Street Art of the 2023 Cheltenham Paint Festival

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The Cheltenham Paint Festival is back and after a period of uncertainty returned to the town with more murals for 2023. Starting in 2017 the event it is the sixth time the festival has taken place in Cheltenham

Featuring a huge range of artists, the Cheltenham Paint Festival has become a popular fixture on the street art festival circuit. A combination of regularly updated painting spots and breaking new walls combine to keep the festival feeling fresh. This time it is said that 150 artists will have taken part in one form or another.

The artists of the Cheltenham Paint Festival 2023 at the 2 Pigs pub

Crowd Funding

Getting here has been a rocky but ultimately fulfilling road. Dependent on outside funding, at one point it dried up meaning that the festival could well have been cancelled. A call out on Just Giving resulted in a community driven goal of £15k smashed in just a few weeks. One spectacular contribution of £10k from a local business, Kowksi Apparel, serving to get it across the line quick.

Liam Bononi creating his spectacular mural on Henrietta Street made possible through crowd funding

Major Murals

Big walls this year include more along the housing blocks of Princess Elizabeth Way. These have undergone a remarkable transformation over recent years. For 2023 Tankpetrol, Caryn Koh and Bublegum have added further large scale murals to this massive outdoor gallery. Closer to the town centre EPOD, Liam Bononi, Hass & Jordache, Sophi Odling and Krimsone each have big walls. Whilst two existing areas on the side of Dream Seams and Williams Cycles have had a refresh. Pieces from Sophy Tuttle and Snug One replacing older pieces from previous festivals.

Caryn Koh half way through her piece soon to be added to the gallery on Princess Elizabeth Way
Table Of Contents
  1. Crowd Funding
  2. Major Murals
  3. Map of Street Art in Cheltenham
  4. 2 Pigs, Church Street
  5. Aggs Pavillion
  6. Benhall Park, Robert Burns Avenue
  7. Brewery Centre
  8. Devonshire Street, Dream Seams
  9. Frog & Fiddle
  10. Grosvenor Terrace
  11. Holiday Inn Express
  12. Henrietta Street
  13. Honeybourne Line Bridges
  14. Honeybourne Line Tunnels
  15. Malthouse Lane
  16. North Place Car Park
  17. Pittville Skatepark
  18. Princess Elizabeth Way
  19. Sappercombe Lane, Charlton Kings Beeches Skate Park
  20. Town Centre East Car Park
  21. The Wheatsheaf Pub, Old Bath Road
  22. Williams Cycles, Sherbourne Place
Multiple artist works can be found at the Honeybourne Line tunnels. The area is one of the main free painting spots in Cheltenham and is a key location for the festival

Map of Street Art in Cheltenham

A map showing all the street art locations in Cheltenham incorporating murals and painting locations from 2017 to 2023.

The popular Aggs Pavillion was once again a location for the festival. Shown here are new works form Katie Scott and Faye Rai

Cheltenham Paint Festival Murals of 2023

2 Pigs, Church Street

A popular location at the centre of town, the 2 Pigs has a courtyard which is the perfect gallery for street art. It was also the location of the festival shop and after party. In between festivals it’s a location for board gaming and magic workshops. As a location it’s been supporting the Cheltenham Paint Festival since the beginning with many artists painting on its walls.

Francois Got Buffed (FGB)

Belfast’s FGB with some love spreading

Joe Greenaway

A portrait of tattoo artist Chris Woodhead from Joe Greenaway

Massive Face

Massive Face

Penguin Girl

Penguin Girl painting on the last day at the 2 Pigs

Pogo

For Pogo Stencils this is actually a quick throw up. Coming back the day after the after party to create this in the yard.

Roo

Lots of pigs in the 2 Pigs from Roo

Sara Kathleen

Illustrator Sara Kathleen with her first street art piece. Her work is inspired by tarot and magic taking inspiration from the natural world. The characters are all creatures developed as part of her work in tarot and can be found across her work.

SoulD Art

SoulD Art’s collage inspired stencil. All hand cut it is first shaped in the studio as a collage prior to being re-imagined on the computer and then cut out all by hand with multiple layers. Her work centres around themes of kindness and connection.

Sophy Tuttle

Festival artist Sophy Tuttle’s main wall was on the side of Dream Seams on Devonshire Road. Finishing early she found this space in the 2 Pigs.

Wolfskull Jack

Local Cheltenham based artists Wolfskull Jack has painted in in this location before. Her work is created with pens and markers

Aggs Pavillion

Situated in Pittville Park, the Aggs Pavillion has become an iconic spot for the Cheltenham Paint Festival. Refreshed each year, it boasts four good sized ground level walls with green open space around. The actual location is a gardeners shed used for ground keeping of the park.

Faye Rai

Faye Rai is known for her fine art portraits and paintings of the natural world and in particular birds.

Katie Scott

A discarded Barbie from Katie Scott. The movie was released in the week prior to the festival

Peter Sheridan

A fish on the pavillion from Pete Sheridan

Title Graffiti

Title graffiti

Benhall Park, Robert Burns Avenue

Underneath the road bridge of Robert Burns Avenue runs a stream which separates a series of pillars used for graffiti. The area is officially part of Benhall Park and has been a popular painting spot for years. For the Cheltenham Paint Festival 2023 one of the walls was taken over by Midlands based artists Kem and Posea.

Kem & Posea

The full scale almost finished collaboration between Kem and Posea. Posea is shown adding final details on this wall directly underneath Robert Burns Avenue
Posea adding in lines of detail

Brewery Centre

Perspicere

At the centre of the popular Brewery Centre London based artist Perspicere was creating a portrait made entirely out of string. The artist is known for his ever more elaborate string pieces. Works that initially don’t look anything, that is until such time that a portrait starts to emerge. The whole process is a performance in itself with spools of thread set up in a mini loom prior to being pulled onto the wall.

Perspicere focused on creating the immersive thread portrait for which he has become known

Devonshire Street, Dream Seams

First painted by Andrew Burns Colwill in 2017 the wall of Dream Seams has been fading and flaking for years. Certainly it was about time that it had a refresh and American artist Sophy Tuttle was chosen to do just that. Her work, which is about the interconnectedness of life, being an appropriate replacement piece for Colwill’s previous environmentally themed work.

Sophy Tuttle

Boston based artist Sophy Tuttle refreshed this wall on Dream Seams. The piece is about connection between the realms of life and death. A red thread connects the characters and represents the vitality of life and the lifeblood of all living things. In the background a cosmic scene along with circular motifs give us a reminder that we are all subject to the same natural cycles and laws of space and time. Connections that link us all to even the smallest creatures around us.

Frog & Fiddle

Another pub that’s been at the heart of the festival since the early days. The Frog & Fiddle has a courtyard at the back where artists have often painted in the past. A short walk from the Brewery Centre it is on the High Street.

Ian Boyd Walker

Ian Boyd Walker

Nocciola the Drawer

‘Dancing to your own Beat’ is the colourful piece from Durham based Nocciola the Drawer

Phase Chan

Phase Chan aka Lydia Hartley is another illustrator going big and the piece in the Frog and Fiddle represents her largest piece of street art to date. The piece was drawn only using black posca pens

Grosvenor Terrace

A new spot opened up for the 2023 Cheltenham Paint Festival and what a place. Grosvenor Terrace runs alongside the multi storey town centre east car park and has some big walls as a result. Festival artists Sophi Odling and Krimsone, both from Australia, were the ones chosen to paint the walls. Both certainly the biggest of the festival.

Krimsone

‘The balance of a fragile but vibrant mind’ – Australian artist Krimsone is known for his large scale works. This piece is on the side of the car park and actually just off Grosvenor Terrace . It’s officially on Highbury Lane but in the reality it’s the same area.
Easily the tallest mural painted as part of the Cheltenham Paint Festival 2023 from Krimsone

Sophi Odling

Running along the side of Grosvenor Terrace is this large piece from Sophi Odling. It shows a family scene with a young boy being comforted by his sister as their father looks on. The work is about how families grow through the hardships of life, and how parents are able to guide their mindsets
Looking along Grosvenor Terrace is this lovely work from Sophi Odling

Holiday Inn Express

Taking a prime position in the centre of town, the Holiday Inn Express sits next to the Brewery Quarter. On one side a painting from Curtis Hylton already dominates the road and now EPOD has added a mural on the other side. His work taking influence from from music and recording.

EPOD

Festival artist EPOD’s portrait of a woman with speakers and dials in her hair

Henrietta Street

Running along the side of the Brewery Centre, Liam Bononi’s piece overlooks Henrietta Street. The streets in this area are well worth exploring as there are a number of big pieces to be found.

Liam Bononi

A woman rests and looks wistfully at a glass. Both cracked it perhaps references a relationship with alcohol either past or present.

Honeybourne Line Bridges

The Honeybourne Line bridges form part of the old railway track that is now a footpath running through Cheltenham. The bridges are overpasses that are dotted along the length and many artists have painted here long before the Cheltenham Paint festival was even a thing. This year the bridges have a number of smaller scale work from multiple artists as part of the Open Door project led by Amy Freeman. Each of the artists taking part are currently homeless and for each it was their first time painting a wall.

Amy Freeman and Open Door

A wall on the bridge nearest to the Millennium Bridge featuring multiple artworks, some old and some new
The opposite side of the bridge with more smaller scale pieces
All artists were part of the Open Door project

Honeybourne Line Tunnels

A hugely popular painting spot for a number of years now. It is the Honeybourne Line tunnels where mini paint jams of the past have been held. Jams that really might well be seen as the very beginning of the idea for an actual festival in the town. There are two tunnels (underpasses) next to each other at a fork in the public footpath of the Honeybourne Line. Both are used for graffiti and street art both at the festival and throughout the year. Artists below are shown in order that they painted in the tunnels

Lost Dogs

DFC

Codo

Zare & Shimz

Creative Ginger

Assorted artists

Hero 32

Mr See

Ice Cream Buds

Dave Tic

Assorted artists

Nol

Hero Wuff

TFS

Lost Hills

Kiwi

Inca the Mole

Curly

Malthouse Lane

On the gable end of a house on Malthouse Lane in the St Pauls area of Cheltenham. Festival artists Hass & Jordache painted a tribute to fellow artist Curtis Hylton. The area is just to the north of the town in between the Brewery Quarter and Pittville Park. Dotted around the streets you can discover other artworks from previous festivals.

Hass & Jordache

Hass & Jordache combined to created this portrait, a homage to regular Cheltenham artist Curtis Hylton
A front on view of the large wall from Hass & Jordache.

North Place Car Park

A popular place for street art in Cheltenham, the hoardings of the North Place car park have seen many different artists over the years. For the 2023 Cheltenham Paint Festival every single board was repainted making it by far the most busy area of the whole event. There are too many to include here so all the completed murals from the car park can be seen in this separate post.

Tash Creates by her completed mural of a colourful cow
Ajax Piper by his mural in the North Place car park
Natasha Kirby with a nature inspired mural in the car park
DFTE is known for his word and calligraphy based artworks
My Cute Creatures bringing her cute creatures to the North Place car park walls
London based Irish artist Shauna Blanchfield on her way to creating another photo realism mural
Elno painting her piece at the entrance to the car park
To see all the North Place Car Park Murals take a look at this post featuring all the pieces created for the Festival

Pittville Skatepark

At the top end of Pittville Park is the Skatepark which provides a number of free spots for artists to paint on the side of the ramps. Several got painted for the 2023 Cheltenham Paint Festival and the locations has often been a feature of the event.

Madderdoit

Brighton based Madderdoit with a childhood inspired scene
Madderdoit took two of the skate ramps to create his pieces on

Messenhigh

As yet unfinished piece from Messenhigh

Sarah Fox

Sarah Fox aka sfoxcreative has work inspired by music, family, clothes and skating culture

Unify

Eye catching work from Unify shows a monkey in a space suit

Zirk

Geometric patterns from local artists Zink

Princess Elizabeth Way

What has rapidly become one of the most impressive outdoor galleries in the UK. The housing blocks on Princess Elizabeth Way are multi storey with flat white walls. They’ve been crying out for colour for years and over the past few they’ve certainly got it. This year three new large scale pieces were added from Barcelona’s Bublegum, Swindon’s Caryn Koh and Poland’s Tankpetrol. A further smaller piece was painted nearby from Bristol’s Inkie.

Bublegum (Quebec Drive)

From Barcelona, Bublegum is originally a graffiti writer and your can see this heavy influence in his Princess Elizabeth Way mural.

Caryn Koh

Caryn Koh is an artist from Swindon and her artworks centre on family and relationship connections. This piece is called ‘For Eternity’ and features a married couple in their ‘safe space’

Inkie

Inkie painted this smaller wall on Shelley Road. The artist already has another larger mural nearby

Tankpetrol

From Poland Tankpetrol has a freehand style that looks like a stencil

Sappercombe Lane, Charlton Kings Beeches Skate Park

To the south of the town a new site was opened up for the 2023 festival. Already boasting an anamorphic piece from festival director Andy Davies work was added this time from graffiti writers Ican, Spray Saint and Snot One

Andy Davies

Painted in November 2022 this anamorphic piece from festival director Andy Davies can be seen at the Charlton Beeches skate park

Ican, Spray Saint & Snotone

Graffiti mural on the changing rooms. The piece is a collaboration between Spray Saint, Snot One and ICan. It features two grannies saving the world from an AI invasion.

Town Centre East Car Park

The first time this location has been used for the Cheltenham Paint Festival and it’s one that could certainly carry on. The car park is a multi-storey with an abundance of walls and very close to the town centre. Artists started to add throw ups and instinctive pieces particularly on the last day of the event when the heavens opened.

Various Artists

From Northern Ireland, Codo has painted a number of pieces in the car park. Codo had already painted a piece in the Honeybourne Line Tunnels
Also from Belfast, FGB or ‘Francois Got Buffed’ he had also painted in the 2 Pigs
By far the most prolific artists at the festival, Nol’s characters can be seen around the town and the car park
Another prolific painter, Fark is from the south coast and his characters can be seen dotted around
A graff crocodile from Sled One in the car park
To see more artwork from the Town Centre East Car Park click here

The Wheatsheaf Pub, Old Bath Road

A new venue for 2023 saw the introduction of the Wheatsheaf pub on Old Bath Road. Two murals were painted here out in the beer garden with pieces from Johnman and Dazcat.

Dazcat

Dazcat mural in the beer garden of the Wheatsheaf

Johnman

An idyllic scene from Johnman in the beer garden of the Wheatsheaf

Williams Cycles, Sherbourne Place

Some tremendous big murals can be seen surrounding the stand along block of Williams Cycles. Most created in 2018 a few have yet been refreshed over the years and the area got one new piece for 2023 from Snug One.

Snug One

Snug One painting his piece on the side of Williams Cycles.

The Cheltenham Paint Festival 2023 took place over the weekend of 28th and 29th July 2023. Inspiring City visited the town during the festival and all photographs were taken then. You can read more about the street art of Cheltenham here.

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