Dutch Girl in London street art

Street Artists Unveiled #2

Last Saturday I explored the London streets of Shoreditch and Hoxton with fellow blogger Inspiring City and stumbled upon lots of live painting, spraying and pasting. Just see for yourself…

Jim Vision

Mural by Jim Vision on Turville Street
Mural by Jim Vision on Turville Street, London

Earlier that week I took a a leisurely walk around Shoreditch on my own to look what new street art was around while enjoying the unexpected sunny afternoon and still feeling rather jetlagged from my recent trip to Sydney. Once I hit the corner on Turville Street, I was overwhelmed by this blue explosion of painted skies and angry waves. This fantastic mural is by artist Jim Vision and this photo of mine was picked up by website Street Art Utopia and also posted on their Facebook page where it has been ‘liked’ over 5,000 times now and shared by others almost 900 times.

Also this powerful piece of Elektra on Club Row, just round the corner from Turville Street, is by Jim Vision.

Mural by Jim Vision on Club Row
Elektra by Jim Vision on Club Row, London

Little did I know during that walk last week that I would get to meet the artist just a few days later and see him paint a massive mural on Rich Mix cinema. Jim Vision had been commissioned to create his mural of police robot ED 209 towards the opening of the Robocop re-make in cinemas on the 7th of February. It took Jim Vision two days to finish this piece and I caught him live in action on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately I missed him working from the crane, but it was still pretty awesome to see how this bigger than life painting was created. It inspired me to see the original Robocop film from 1987 again in the evening at home. I remembered the rather disturbing and explicit violence in it as it had quite an impact on my young and innocent self at the time, but forgot that it was directed by Dutch director Paul Verhoeven!  So, here you have it: a Dutch connection to this Robocop mural by Jim Vision 😉 Apparently Dutch actor Rutger Hauer was at a certain point to play the lead role, but he had to be rejected as he was too big to fit in the costume…

ED209 by Jim Vision
ED 209 by Jim Vision on Redchurch Street (Rich Mix Cinema).
ED209
The star of the mural: ED 209. On the left a still from the film taken by me at home in the evening and on the right the model that Jim Vision used for his painting.
ED209 model and mural
ED 209: the model and the mural.
Jim Vision at work
Jim Vision at work (in the right corner).

C3 (& D7606)

Continuing our Saturday walk, Inspiring City and I bumped into street artist D7606 who was looking for a suitable spot on Sclater Street to paste a lovely piece by fellow street artist C3, featuring her signature female figure and an absolutely stunning heart detail. An old copy of the Financial Times dated the 14th of May 1965 served as the background for it all. I think the faded and yellow/pink-stained colour of the vintage paper pairs up excellently with the B/W figure and I really love this composition!

C3
Step 1: spacing out the piece on the wall (left).                             Step 2: applying the paste to the wall (right).
C3
The pasted piece (top) and a detail of the newspaper with the date on it (below).
C3
C3’s new piece on Sclater Street next to a skeleton figure (by Cardboard Skeleton) who is posting a letter to D7606. The postbox on the right is by D7606.

Pure Evil

Our Saturday walk ended in a scary dark alley in Hoxton with Pure Evil, how suitable is that…eh? 😉 Just round the corner from his Pure Evil Gallery, he created this piece of Jackie Kennedy within just a few minutes. The date 1963 and text R.I.P. refer to her husband John F. Kennedy who was assassinated 50 years ago.

Pure Evil at work
Step 1: spraying Jackie’s hair (left).                Step 2: creating the eyes (right).
Jackie Kennedy by Pure Evil
On the left the stencils for Jackie Kennedy’s hair and eyes.
Pure Evil
Adding the finishing touch.
Pure Evil
The finished piece: Jackie Kennedy by Pure Evil.