Paint Jam in East London As Artists Transform Sclater Street and Other Spots Around the City

We always like a good paint jam here on Inspiring City and when it happens in the middle of your own backyard in the centre of East London’s urban art scene then all the better.

The popular spot in the car park off Sclater Street is a magnet for street artists at the best of times. An ever changing canvas, it’s location between Shoreditch and Brick Lane means that it’s a favourite of street art tour guides and passers by alike.

Global Street Art, who often help find artists walls to paint, often like to the use the area to showcase new art but this time they made it available for anyone who wanted to come along. The reason, the birthday of Lost Souls stalwart Captain Kris, a regular on walls around the area and someone who never seems to say no to a collaboration.

The Lost Souls, a street art crew from around the UK, often meet up to create spectacular, cartoony murals which interweave the styles of the protagonists seamlessly. Featuring Captain Kris, SPzero76, Squirl and Si Mitchell the crew have also recently been painting more and more with Saki & Bitches.

Fresh from painting a wall in Camden the day previous the Souls couldn’t pass up the opportunity to stay and paint another day and were joined by some of the great and good of the East End’s urban art scene. The likes of Six One Six, UbangiBangi, The Real Dill, Irony, Himbad, Seeds One, Jeba, Airborne Mark, Tony Boy and Fanakapan all joined the party to make one immense mural on a wet and windy day in the East End.

The wall with a little extra addition from 616

The art didn’t stop there though with a number of other impressive murals also being painted independantly nearby. Martin Ron joined forces with Jim Vision to paint typically surrealist mural on Old Nichol Street. While Kef, soon to be exhibiting at the Genesis Cinema in Stepney Green, returned to Bromley By Bow to create a wonderfully abstract black and white piece on the wall of an abandoned building.

All in all, a fun day out with lots going on in the East End. So for a gallery of the days events check out below starting with the Paint Jam on Scalter Street.

Sclater Street Paint Jam

The building on Sclater Street with the full mural

It was Captain Kris's birthday hence the paint jam in celebration — It was Captain Kris’s birthday hence the paint jam in celebration

Captain Kris, the birthday boy painting one of his instantly identifiable characters

Paint and Bags with a little figure from Himbad peeping over

Captain Kris art with The Real Dill, Airborne Mark, Irony and Squirl — Captain Kris art with The Real Dill, Airborne Mark, Irony, Himbad and Squirl

Saki & Bitches, 616, Si Mitchell and Tony Boy — Saki & Bitches, 616, Si Mitchell, The Real Dill and Tony Boy

Irony, The Real Dill, Squirl and I'm not sure who the Panda is by. Anyone who does please let me know — Irony, The Real Dill, Squirl and Lilly Lou. Anyone who does please let me know

Borondos work towers above the Sclater Street car park

Airborne Mark's choice of umbrella was perhaps not entirely suited to the weather — Airborne Mark’s choice of umbrella was perhaps not entirely suited to the weather

Trapped in Zone One adopts a familiar pose taking a picture of the finished work

Kef Paints in an Abandoned Building
Getting ready for his show at the Genesis Cinema in Stepney Green later in the month, Kef added some of his harmonic lines to an old building which has become a magnet for street artists over the past few months. His show ‘Embraced’ represents a curation debut for this very blog and more can be read about it here.

Martin Ron and Jim Vision team up on Old Nichol Street in Shoreditch
In London to celebrate the opening of his show at Mead Carney Fine Art, Martin Ron couldn’t let the moment pass by leaving without a big mural. His partner in crime, the prolific Jim Vision whose work can be seen all over Shoreditch and whom he had first met in Buenos Aires years ago as Vision embarked on an Argentinian painting tour. The two make for a formidable combination producing a surrealist epic featuring a giant hand holding a sea on which one of Vision’s boats could set sail. Incredible indeed.