hit the bricks 2014 part one

Now look, I don't mean to brag, but I just do happen to live in the most glorious city in Australia. This morning, before the heat set in, I decided to cycle around Cooks Hill and Newcastle West to check out a few of the #HitTheBricks artworks from the other weekend.

Allow me to open with my favourite - above.

Isn't it just absolutely GLORIOUS?

And a five minute bike ride from my house.

This one on Darby Street's a corker. As you know, I'm a sucker for a carousel - particularly one with horsies - and this just looks like an homage to the most vivid. What's not to love?

And oh hey, look what's above my favourite shop! Love this. As you come up Darby Street this wise face greets you. He sees all.

Last year Adnate painted my favourite Hit The Bricks street art - the Aboriginal boy who looks up from Wickham over the harbour. One year on and it still hasn't lost its power or majesty. How could Adnate compete with that? Well, with the largest of the works - check this out - combined with Numskull on the Brutalist car park in Newcastle West. Pretty sick huh?

Love these expressions. Kind of mimic mine on seeing art on such a grand scale.

This is utterly fabulous. The vivid pops of colour against the black really rock. What a view from The Edwards across the road in Parry Street.

This here's a do-over and, to be honest, I'm not sure it's complete. It was this funny little cartoony thing on the side of Earp Brothers and as soon as I saw it I thought "Ooooh, the Audi Centre aren't going to like that much orange and yellow next to their swishy building." And sure enough, the next day it was gone - with this appearing over the top. It's by the same artist as the one above.

I love initiatives like this in Newcastle and what I love the most is that they make cycling in Newy even more awesome. This took me about 45 minutes to ride around, and that includes photography, stopping for a chat, and ooooh and aaaahhh time.

For more sites, head to Look Hear.

And stay tuned, my mum and step-dad are up next weekend. We'll be doing a ride to check out ALL the sites. Oh, and watching SKYWHALE on Friday night in Civic Park.

I love you Newcastle.

fabulous friday

My parents are up from Melbourne at the moment, so, amidst my work, I'm trying to squish in fun things to do with them. On Wednesday we went for a bike ride to check out some of the new Street Art in Newcastle {my latest obsession}. I love what's happening in Beresford Lane down in the West End. This piece is one of my faves - the exuberance and ridiculousness is just wonderful.

Today we're off to the Art Gallery where I'll be interviewing photographer Bill Henson, which I'm both nervous and excited about. I remember studying Henson's work way back when I was majoring in photography at Uni and being astonished by his painterly photographs. My parents will be coming along and checking out the four exhibitions on display at the Gallery while I'm being all journalistic.

Tonight my gal has a school dance, so I'll take my parents along to Darby Street After Five where we'll do some Christmas shopping, check out some of the fab buskers and grab ourselves something to eat.

Tomorrow it's Olive Tree Markets for more shopping, then my gal's ballet concert in the afternoon - before I head off to a friend's birthday party! Woo hoo!

Have a fab weekend everyone.

colour my world

Last weekend saw Newcastle host the Hit the Bricks Street Art Festival which has brought colour and joy to Newcastle streets. Local and national street artists converged on the city and have brought long-term joy and colour. I'm delighted to see the streets come to life, there's far too much emphasis on beige in this city for my liking. I love to see art spreading from the galleries and museums into the streets - and I'm glad that so many business owners embraced it by offering up their walls as canvases.

On Sunday my gal and I went on a walking tour, organised by Renew Newcastle, where we checked out some of the amazing pieces on display.
Artists such as Askew, Adnate, Shida, Numbskull, Fintan Magee, Sofles, Grizzle, Mike Watt, Umpell, Shuda, Bafcat, Beastman, Phibs, Jumbo and Mike Maka were joined by many others and boy, have they created something fabulous.

It rained pretty heavily on the first two days, but the artists carried on. In fact, some incorporated the running paint into their work, to great effect. Isn't this whale a beauty!

This was my gal's fave - and one of mine too. Isn't she just glorious?

We got to see artists in action, and some of them even stopped to have a chat with the 25+ strong group on the walking tour to tell us about their art, their inspiration and the festival.

While some artists used ladders, others required more serious equipment to complete their pieces. I love the colours and the scale in this piece. It makes a boring old car park POP!

After the walking tour I went home and grabbed my bike so I could pootle out and check out the rest. On my travels I saw an historical piece of street art! It's nice to see that things work in swings and roundabouts. Everything old is new again.

This piece is utterly breathtaking. I've rarely seen a more powerful portrait. Seriously, this is the kind of work you'd expect to see win the Archibald Prize - the eyes tell so many stories. This glorious boy gazes up the Hunter River and overseas the area with majesty.

What a gift to the city.

For more info, go to the LookHear website. And next time you're out, see if you can find these pieces. There are also plenty of secret sites, such as laneways, that were off the map. Searching the hashtag #HitTheBricks or #HTBfestival will find more images on Instagram.

Thanks for sharing your work with us guys, we really appreciate it.