Jenikya's Blog

Nantwich and Anderson Boat Lift

2013-05-16T22:46:34Z

A few weeks ago, I visited Cheshire and found myself in a charming village of Nantwich. The village has many timber-framed buildings, pubs, and quaint shops. (In fact, there was a music festival happening in the village when I visited, and a lot of the local people were out and enjoying the festivities.)

A church and timber-framed buildings in Nantwich

Old buildings and the millennium clock in Nantwich's Cocoa Yard, including the surviving chimney of a blacksmith's shop

Church in Nantwich

A nuclear bunker museum is located outside the village in the middle of open country. This museum looked interesting.

The secret nuclear bunker in Nantwich

Before exploring Nantwich, we visited the Anderton boat lift. The boat lift uses hydraulics to raise and lower canal boats from a canal on a higher level of land to the river fifty feet below. The boat lift was built in the late 1800s and left to 'rust away' for many years before it was restored and opened to the public once again.

Visitors to the boat lift can enjoy a river boat ride in a canal boat and get a chance to see local wildlife, if they are lucky, and listen to commentary about the area and the history of the boat lift.

The Anderton Boat lift with a canal boat leaving the lift.

A view of the river from the canal boat after a ride on the Anderton Boat lift.

Street Art: JimmyC

2013-05-15T20:35:42Z

Australian street artist Jimmy C (known as James Cochran) paints portraits using small dots or streaks of colours to represent light and shadow. He often portrays these portraits with shapes, such as orbs or urban-esque landscape in the foreground or with the illusion of motion. Several pieces of his work can be discovered around Shoreditch and Brick Lane in London.

A portrait on Redchurch Street with urban buildings in the foreground and around the subject.

An elderly man on Bacon Street.

A hooded young man with an urban-esque landscape on Whitby Street.

A woman with brightly-coloured orbs on Whitby Street.

On both sides of the doorway of this building on Redchurch Street are these urban figures with urban-esque buildings above them.

These two portraits with orbs are located near Old Street.

Jimmy C. painted a colourful Olympian Usain Bolt's face in Shoreditch on Sclater Street.

A skull in a car park off Brick Lane (this no longer exists).

Art from Sand: Weston's Sand Sculptures

2013-05-13T05:39:18Z

This year, the Weston-super-Mare sand sculpture exhibition is Hollywood-themed. The sand sculptures are made as a tribute to Oscar-winning films as well as to actresses/actors and film directors of the award-winning films. There's even a sand platform and Oscar trophy where visitors can stand and pretend that they are presenting or being given an Oscar. Visitors to the exhibition can also see how sand sculptures are created.

I visited the exhibit a few weekends ago. Although the poor weather has caused much damage to the sand sculptures, the talent and hard work put into some of the sand sculptures could be seen. The damaged ones were being repaired when I was there, and hopefully these now would have been fixed. (Apparently, the ice conditions this spring meant that the sand expanded as the weather and the sand warmed up.)

A sandy Gollum from the 'Lord of the Rings' films

A sandy tribute to the 'Pirates of the Caribbean'

From top: 'Toy Story', Alfred Hitchcock with birds, 'Up', Marilyn Monroe, and 'Ice Age'

Harry Potter and his friends made from sand; Dobbie is under repair

The massive sand King Kong

Have you been to see the sand sculptures in Weston-super-Mare? What did you think? Which one is your favoruite?

Knitted Cuteness

2013-05-11T02:45:04Z

Working and practically living in London, pigeons are a common sight to me. However, I'm not really that fond of them as they are messy and annoying; they tend to be in the way and 'there' when they know food is being consumed. Despite this, I do think they are a bit pretty. They would certainly be more lovable to me if they were made of knitted cloth, like these stuffed knitted pigeons I've discovered below. I think these are adorable.

To make them even more likable, the piegeons have been given the name "Pablo". Pablo the Pigeon. I guess it works. These knitted pigeons can be purchased at: http://www.oeufnyc.com/pigeon.aspx

For other knitted cuteness, I discovered a range of animals and mammals created by Lauren of CuteWorkshop Etsy shop. Need a knitted snail, whale, cat, bear, chick, fish, or goat? Then this is the place to visit: http://www.etsy.com/people/CuteWorkshop

I hope you enjoyed these cute knitted creatures.

Days Out: Frodsham, Cheshire

2013-05-07T20:38:54Z

Frodsham is a market village (dating from medieval times) east of Chester. The village is rich in history and has many historic buildings, such as a row of thatched cottages. An attractive clock is located in the village's market square. I visited over Easter and took a few photographs of the village before continuing on my travels.

The attractive clock in Frodsham.

Chocolate Ducks made from marzipan and Cadbury Creme Egg in the bakery

Doorways, windows, and brickwork

Thatched cottages in Frodsham

A window in a thatched cottage

Street Art: Otto Schade

2013-05-06T19:30:20Z

Otto Schade's style of street art is easy to recognise. The artist was born in Chile, but he currently lives in London and fills the streets of Shoreditch and Spitalfields with wonderful works of art.

About a month ago, I caught sight of Otto Schade painting a wall in Ely's Yard near Brick Lane. (Last year, the same wall was painted with a tribute to the Olympics.) The butterfly has hidden imagery inside it; two symmetrical skulls can be seen.

During the Olympics, Otto Schade painted this wall with a tribute to the Olympics. This is one of his styles of painting, with the figures made up of ribbons, which remind me of rubber bands.

Another piece by Schade dipicts a figure poking an orange bubble. Another common theme in his work are orange bubbles or orbs. In addition, one of these features 'eyes' and a representation of the Thames with areas of London written on some of the bands. You can see this one in the photograph below.

A close-up of the London orb is shown below. This sticket was located just off of Brick Lane, and I've seen a few of these around.

The common orange orbs are usually depicted with a silhouette. I've posted a few of these that I have located over the past few months below. Along with these, I've included a large-scale inter-twined couple, and this can be found on the side of a pub. It actually spans two storeys of the pub based near Great Eastern Street.

The final image differs in style from the previous pieces, and this is a stenciled imge a baby in a police hat.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing some artwork by this artist. Are you a fan of his work? Leave a comment.

To view Otto Schade's website, go to http://www.ottoschade.com.

Olivier Kugler Travel Art

2013-05-05T20:02:38Z

A little while ago, I came across illustrations by Olivier Kugler, an artist living in London. The illustrations were made in the artist's travels, and some of them include portraits. Text is used in some of the illustrations to narrate it, and the artist often includes relevant maps and diagrams along with the illustrations.

A portrait of a family

The images created are inspired by places that the artist has visited in travels, including America's "Waffle House" diner. More recently, he created a map for the royal wedding in 2011. He also illustrates portraits of individuals around the world.

I like the idea of an illustration journal. Instead of written travel journals, provide illustrations during your travel with some narrative, or simply illustrate a nice image.

(Note all artwork on this page belongs to Olivier Kugler. View more of Olivier's work at: http://www.olivierkugler.com/)

Afternoon Tea at Hush in Mayfair

2013-05-03T20:23:05Z

A few weekends ago, we visited Hush in Mayfair to take afternoon tea and cocktails. The restaurant and tearooms are are situated in a quiet courtyard in Mayfair, and I'd been to the courtyard a couple of times before.

We started the afternoon tea with a pot of English Breakfast tea to share. The tea was nice, but I felt that it got a little too strong for my tastes after being left to brew for a while. While we sipped our tea, our cocktails were brought over. The cocktails were gin-based, and I thought that they were delicious. The cocktail I had was mixed with elderflower cordial, and it had a sweet taste. The bloke ordered the lemon, and it had a nice sweet-and-sour flavour.

Unfortunately, I felt a little disappointed with the rest of the afternoon tea. The cocktails were the nicest bit of this experience, but we didn't get much cocktail. We received plenty of sandwiches, two small scones each, and four macaroons. The scones came with clotted cream and three different types of jam (strawberry, red raspberry, and cherry).

We received four flavours of macaroons, but they were not the best I've had. We also received some gin-infused treat, which I'm not sure how to describe. We were not quite sure how to eat/drink this, but it tasted a little bit like the bloke's lemon-y cocktail.

I love afternoon tea. Here are some of my other afternoon tea experiences:

Street Art: Kid Acne's Warrior Women

2013-05-02T19:28:08Z

Recently, I noticed a series of warrior women paste-ups appear on Bethnal Green Road. The warrior women were created by Kid Acne, and he had recently painted a large wall, which I blogged about here: London Street Art: 'Oh My Days!' by Kid Acne. These warrior women had been pasted up in London (and other cities) previously. I've also seen them referred to as "stabby women" online.

I really like these. I'm hoping that more will be making an appearance (to other areas in Shoreditch) soon.

Days Out at Beeston Castle

2013-04-28T16:29:00Z

Beeston Castle is located south of Chester (outside the village of Beeston), and it was destroyed in the Civil War. The castle was built in the 1220s, but the hill as inhabited in prehistoric times. The ruins of the castle, its walls, and a moat sit high on top of a hill; there are excellent views over Cheshire from the top. There are rumours that a treasure hidden by king Richard II is buried somewhere in the castle grounds.

Inside the walls of Beeston Castle and a well.

The main fortress of the castle sits on the highest point of the hill, and it is surrounded by a moat. A steep bridge has been constructed to take visitors across the moat to the ruins of this fortress. Once inside the walls, it is easy to see why the ruins and area was regarded as beautiful.

A well is inside the walls on the top of the hill, and the ground inside the castle is very uneven and steep.

After visiting the castle and admiring the views, I walked back through the wooded area to visit the caves. These caves are man-made from the soft sandstone in the hill, and they are at the bottom of the hill, outside the main castle grounds.

From top left: The outside ruined walls of Beeston Castle; a view outside the door of the castle; the bridge across the moat and the castle towers; the sandstone caves

There are plenty of opportunities to walk around the castle grounds and admire the views over Cheshire and of the castle.

Beeston Castle

Have you visited Beeston Castle? Leave a message and let me know if you enjoyed it.

Street Art: Ben Eine

2013-04-25T21:15:09Z

Ben Eine paints large-scale text onto buildings, shutters, and walls in London, and several of his art pieces exist in East London. The text painted uses various fonts and contains a word to provoke emotions in the viewer. The words 'Scary' and 'Extortionist' are examples. He's been busy recently as several pieces have been recently completed.

Originally, Ben started out as a writer and eventually developed a typographic style of street art in bold fonts and colours. His work has been presented to US President Obama by Prime Minister David Cameron. He's now known internationally.

I've photographed a few of his artwork that I've discovered in East London.

'Scary' is painted on Rivington Street.

Ebor Street - 'Protagonist'

Ebor Street - this piece by Ben Eine was painted over by Ben Eine in February of 2013. It read 'Anti Anti Anti'.

Ebor Street - Ben Eine works on his new street art.

Ebor Street - the finished Ben Eine artwork. It reads 'Extortionist'.

Ebor Street - 'Tagonist'.

Ebor Street - Ben Eine work in progress.

Cobb Street; Ben Eine wrote each letter of the alphabet on each shutter on the street here. You can see a partial 'd' and a 'e' here.

These blocks of letters make up an outside wall near Liverpool Street Station.

Ben Eine was busy creating this "this sounds better in the day" text around a make-shift building area near Spitalfields church.

London Street Art: 'Oh My Days!' by Kid Acne

2013-04-24T21:00:00Z

Street artist "Kid Acne" created a large-scale artwork on the Village Underground wall earlier this year. I got some snaps of it on a couple of days when it was in progress and once it was finished. Kid Acne, originally from Africa, has been creating his artwork for over twenty years now, according to Street Art London (http://streetartlondon.co.uk/).

In addition to characters, a range of his artwork has a slogan theme. He paints large, witty slogans on walls and buildings all over the world. In an interview, he stated that the idea came from his years of writing lyrics, and he had the idea for a London slogan to be "Oh My Days" as it makes him think of London (1).

The photographs below shows the work in progress, with the previous artwork by Phlegm (Street Art: Phlegm) being covered up.

The photograph below shows the work nearly finished.

1) Street Art London. Interview: Kid Ace. http://streetartlondon.co.uk/blog/2013/02/11/interview-kid-acne/ [11 February, 2013].

Street Art: Don Smith

2013-04-22T05:07:43Z

Paul "Don" Smith's (also known as 'The Banker') artwork on the streets in London is easily-recognisable, and his work is one of my favourites. I've tracked a few of his paintings down across London to show here. Most of his work is portrait-based, and he paints many famous historical figures.

His 'tag' is a simple silhouette of a banker, and he also uses his name (simply DON) next to his artwork. I like the banker image because it is funny but instantly recognisable, and I've noticed this in many places. Apparently the banker's hat is meant to be a tap (according to the interview here: http://littlelondonobservationist.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/london-art-spot-paul-don-smith/), but I always thought it was a propeller on his hat and that the banker was suspended in mid-air, sort of like he was flying.

I hope you enjoy the collection of photographs of Paul "Don" Smith's artwork that I have gathered below. I'll post more up when I discover them.

During the Olympics, Paul "Don" Smith was busy painting portraits of the Olympians. Some of these can still be seen on Hanbury Street. This wall also contains a crying queen, an anti-slavery ship, and a row of penguins.

"Heart of Gold" and a portrait of a young child are on a small strip of wall near the wall of Olympians pictured previously.

Another image, next to the famous banker image, features Ed Dempsi.

Additional works on or near Brick Lane include Pitt Brooks Forester, a time machine, and a guy wearing a gas mask. (Gas masks feature in some of his other portraits in other locations.)

Elizabeth Taylor features in the portrait above. She was born in London to American parents.

"Falling in Love" (across from Spitalfields Market) has since been covered up by paste-ups, which always seems to be the way of artwork on the streets. I think this one was created around the Olympics.

Additional works on Brick Lane are Paul Weller and The Who.

Del Boy from "Only Fools and Horses", a popular British sitcom, also makes an appearance on Brick Lane. The artist also seems to create artwork for others, such as this rainbow bow (and ship), dedicated to "Sarah". (Both of these are located on Brick Lane.)

A simple "Articulate" pallet and brushes is located on Redchurch Street, though this may have now been covered up.

A painting dedicated to Neil Armstrong is located on Sclater Street where there are some building works going on at the moment.

The above selection of photographs of Don Smith's artwork was taken in various locations. The flag, tube train, and Big Ben were photographed in Notting Hill. I assume that Don Smith had this work commissioned for a restaurant; it's not far from the Notting Hill tube station. The "World Peace" cake image was used in the skate park on South Bank, and it was also used on Redchurch Street.

The above photograph is another shot taken of the restaurant front in Notting Hill.

The commemorate the queen's Diamond Jubilee last June, Don Smith created the above portrait. This is located on a back street between Spitalfields and Brick Lane, and it is next to an image of Charles Dickens.

The above portrait is Jimi Hendrix, and I think it is also on Brick Lane.

Another Hendrix and "World Peace" cakes and a Mona Lisa were located at the South Bank skate park.

Great Eastern Street has a Mona Lisa portrait with Paris skyline underneath.

The above one seem to be recent, and it's located in an alleyway near Shoreditch High Street, not far from Box Park and Boundary Road.

In addition to the above, these super-D paste-ups were recently added. One was underneath the previous image, and the other was near Hanbury Street and Spitalfields. It did not last very long before another paste-up was placed over it.

The above robin is also new, and it made a welcome sight after so many cold days this spring. The robin is located on Brick lane, underneath the rainbow bow painting.

The last images are also new and feature a small boy, Tommy. One has an Easter message, and it is located in Blackall Street. The other is located on Hanbury Street, just off Brick Lane where there are many large-scale street art artwork.

View Paul "Don" Smith's website: http://www.pauldonsmith.com

Miniature Food Art

2013-04-21T00:09:13Z

Today, my art inspiration is all about food in miniature form. These are so cute to look at, and they can be used in jewellery and for dolls' houses. I am impressed by their small size, and the artists creating them must have good eyesight and patience to create works of art with this attention to detail. I'm seeing more and more of these trending at the moment, though it's for the quirky and a little girly.

The shop ClayDecor (below) has small cakes, cupcakes, macaroons, and so many different types of miniature food.

ClayDecor: http://www.etsy.com/shop/claydecor

The shop SnowFern (below) also has miniature food for dolls' houses in addition to miniature-food jewellery. I love the cupcake cookie necklace, the cucumber ring, and the tomato earrings. Quirky and cute.

Snowfern: http://www.etsy.com/shop/snowfern

At Last - Spring!

2013-04-19T21:39:05Z

This winter was a long and cold one, and in the last week, the temperature has started to feel a little more normal for this time of the year. I took a walk around St. James' and Green Park last weekend. The daffodils were starting to bloom in Green Park, but they were in full bloom in St. James park, and a corner of St. James' park was a yellow carpet.

Bright yellow daffodil

A white and orange daffodil

It was nice to see the daffodils. Daffodils are one of my favourite flowers, and I was disappointed a couple of weeks ago when I missed seeing them due to the cold weather; I had gone on a daffodil charity walk.

Daffodils begin to bloom in Green Park.

I walked past Buckingham Palace, which is between the parks. I took a few photographs here. My favourite photograph location for the palace is next to the fountain and the Queen Victoria statue. The palace was not too busy with tourists.

Buckingham Palace

After visiting the palace, I took a walk a few hundred yards down the Mall, and I was greeted with this fantastic display of yellow daffodils in St. James' park. The photograph does not really do it justice. Also, imagine if the sun had been out.

A yellow carpet of daffodils.

Close-up of a daffodil.

St. James' Park daffodils

My stroll through the park brought me closer to more spring bloossoms. I snapped some photographs of trees in full bloom, such as the one below. I'm not quite sure what type of tree this is; I should have looked at the signage. (In the London parks, there's normally signage to name the types of species in the park.)

Pink spring blossoms

Many birds were also out on the lake in the park. I noted about twelve different species of bird and snapped a few photographs of them. I liked this old fellow, and I've seen him here before.

Bird in St. James' Park

If you are looking for something to do in London at the weekend, then head over to the parks and admire the daffodils and the spring flowers.