Tag: Lighthouse Community Garden

5252. Lighthouse Community Garden, London (10)

Vane MG, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
Vane MG, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023

Here we have another wonderful portrait piece from the Lighthouse Community Garden in London, this time from an artist called Vane MG. She is an artist and designer originally from Colombia, but is now living and working in London. The following is from her excellent website:

She worked in the Design world from 2009 & in 2015 she started working on projects which focussed on highlighting the importance of Latin American women. Her objective is to attempt to reclaim elements of the cultural past, integrating it with the present and creating new images that help to define a lost identity.

Vane MG, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
Vane MG, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023

The portrait of a young girl is exquisitely painted in lilac and turquoise tones, creating depth with clever light and shadowing. A child’s windmill is in front of the girl, whose expression is slightly haunting, with the glimmer of a smile hiding a sadness – at least that is how I see it. A truly lovely piece for another artist who needs to be snapped up for the next Upfest festival in Bristol.

5251. Lighthouse Community Garden, London (9)

Elno, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
Elno, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023

One of the things about finding street art in a place that isn’t your home, is that you will come across artists that you are unfamiliar with, and that is certainly the case here with this fabulous portrait piece by Elno at the Lighthouse Community Garden in Stratford.

Elno, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
Elno, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023

Elena Gonzalez Nieto also known as ELNO, is a Spanish visual artist based in London since 2014 (taken from her fabulous website) who it would seem specialises in stunning portrait pieces elaborated with bright colourful backgrounds. Although painted last year, the piece looks fresh and vibrant – definitely a candidate for Upfest I would have thought.

5233. Lighthouse Community Garden, London (8)

Apparan, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
Apparan, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023

I have only once before seen work by Apparan and that was on a collaborative gate piece at Upfest last year with Jelly. Finding this piece on a work trip to London was therefore a real treat. The portrait is really beautifully done, although the hair looks a little more abstract than the rest of the portrait.

Apparan, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
Apparan, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023

There is a lot of depth in the piece, and the shadows around the lady’s neck are very nicely painted. I also really like the leaf print dress, and the folds in the material. There is something very summery about the piece, augmented by the verdant mini-meadow in front of it. Wonderful work from Apparan.

Jelly and apparan, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022
Jelly and apparan, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022

5232. Lighthouse Community Garden, London, (7)

Eyesaw, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
Eyesaw, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023

What finer subjects for street art than Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble? I have seen a few pieces by Eyesaw at festivals in Bristol and Cheltenham, and his work plays on the concept of 3D images that can be viewed using blue and red 3D spectacles. However, I don’t have a pair and am not convinced these pieces work, but are illustrative only, to create an effect.

Eyesaw, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
Eyesaw, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023

The piece also includes some pixelation and glitching, creating the illusion of being a video piece. I rather like the anarchic touch where these two, usually harmless characters, are wielding a baseball bat with nails and a Molotov cocktail. Great fun from Eyesaw.

5219. Lighthouse Community Garden, London (6)

SkyHigh, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
SkyHigh, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023

A super-quick one this morning… lots of housework to do. Tomorrow is my wife’s 60th birthday, and we are having a small family gathering. Our house has been a bit of a tip, so we have spent the last week or so cleaning and clearing. Lots more to do today!

SkyHigh, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
SkyHigh, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023

As I mentioned in yesterday’s Roo piece, where there is one of hers, a SkyHigh piece is never far away, and this stunner was on the next but one board. Both of these pieces looked relatively fresh, which can’t be said for some of the pieces on these hoardings. This one from SkyHigh is typically brilliant and beautifully designed. Still more to come from this London honeypot.

5218. Lighthouse Community Garden, London (5)

Roo, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
Roo, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023

This whole-block hoarding is the gift that keeps on giving. Having stumbled upon this spot completely by accident, I have been revelling in its treasures. This piece by Roo is in her home town. Most of her work that I have featured in Natural Adventures is from Bristol, so it is always great to see some of her work in her own back-yard.

Roo, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
Roo, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023

This beautifully painted cat, who is settled down for an evening of screen entertainment, is full of character and charm. Although Roo’s character work appears to be quite simple, with solid fills, strong outlines etc, don’t be fooled. These are carefully crafted and brilliantly designed pieces with a lot of attention to detail, especially with the highlights and shadows, for example the yellow strip on the left-hand edges, suggesting a reflection from a light source. This piece gave me a warm feeling of familiarity inside. Now all I had to do was find a piece by SkyHigh.

5208. Lighthouse Community Garden, London (4)

Sled One, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
Sled One, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023

Probably the last thing I was expecting to see on my work trip to London a couple of weeks back was this remarkably busy piece by Bristol’s Sled One. Finding it gave me a feeling of warm familiarity and a sense of Bristol pride. Unfortunately, there was some construction work going on around this panel, so the photographs are not as good as I’d like.

Sled One, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
Sled One, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023

The letters spell out SLED and there is a numeral ‘1’ at the end. The scene is a basketball game, although I am not quite sure what the significance of that might be. To the right is a curious skeletal character, and the whole thing is typically Sled Oney surreal. What a discovery. what a day!

5207. Lighthouse Community Garden, London (3)

Woskerski, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
Woskerski, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023

Although Woskerski is a London-based artist, he is not a complete stranger to the pages of Natural Adventures, and indeed he visited for last year’s Upfest 2022, with an outstanding piece that I have yet to publish. I would place Woskerski in the very highest echelons of street artists in the UK.

Woskerski, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
Woskerski, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023

This is another piece from my surprise discovery of the Lighthouse Community Garden in Stratford, with plenty more to follow. Although the portrait piece looks pretty fresh, it was actually painted in July last year, and you can see in this clip how he went about it. Outstanding stuff from a brilliant artist, and another reason why my trip to London was so special.

5202. Lighthouse Community Garden, London (2)

Airborne Mark, Lighthouse Community Gardens, London, April 2023
Airborne Mark, Lighthouse Community Gardens, London, April 2023

I will be posting pieces from this remarkable spot, which I found quite by accident when visiting London for a work workshop, over the coming weeks. Some of the artists were familiar to me, and some not. This stunning piece falls into the latter category.

Airborne Mark, Lighthouse Community Gardens, London, April 2023
Airborne Mark, Lighthouse Community Gardens, London, April 2023

The origami swan held together by paper clips is by Airborne Mark, and is a really beautifully painted piece. The artist had created a fabulous sense of depth with fabulous use of shadows, light and shading. Adding in the paper clips elevates the piece from being great to fantastic… imagine it without them. I have never come across Airborne Mark before, but I really think we ought to get him over to Bristol at some point, maybe for Upfest?

5201. Lighthouse Community Garden, London (1)

Aspire, Lighthouse Community Gardens, London, April 2023
Aspire, Lighthouse Community Gardens, London, April 2023

Every once in a while, the stars align and things work out and all is well in the world. These are moments that we must cherish and draw on to help us through more challenging times when it feels like there is no hope.

I had been invited to facilitate a workshop in London at the end of April, at a small community centre in the heart of Stratford, adjacent to the Olympic Park where there has been a phenomenal amount of redevelopment over the last decade or so. As I approached the location from the station, I spotted an entire block of hoardings, entirely covered in graffiti writing and street art – this was a good day, before the workshop had even begun. Even better, the hoardings surrounded the Lighthouse Community Gardens, the location of the workshop. Guess what I was doing before and after then meeting and in our lunch break.

Aspire, Lighthouse Community Gardens, London, April 2023
Aspire, Lighthouse Community Gardens, London, April 2023

I was surprised at how many of the pieces on the hoardings were by artists I am familiar with, including this beauty by former Bristol artist Aspire. Bristol’s loss was definitely London’s gain as you can see from this outstanding sparrow perched on an ice lolly. Aspire’s work is so distinctive – almost always featuring birds, incorporating some pixelated elements. More recently, Aspire has featured human relationships with birds in the form of litter or food etc – the lolly plays this role here.

I was in a very good place, and the workshop went really well too. A red-letter day.