Femme Fierce is the world's largest female street art competition with over 150 international and UK artists. ( This year the festival was held at Leake Street Tunnel in Waterloo, London.) Kevin Zuchowski-Morrison from Rise Gallery invited the artists from this group to brighten up the neglected sixties shopping centre St Georges Walk in Croydon. Rise Gallery has been behind the initiative to create Croydon's Art Quarter in St Georges Walk and surrounding streets. The murals are painted onto shop shutters, brick or rendered walls and wooden holdings. As this post is so picture heavy I've decided to split it into two parts. The street art in this post is located in and around St Georges Walk. Part two will be up on Friday.
Vlong- Harmony
Vlong aka Vanesa Longchamp is a London based artist. All of her street art pieces are painted with spray cans by freehand (rather than stencils.) Her signature style is painting female characters with long flowing hair. These "introvert, graceful female characters always face inwards, safely cocooned inside their winding locks of long hair. Born from a personal process of catharsis, they express emotional healing and balance." This piece is called 'Harmony.' Longchamp has painted at the City of Colours Festival in Birmingham and The Gloucester Paint Jam, as well as for group show exhibitions in the Ben Oakley Gallery and No Format Gallery in East London. You can see her other work on her website.
Miss Hazard
Harriet Wood aka Miss Hazard is a UK graffiti artist, illustrator and designer based in Bristol. She studied at Leeds College of Art and has a degree in Graphic Design from the University of The West of England. She started out in the graffiti art scene by working in a graffiti art shop that sold spray paint and that also held exhibitions. From there she was recommended for a job as a Bristol's Street Art Tour guide. Her work is influenced by tribal and communal art from around the globe and her love for hip-hop and punk culture. She is also inspired by the differences between cultures and aims to create a bold yet peaceful and thought-provoking atmosphere in her work which you can see on her website and Tumblr blog. She been voted one of the top 10 female street artists by the Guardian and was included in the Top 25 Female Graffiti Artists in the world by The Huffington Post.
Thieu- Coeur d'artichaut
Stephanie T. aka Thieu is a French graphic designer, illustrator and muralist based in London. She is know for her brightly coloured portraits and her hybrid animals such as the peafrog and searaffe. She began painting street art because she wanted to support friends who were going through a tough time " I would spread some messages along the places where he would often go, to inspire his “routine” like 'you are the hero of your own story' or ' be the change that you want to see in the world.' " She was influenced by C215 to paint with bright colours and admires graffiti artists Etam Crew, Swoon and mainstream artists Gustav Klimt, Frida Kahlo and Paul Gauguin. In the piece below " Je crois que vous avez un Coeur d'artichaut" translates as I think you have an artichoke heart, meaning that I think you are fickle in Love. You can see the steps Thieu took to create her piece and her other work on her website here.
Elno- Balance
Elno is a Spanish artist based in London. She paints characters in her street art, saying "I fuse the human characters with animals. " These characters are both urban and free-spirited, harnessing their instincts in a childhood simplicity. Her mural below is a lot calmer and harmonious that her other work which seems to be more playful and surreal, mixing light and dark elements, which you can see for yourself over at her website.
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Pixie
Pixie is a muralist who is originally from Peterborough but is now London based. She is also part of Girls On Top Crew which consists of over 100 female street artists. Recently she got involved with Sonority Turner's 'Look Out For Hope' project to spread the message of hope to people, which can be such a powerful message and is such a positive project. Using Posca Pens on glass their piece can be seen in the window of Body Soul Charity in Rosebery Avenue, Central London. Unfortunately when I went to photograph her piece someone had tagged on her work. However you can se more of her work and latest projects at her website .
Neonita
Nicky Le Sueur aka Neonita is an artist and illustrator based in south London. She completed a Fine Arts degree at Kingston University and she is also part of the Girls On Top female muralist crew. The name Neonita refers to the bright neon paints she uses in her work and 'ita' was added after being inspired during her travels to South America, and chosen to express her femininity in the male dominated graffiti industry. Using neon also provides an opportunity to use UV light to change the nature of the work according to the light source. She is inspired by Japanese prints because she is drawn to the asymmetric compositions, colour and themes as well as African masks and sculpture She loves the rebellious nature of graffiti and the fact that its so accessible for everyone to see. She tries to portray strange worlds or ideas that run alongside reality. This often tends to manifest as strange creatures that incorporate things we deal with in life but in much more fantastical situations. Visit her website to see more of her work.
Roo
Roo is a UK illustrator and muralist whose bright comic book style has been influenced by her love of comics. It started when she used to visit her dad's flat in Paris and read his vast collection of comic books and later entertain herself by drawing her own comics. When her brother discovered graffiti she also became interested in lettering before coming back to character design. Since very few kids in her area painted graffiti it wasn't until she was in her late 20's that she got into graffiti again, inspired by her brother who was then tagging as Mylz. She won Graffiti Artist of The Day for her piece at the 2014 Femme Fierce festival which you can see here. In the pieces below she collobrated with Skyhigh. I love the fact that they used an image of the Croydon tram in the second one. Take a look at rest of Roo's work on her instagram page.
Adriana Doi
Adriana Doi is a UK based painter, graffiti artist and web iIlustrator from Romania. She studied at The Art University in Timisoara, Romania, though her current love is graffiti. Her work below uses simple lines compared to her detailed graffiti paste ups which you can see on her instagram page. I also like this piece here.
LisArt
Lisa Richer aka LisArt uses stencils for her pieces such as the Kate Moss below. The supermodel Kate Moss actually hails from Croydon which was probably why she was chosen as the subject. Richer is influenced by pop culture and has included Laurel and Hardy and Twiggy in her designs (Brick Lame, London.) Her latest work was completed by free hand (instead of by stencils) and uses a cartoon stick character hugging a heart. You can see the different stages of the Kate Moss piece and catch up with her recent work on Facebook here.
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