Tag: Honeybourne Line

5474. Cheltenham 2023 (6)

Creative Ginger, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2023
Creative Ginger, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2023

I have only once before posted anything by Creative Ginger, and that was at last year’s Cheltenham Paint Festival, also in the Honeybourne Line tunnels, and featured a young woman cuddling a fawn. This year it was the turn of a young woman cuddling a fox, and what a fantastic piece it is too.

Creative Ginger, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2023
Creative Ginger, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2023

This kind of work contains a lot of emotion and warmth and the style stops just short of photorealistic, while being accurate, calming and soft. Foxes play a very large part in street art (note to self: do a special gallery of foxes) and Creative Ginger has done a great job with this one, and plays with the girls hair colour and texture alongside the foxes. A perfect mural, and one which I am sure appealed to the many families visiting for the festival. It would be great to see Creative Ginger at Upfest.

Creative Ginger, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2022
Creative Ginger, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2022

4686. Cheltenham 2022 (9)

Creative Ginger, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2022
Creative Ginger, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2022

The Honeybourne tunnel is one of the key venues for the Cheltenham Paint Festival, but it is also one which is at risk of being painted over once or even twice before the end of the festival and almost certainly shortly after the festival as it is one of Cheltenham’s most popular graff/street art spots.

Creative Ginger, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2022
Creative Ginger, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2022

This is a gorgeous piece ‘the power of a hug’ by Creative Ginger, an artist who I have never heard of before but who seems to be based in the North East of England and paints for festivals, commissions and also runs a graphic design wing too. The artist ran the risk of being a bit schmaltzy with this piece, but just about manages to get away with it, and there is no doubt that it is eye-catching. Very pleased to have been able to see it.

2578. Cheltenham 2019 (23)

Kedals is an artist whose work I have come across a couple of times in Bristol but only in the format of wheatpastes, so it was something of a surprise and indeed a great pleasure to see this painted wall in the Honeybourne Line tunnel at this year’s Cheltenham Paint Festival.

Kedals, Paint Festival 2019, Cheltenham, September 2019
Kedals, Paint Festival 2019, Cheltenham, September 2019

What is amazing is that the style he has adopted here is exactly the same as the one he presents on his wheatpastes. Pulling together elements from the great cartoon/comic genre Kedals has kind of stuck to the brief for the Festival theme which was to incorporate books in some way – Kedals has written  ‘comics are books too’ by way of explanation.

Kedals, Paint Festival 2019, Cheltenham, September 2019
Kedals, Paint Festival 2019, Cheltenham, September 2019

I’m not sure what story the piece is trying to tell, but Kedals has cleverly incorporated the word ‘Knowledge’ across the top of the piece. I don’t know either, who the two faces belong to (they look like the Krays to me), but typical of his style, he has painted them twice as freehand duplicates, which is what he does with his wheatpastes. All in all I was really pleased to see this fine piece.