Bring The Paint 2017: International Street Art Festival

Greetings lovely readers!  I hope you are well and thank you as always for visiting my blog.

Yesterday was a hugely exciting day as my hometown of Leicester hosted Bring The Paint 2017, an international street art festival.  There were a number of sites around the city where creative activity was taking place, with huge sections of buildings in the city being adorned by participating artists such as Smug, Leigh 'Mono' Drummond and Said Kinos.  The work and talent on display was truly breathtaking, and there were also other treats to enjoy such as skateboarding and BMX displays, music events, children's workshops as well as food and drink stalls.  It all added up to a great atmosphere with Leicester locals coming out in force to enjoy art and music in the sunshine.  The artwork should be up for some time to come so if you're ever up East Midlands ways, you can't do worse than to pop into Leicester and spend an afternoon wandering the city seeing how many pictures you can spot!  I didn't manage to find all of them myself, so will be making some repeat visits up town to track down the rest.  Until then, here's the ones I did manage to find!

Mural and graffiti in the LCB Depot courtyard

Mural on the side of the LCB Depot

Murals on hoardings around The Curve

Murals on hoardings around The Curve

Murals on hoardings around The Curve

Murals on hoardings on Queen Street

Murals on hoardings on Queen Street

Murals on hoardings on Queen Street

Murals on hoardings on Queen Street

Murals on hoardings on Queen Street

Inside Leicester Print Workshop

Inside Leicester Print Workshop

 We also took the opportunity to stick our heads into Leicester Print Workshop, who were hosting their annual exhibition of woodblock prints.  There was a huge diversity of work and so many exquisitely detailed pictures.  I was excited to learn that you can do letterpress, lithography, screen printing and etching at the studio - what a fabulous creative resource to have right on your doorstep!

Wave mural on The Sound House

Graffiti on Morledge Street

Graffiti on Morledge Street

Mural near Morledge Street

Graffiti and mural near Morledge Street

Graffiti and mural near Morledge Street

Mural near Rutland Street

Mural near Rutland Street

Mural near Rutland Street

As you can imagine, for myself as an illustrator I found it hugely exciting for the visual arts to be celebrated on such a monumental scale, especially at the current time when students are encouraged to study STEM subjects and arts education in general is being devalued.  Arts and cultural events are of massive importance to the enjoyment and well being of society and I hope that there will be many more events like Bring The Paint in future.

 Thanks for reading and have a great Bank Holiday tomorrow!

Best wishes,

Emma