Watching Paint Dry..

...a whole new exciting experience!
At the beginning of September we indulged in a feast for all the senses!

The loud throb of pumping music and witty lyrics of rappers; delicious taste of street food; textures of rough brick and cold steel, sweet scent of spray paint and the most incredible varied vibrant street art....

City of Colours....Birmingham's Street Art Festival

Here's a minute selection of the camera full of photos taken as we sauntered round the changing venues, bathed in warm sun, watching in awe as the walls, arches, buildings, doors and boards were transformed by over a hundred fabulously talented graffiti artists....

Love the details, some identify the artists....

Newso

Art over Art...

...even the plants are sprayed!

We watched many hand held sketches come to life and stencils sprayed...

 This colourfully camouflaged multi-padlocked door was photographed a couple of weeks before the event...

 ...here it is again...re-sprayed..

As we were there for a couple of hours we witnessed progress...

Love how the old industrial red bricked landscape is revitalised..

 and mirrored

 Whilst viewing a completed mural, several bursts of paint came over the wall from an artist on the other side, sailing freely through the barbed wire, an unphotographed but powerful image!

 Amongst all the giant colourful monumental wall sized art there were stickers, flyers,
 and tiny sketches...the light and shade of the white lines of this door jamb painting, just a few centimetres tall...

I was instantly captivated by this just completed wall....

and its interaction with the scaffolding!

 We arrived just in time to see the artist spray his name...so missed his technique of flicking the spray paint...

 Mr RW spotted the discarded masking tape peppered with spray....which resulted in a chat with the artist, and purchase of a fabulously splattered canvas in firey colours (I had to borrow the money from RW Jnr as I had already spent mine!!)

A small strip of this amazingly coloured ball of  rainbows also came home with  us...re-igniting the smell of the paint on our return.

At home, using the event map we tried to identify the artists  - and in the following week many social network venues burst with beautiful images...

I think most of them are captured here, here, here, and here,

with the added bonus of tagged artists...

well worth a look - to see some of the works in progress in their completed glory!

 We have re-visited some of the walls since,

many are still there, some on display, hidden gems behind shutters, doors and gates....or even behind another layer of paint!

As much of the area is bisected by railway arches, jewels of vibrant walls can be glimpsed from the train...and there's a huge sprayed wall we missed by the coach station...

I have said it before, but I will say it again

we are so privileged to live in such a diverse, colourful, vibrant and inspiring city!