight certainly helps with interpretation. Mr Jiver – nice bloke, great work.

1217. Stucley Place, London (1)

Not too far away from Camden Town tube station and in the direction of Camden Lock Market is an absolute jewel of a street – Stucley Place. There are a few walls here that have some lovely work, and this is the first of three posts from my visit to Camden Town in November.

Gnasher, Stucley Place, London, November 2017
Gnasher, Stucley Place, London, November 2017

Gnasher (David Nash) is an extraordinary artist who seems to be able to produce amazing photorealistic pieces with consummate ease. Last July I posted a work he produced in Leake Street tunnel featuring Guardians of the Galaxy characters. In this piece he has produced a stunning portrait of a chimpanzee that conveys a sadness and wisdom that seems to be nature’s lot in today’s world.

Gnasher, Stucley Place, London, November 2017
Gnasher, Stucley Place, London, November 2017

It is a difficult piece to photograph because of the glare, but even with these slightly dodgy pictures it is possible to see what a truly classy piece this is. So definitely worth a visit if you find yourself in the area.

1145. Camden Town, London

I knew where to look first when I emerged from the tube station in Camden Town, and on locating my first spot, I was rewarded with a small parking yard which had been pretty much resprayed since I was here a year ago. Unfortunately the gates were closed, which made photographing the side walls a little tricky, but this end wall, a gateway to an inner yard, was thankfully unobstructed and face on. The piece is of course by Stinkfish, who is also responsible for the most iconic piece in Stokes Croft, Bristol.

Stinkfish, Camden Town, London, November 2017
Stinkfish, Camden Town, London, November 2017

Stinkfish specialises in painting yellow portraits from photographs that he takes of people he meets, and adorns them with vibrant patterns of colour and light, creating a magical movement all around the piece. These characteristics make his work easy to identify.

Stinkfish, Camden Town, London, November 2017
Stinkfish, Camden Town, London, November 2017

His pieces are always great to look at and seem to ask many questions about who these characters are. I am not sure about the background, which looks like it is by another artist. In my view, the pieces fight for attention instead of complementing one another, so I would suggest that this was not a collaboration, but I am usually wrong about these things.