Tag: EJEK

A busy time gone by …

by theholmesteader, posted in Glasgow, Music, Street Art, Volunteering

I’ve been very busy lately, hence the lack of recent input to my blog. It all started with Yardworks, followed by volunteering at the Glasgow Mela, and this past weekend I was volunteering at Doune The Rabbit Hole festival, more information on each of these follows:

Yardworks

One of my favourite events is Yardworks, held at SWG3, this annual street art festival is one of my favourite weekends in Glasgow. The event, held on Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th June, is one of Europe’s biggest dedicated to street art and graffiti – with artists and writers from across Glasgow, the UK and Europe coming together to paint and draw, creating an explosion of colour.

On the nearby railway arches, wall spaces and boards in the yard, the highly skilled artists including Smug, Ejek, Rogue One and many others worked side by side with some of the most celebrated names from around the globe – including Zurik, Bublegum, and Balstroem.

Smug + Bublegum + The Guzler

I was there on the Saturday with my mate Jim and his 10 year old grandson Jack and It was so good to be able to meet and chat with friends old and new, Jack was enthralled by the talent on display and expressed an interest in trying out some spray painting himself in the future.

Jack and his favourite mural

Sunday saw me back again, this time with my friends Gary and Jan Gammage, it was great to see the works develop and to see the eventual finished articles. Gary & Jan were interested in the many different techniques used, spray paint, palette, brush and the use of stencils in the development of the pieces.

It was a brilliant weekend, great art, good food and fun in the company of friends, what more could you ask for.

My photographs from the weekend can be found here.

Glasgow Mela

Sunday the 26th found me in Kelvingrove park volunteering at the Glasgow Mela, an annual multicultural music and dance festival. The Mela began in 1990 as part of Glasgow’s year as the European City of Culture and has grown from being an indoor event at the Tramway to an outdoor extravaganza, with something for all the family.


I was assigned as the Artist Liaison for the Navras (main) stage, which kept me busy for the whole day. At this stage, we had a variety of acts, dance, music and performance arts. Amongst the acts that entertained me and the crowds were Deesh Sandhu, Hunterz and the headliner Jaz Dhami and his band.

Being busy for most of the day I missed out on some of the other activities on offer but did manage to grab a nice lamb curry for lunch from one of the many food outlets on site.

Doune The Rabbit Hole

Doune the Rabbit Hole is an intimate, independent music & arts festival located amidst the glorious ancient oak trees of the Cardross Estate, near the Lake of Menteith, in Stirlingshire. Starting in 2010, at a site near the town of Doune (hence the name!) they have been celebrating the very best of Scotland’s independent arts scene alongside amazing international guests. This year’s line-up included main stage headliners like the legendary Patti Smith and Band, multi-million selling Scottish singer-songwriter Amy MacDonald, homegrown, world-famous talent Belle & Sebastian, English post-punk duo Sleaford Mods and Bellshill natives and superstars Teenage Fanclub, one of my son Graeme’s favourites (the video below is for him). I really enjoyed the set by Esperanza, a Glasgow Ska band, they took me back to my youth.

I was the artist Liaison on the Bandersnatch stage which had a sort of folkie and blues vibes, and thanks to Chris Blackmore, the Stage Manager and Phil the Sound Engineer, the atmosphere there was pretty chilled and relaxing and we had some really entertaining artists on stage including The Mary Wallopers, Rachel Sermanni and John Francis Flynn, it was good to see and listen to Erin Bradley-Scott perform, Erin is one of my favourite art groups, The Cobolt Collective, she certainly is a talented lady. It seems like I can never get away from street art and artists, I even came across a nice piece by Ross MacRae next to the Jabberwocky stage, I really like his work.

There was also some exceptional food on offer, although there was a crew canteen I gave it a miss at times to sample the fare from Barnacles & Bones, Shawarmarama, and the Pizza Geeks.

As this was a weekend camping festival and I didn’t feel like camping, I decided to book a room in Willow Court, one of Stirling University’s halls of residence, overall this was a great choice. Another great weekend and I’m looking forward to heading back again next year

The Old & The New

by theholmesteader, posted in Glasgow, Street Art

I ventured out today to find something new and was pleasantly surprised that a couple of old favourites are still there and looking fairly good.

My first stop was in Govanhill where Conzo Throb & Ciaran Glöbel created ‘A Postcard from Govanhill‘, the first mural in the Govanhill Open Museum art trail. The mural, which contains patterns from Middle Eastern tiles, Romanian fabric, Scottish tartan and ‘wally close’ tiles, represents a different aspect of the diverse local community and is very reminiscent of a similar one created by them in Dennistoun.

Maryhill was my next stop, where I went looking for a new(ish) mural by Mack Colours and Frodrik on Stockline Plastic’s building on Hopehill Street, it really is well worth a visit to see it, the company are delighted with it and In their opinion, it makes a wonderful addition to the impressive collection of murals around the city.

Mack Colours & Frodrik

Whilst in the area, I popped along Maryhill Road where I photographed a piece by Ohpanda in the Braeside Community Gardens, a nice big fish from Frodrik on the front of a building near the corner of Cowal Road. At the end of the building, you will find the little Scottie Dog and Bumble Bee and across the road, there is the Glasgow Panther, both created by Rogue One and Ejek way back in 2014.

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On the South Bank

by theholmesteader, posted in Glasgow, Street Art

For my latest trip I stayed south of the river, starting off at the Barn at the Crossroads in Laurieston to see the latest works by EJEK and the kids who visit there, EJEK again displayed his love of Stan Lee’s creations with some Marvel inspired pieces on display. From the Barn it was a short walk to Commerce Street in Tradeston where I came upon a fine piece by @sprayprince on the side wall of the Turning Point Scotland building, it paled slightly when I turned the corner and saw the wonderful mural on the front of the building,

Continuing west found me under the Kingston Bridge where I wandered into a little skatepark built there, almost all of the bridge supports had some form of artwork on them, and judging by the layers of grey paint the council and the writers are keeping each other busy, while there I saw works by Frodrik, Mack Colours, OhPanda, Negative Destination and many other regular names from Glasgow’s streets.

I then headed down to the river bank for a stroll along the footpath there until I reached the Science Centre at Princes Quay, there is loads of new developments taking place in the area and I was pleased to find a nice mural by EJEK on one of the hoardings surrounding one development. Crossing the river heading towards town for a bus home, I had to stop on Custom Quay at the Broomielaw to see if there was anything new, to find only one significant piece which intrigued me, on returning home I checked out the artist and his organisation called Make Coffee not War, and the reason for his mural, I found it all, and the drone footage to be quite interesting.

Yardworks – The Arches

by theholmesteader, posted in Glasgow, Street Art

I recently took a trip down to see how the Arches Project at SWG3, was coming along, it was a really sunny day and it was good to meet up with Gaz, Dan, Barry, Smug, and the rest of guys working away. As usual, I took plenty of photographs, some from the narrow pavement beside the arches and some from across the Expressway.

Some pieces are completed, however many of the pieces are still to be finished and there are a couple of arches yet to be started. Most artists were assigned one arch, but Smug and the Cobolt Collective were each given 2, looking at what has been done to date on them they are making full use of the expanded space.

I was highly impressed with the work so far, but as I’m getting ready to disappear for a wee while, I’ll just have to wait to see the finished articles on my return.

Smug
Balstroem
Voyder
Sledone
Michael Corr
Conzo and GlobelC
Inkie
Box Vincent
Reaoner
Cobolt Collective
Mark Worst
Barry the Cat
Shona Hardie
Welinoo
Sapien

At the Crossroads

by theholmesteader, posted in Glasgow, Street Art

I’ve just come back from a visit to the Barn at The Crossroads in Abbotsford Place in the Gorbals, I went primarily to see a new mural by, what appears to be their artist in residence, EJEK. Ably supported and assisted by some of the youths who attend the centre, Danny has created a great mural which reflects the organisations’ aims and objectives, that “everyone should have the right to live gloriously”.  Nick, one of the Youth Workers, also displayed a talent with the can by adding some mission statements on a nearby wall.

Ejek & the Kids
Suntrans great bike rack/planters
Nick’s work
Nick’s work
Nick’s work
Nick’s work

The Barn is a wonderful space in the Gorbals and Laurieston area of the city, originally built by Crossroads Youth & Community Association, and the local people as a response to the lack of facilities and opportunities for young people in what was one of Glasgow’s most deprived neighbourhoods.

The dedicated staff and volunteers at the centre work hard to deliver a vibrant, fun, and effective programme of youth work aimed at developing a range of competencies and capabilities to help young people be successful members of their community.

As I had photographed and documented, the many murals, also created by Danny and the young people around the centre and the surrounding area, in a previous posting on the site (My Mural Trail #4), it was good to see this new piece, sponsored by Sustrans, the cycling charity, I really liked the fabby bike rack/planters in front of the mural.  The Barn is becoming the place to visit to see really good street art and murals in the South Side of the city, some of you may remember the wonderful tribute to Marvel’s Stan Lee EJEK created there last year, all of the art is outdoors and visible to the passing public.

Back in the city

by theholmesteader, posted in Glasgow, Street Art

Back in Glasgow after my recent travels, I noticed a couple of new pieces, 3 good looking portraits by James Klinge in Midland Street, a nice little piece in my favourite pub, The Raven by EJEK and a couple of Giant Pandas loose in the city, one on Sauchiehall Street and another on the hoarding next to the Safe Hands Barbers on Miller Street.

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Yardworks Weekend 2019

by theholmesteader, posted in Glasgow, Street Art

I had a great weekend at Yardworks, the weather for a change was brilliant.  The crowds turned out and the artists working put on a tremendous display.  In addition to the local favourites, many national and international artists created some tremendous work.

There was something for all the family in a carnival atmosphere, skateboarding and art experience for the kids and plenty of street food and bars for the adults, definitely something to add to the diary for next year.

Some of the photographs I took over the weekend can be seen here.

 

SWG3 Today

by theholmesteader, posted in Glasgow, Street Art

I had to visit the homebrew shop in Whiteinch for supplies, so I nipped into SWG3 while I was in the area, the place was busy with loads of metalheads there for the Lords of the Land festival, lots of long hair, leather and torn jeans, and bands I have never heard of, from what I could hear, it was pretty loud music!

Lords of the Land.jpg

It was good to see some new artwork in the yard, I was pleased to see that Mark Worst has finished the portrait I spotted him starting in January, noticed that Scent is developing his skills and a lot of good work by EJEK with AERS, SMUG amongst others.  It looks like they are gearing up for this year’s Yardworks in May.

Mark Worst
Smug
Scent
EJEK

On the Paisley Road

by theholmesteader, posted in Glasgow, Paisley, Street Art

I decided to head down to Paisley this morning to see Mark Worst’s latest piece of work. I was very impressed with the painting of his mate Scott. It’s in a little ‘garden’ area next to Leisureland on the High Street, some may remember his mural with a fox on the same wall.

Walking along Paisley High Street towards Leisureland, I noticed that the Little Book Transfer murals are still there on the empty shops, they can be seen on the LBT page here.

While I was on the Paisley Road I stopped off at the Pacitti Community Gardens to see Rogue-One’s latest work. This spectacular piece attracted plenty of media interest, it was on the front page of the Scotsman, in the Evening Times on Tuesday 19th March and The Metro even covered the story, well earned praise indeed.  Also on Paisley Road West is another nice community mural created by Rogue-One and EJEK using a design created by the local school pupils, as you can see, there was bright sunlight when I took this image, I’ll return later and get a better shot.

I will add all these images into the relevant pages in The Artists section.

Fae Fife

by theholmesteader, posted in Street Art

Following on from my International Woman’s Day post, I was reminded that World Book Day was last Thursday (7th March) so as it was a nice sunny day and as I had to pop up to Glenrothes for a meeting with an old work colleague I decided to hunt out some books on walls, rather than indoors in libraries, and I wasn’t disappointed.

I hunted out two created by Rogue One to celebrate World Book Day in 2013, the first was in Buckhaven in Fife, where his mate EJEK lent a hand, the other one I found on the library in Bonnybridge.

Reading is a form of transport. Everyone is entitled to a travel pass. Gaun Yersel!
A book is a conversation, a riot, a place of silence. Are you listening?

You can see how the Buckhaven Mural was created in this video and the Bonnybridge Mural in this video.

While in the Fife area, I discovered work by a local Fife artist Kerry Wilson, a large mural in Cowdenbeath depicting the areas link to mining and some fun pieces on a couple of Glenrothes’ underpasses.

Watch the Cowdenbeath Mural creation here.

It was quite fortunate to finish off in Bonnybridge as I was able to visit my niece Lesley, who lives there, for a coffee and a blether before heading home, it was great to meet up with her and her family and to catch up with all the latest news.