Look to the stars is a mural painted by Zabou in Sutton in Ashfield. It features a young girl peering through a telescope and gazing upwards towards the sky. Painted on the side of a diner in Portland Square it is a part of wider ambitions for the areas re-generation. The subject of the mural, Freya, is a junior member of the Mansfield and Sutton Astronomical Society.

Look to the Stars
Known for her monochrome portraits, Zabou is a French street artist based in London. She has painted all over the world. Her muses will often either have local connections to the area, be friends or just be people she’s met or seen.

Sherwood Observatory
Featuring the nearby Sherwood Observatory, Freya is seen peering into its 61cm reflecting telescope. Opening in 1986, it stands overlooking nearby Mansfield and has become a proud feature of the area.

Sutton Hosiery
Elsewhere in the mural, Suttons industrial heritage is referenced. A man can be seen working at a factory in the heart of Sutton’s hosiery manufacturing industry. Once a major employer in the area, Pretty Polly was founded in the town. Though now it has moved out.

The mural in Sutton in Ashfield stands at the entrance to Portland Square. It’s a town which has ambitions of regeneration. Zabou’s mural adds some colour but also gives a sense of belonging. The nod to the past whilst at the same time quite literally looking up into the vast realms of space. A metaphor perhaps of the possibilities of things to come.
Look to the Stars is a mural in Sutton in Ashfield. It was painted by Zabou in April 2022 and visited on 1 May 2022. All photographs were taken on that day. It can be located on the side of Kims Diner in Portland Square, Sutton in Ashfield.
Look to the Stars Mural

