Street art fans may (or may not have?) heard of Upfest, Europe's largest outdoor street art festival. This is held every year in Bristol, a city in south west England where hundreds of artists are invited to paint on various buildings around the city. This, along with Banksy, has made Bristol a well known street art city in recent years.
In the past couple of years, the festival wasn't able to be held on such a large scale, but last year it expanded to neighboring towns reaching out to more people. Luckily my seaside hometown was one of them and we got a bunch of awesomely cool murals
The first one I want to show you is Dreams and Love by DANK, Dan Kitchener. The massive Japanese geisha faces the seaside by the arcades, you can't possibly miss it if you are coming into town. The Japanese street scenes really make me miss my travels to Japan even more.
The next one is Ocean by Farrah Fortnam who's work is inspired by the natural world and delicate eco-systems of our beautiful planet, from the deep blue coral seas to the lush green rainforests. This blue ocean mural is very fitting for our town. Farrah Fortnam collaborated with a few other artists on a larger mural last year in town, when I grab some photos of that, I will be sure to share it with you all.
The third one I was to show you today is The Rooster by Irony. This bought a little smile to my face when I first saw it, and it still does every time I walk past which is quite often.
This one isn't part of Upfest, but I really like it that's why I'm including it as well. This is The Tiger and is painted by a local artist Martin Darcy. He has painted a few massive murals in town as we're not exactly the most energetic seaside town and he said this is his contribution of make ours a better place!
Upfest has 8 murals in town, I've shared 3 here and need to go find the other 5. Look out for the next part!!
