a walk around Delft

Posted on March 18, 2024 by Mary C

Delft is a lovely city with a large public square by an old church. There are some old houses along a few canals as well as some narrow lanes. There is also some street art there.

below: In a very narrow lane, Kloksteeg, is a large mural by Micha de Bie

below: The mural contains portraits of characters from Delft’s past such as Hugo de Groot (1583-1645), Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), “The father of microbiology”) and Vermeer’s Milkmaid (from the famous painting).

below: A mural by Serge KB (aka Serge Kortenbroek), a handful or two of little creatures.

below: Another Serge KB painting, biomechanical. Ectoplasmic ooze. paints surreal creatures, animals, cyborgs and androids.creates grim scenes with a twist.

below: On a wall in Papenstraat is a map of Delft in the 17th century and it is made entirely of mosaic tiles. It is the work of Nan Deardorff McClain and Colja de Roo.

on exterior wall, map of 17th century delft made of ceramics

below: A closer look at part of the map. At the top, close to the left side is Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek’s house (mentioned in the Kloksteeg mural above). The word “microscoop” appears beside it.

portion of a map of 17th century delft made of ceramics

below: Catching and eating fish.

below: Are you sure they fit? Poor Henk

mural of a man trying on new shoes while woman sits behind him

below: A decorated lane

below: “O! Nadine, wat is mijn HUID mooi” or Nadine, my skin is so beautiful (or nice). This replaces a very similar painting that featured a man and a woman with the text, “O Jan wat zit je haar mooi (Jan, your hair is so beautiful”)… But wait…. this is also an ad for beauty products?

below: Literal street art – chalk (paint?) on the paving stones.

below: Stand with Ukraine, a sticker in the main square.

below: Dinosaur angst and an all-seeing eye.

below: Hands by 4d_kaze

below: Accept This street art; it’s Krisbee and his happy smiley face on top. Fishes Invasion on the bottom – I see them everywhere I go!

below: Pen the Forest, aka Wouter Melis – desolate landscapes and dead trees.

beside Straat’s door

Posted on December 23, 2023 by Mary C

Amsterdam has a large museum/gallery dedicated to street art. It is located on the grounds of an old shipyard, a short ferry ride away from the central part of the city. Some of the murals are outside, along with a lot of graffiti that has been added over time. The works that I have included in this blogpost are what I saw around the outside of the entrance to STRAAT, the indoor gallery

below: A large metal door or gate that various people have left their mark on.

below: Top of the box, two portrait pasteups by Jeremy Novy, as well as two white hands.

below: Just smile on the frame of what once was a mirror. This was contributed to the space by navarriky.

below: A black and white image that is starting to peel.

below: On the other side of the entrance, is a wall that has served as a canvas for a few artists.

below: “The Asseastant” by FALCO, A nude but athletic thrower of life rings. Saving someone? On FALCO’s instagram page there is this description of the work: “”THE ASSEASTANT“ is a message of hope, altruism and activism. It highlights the media absence of hundreds of thousands of human beings who perish braving the seas to escape war, famine or misery vs 5 rich passengers on a touristic submarine cruise.”

below: A head of a large red heart, love, with a halo, the work of Faben,

below: Little girl destruction, a black and white by Dutch artist N888K

below: Barbie and the riot police. She gracefully dances in her tutu as they haul her away. Graffiti on tiles.

below: Hello Flynn and an ice cream cone with a very long tongue

below:words

Inti, Aurora and the Heerlen sign

Posted on December 8, 2023 by Mary C

A title that succinctly describe this scene:

three dimensional letters spelling Heerlen in front of an apartment complex with a large mural by inti on the front of it

below: “Creed” by Chilean artist Inti

large mural by Inti on the side of a midrise apartment block

A woman, Madonna-like? or in a Muslim head scarf?….. holding an olive branch which is a symbol of peace, but she’s wearing an ammo belt around her waist.

part of a larger mural, a person with a belt of bullets around their waist, and a shirt in camoflauge colours.

part of a larger mural, person with anatomical looking red heart on chest, and holding an olive branch, by inti

Aurora refers to the buildings covered in the brightly coloured stripes, a work by the Spanish artist collective Boa Mistura. It includes the test, “In het hart van elke winter leeft een trillende lente” which translates to “In the heart of every winter lives a vibrating spring”. The artwork covers 228 apartment units and is probably the largest mural in Europe.

apartment building, residential, with stripes in yellow, oranges, and purples, with a text, a quote from Kahlil Gibran

In front of the apartment complex is a large 3-D sign spelling the name of the city, Heerlen. When it was first installed, it was orange. Now it has been enhanced with some DazeTwo ravens and crows at one end ….

the H and E letters, 3 D, painted with crows and ravens in various positions

…. and the ending letters were decorated by Amber Delahaye with other elements from nature such as mushrooms, butterflies, and flowers.

last three letters of Heerlen sign, capital letters, L, E, and N, painted with butterflies, mushrooms, and flowers

NOTE: The quote on the buildings is taken from one by Kahlil Gibran which says: “In every winter’s heart there is a quivering spring, and behind the veil of each night there is a smiling dawn”

Photos taken October 2023

More Heerlen murals were in the previous post, “more Heerlen birds”

more Heerlen birds

Posted on December 7, 2023 by Mary C

There are many murals and other great street art works in Heerlen. There are too many for one blog post so I have tried to find a way to show them in small sections that make some sort of sense. My previous post (the workmen and the black birds) contained photos of the ravens or crows that DazeTwo features in most of his work so in this post I will continue with more bird themed murals.

below: Two snuggling bluebirds painted by Daniel MacLloyd

below: A massive heron with a collection of items that help represent Heerlen, a mural best seen from the other side of the railway tracks, or better yet from a train as it enters the city. The “Heerlen Heron” was painted seven years ago by Vincent Lancee and Dave de Leeuw.

below: Another collaborative effort, this time DazeTwo teamed up with fellow Heerlen artist, Ivan Sanda (aka MF Ivan), to produce an image of a woman whose head is also that of a raven.

below: High above the street a yellow bird in a cage. The canary in the coal mine? by Collin van der Sluijs.

below: Dzia’s little blue chicken on Willemstraat.

below: And last, a quick bird head in the semi darkness under a bridge.

Photos taken October 2023

the workmen and the black birds

Posted on December 6, 2023 by Mary C

below: Miners hard at work under the mining museum in Heerlen.

small stencils of 4 workmen, miners, digging in the sidewalk, on the very bottom of the wall, pick axe,

below: More miners, but this time they are having a bit of fun riding in the mine carts as they roll downhill.

street art picture of men riding on and holding on to mine carts going downhill inside a mine

below: The Heerlen workmen aren’t just in the mines. You can see them in a number of places around the city.

graffiti stencil by jaune of a workman in orange and yellow vest swinging on a rope

below: In some cases you can spot them dealing with the blackbirds, the gold crown topped ravens.

below: The stenciled workmen were created by Jaune. On his Instagram page there is a great line, “The world belongs to those who build it”.

below: A white crow joins the fun.

below: A larger mural full of black birds. Like all the other birds in this post, this is the work of Daze Two, a local Heerlen artist.

below: Closer view of the ravens in the mural above.

close up of daze two mural of a group of blackbirds, feather, wings,

below: Is there a story here? What kind of interaction is there between the realistic looking black birds and the flat red bird? X marks the spot, but why?

graffiti painting of 3 blackbirds and a red bird

below: A last look at the birds, a small Daze Two work, part of a larger piece, on a brick wall.

Photos taken October 2023

More Heerlen murals can be seen in the next blog post – link to “more Heerlen birds“.

Treeftsteeg

Posted on November 30, 2023 by Mary C

There are a number of lanes and passageways that connect the canals/roads Singel and Herengracht in central Amsterdam. One of the narrowest of them is Treeftsteeg.

below: Entrance to the alley, from Herengracht.

entrance to Treeftsteeg, a narrow alley, with graffiti painted on the walls

Various messages and symbols of peace – “I Love Kherson”, a girl waving a large Ukranian flag, “Love no War” (Love not war?), a white dove with wings of blue and gold, “Love makes a house a home”. In addition (under the word Kherson) there is a portrait of George Yurri Shevelov (1908-2002). His CV is long but in general he is most known for his research proving that the Ukrainian language has a separate history from Russian.

words and portraits painted in an alley

below: The portrait of the man in the top left corner is of Taras Shevchenko (1814 – 1861), a famous Ukrainian poet. Moving right, the woman at the top with the orange background is the former Queen of the Netherlands, Queen Beatrix. Third from the left is Ukrainian writer and feminist Lesya Ukrainka whose work spanned the late 1800s and early 1900s. On the right side there is an image of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy although it is not the clearest picture.

anti war, pro Ukraine graffiti in an alley

below: Commemorating the sinking of the Moskva, a Russian ship in the Black Sea near the beginning of the war.

painted graffiti in an alley

below: arrow showing the way to Kharkiv

below: caricatures

below: The narrowness of Treeftsteeg. Along with the pro-Ukraine messages, there are a few black and white portraits.

bicycles parked and leaning against walls in a very narrow alley

a black and white portrait of a man, pasted on wall that is blue and yellow

below: These portraits are part of “A Paper Monument to the Paperless” is an ongoing project headed by Dutch artist Domenique Himmelsbach de Vries.

portraits, posters on an alley wall, part of A Paper Monument to the Paperless, a project by Domenique Himmelsbach de Vries

a painting of a person wearing long red pants sitting under a tree

four for community

Posted on November 9, 2023 by Mary C

On all four corners of an intersection in a residential area of Heerlen (Netherlands) there is a mural on the side of one of the buildings. They were all painted by the same artist and they all feature some aspect of Dutch culture or history. A pink and purple theme also runs through them all.

below: On Oude Kerkstraat is “Operation Heartbeat” by American artist Gaia – A heart surrounded by different flowers from the Dutch “Empire”

mural on the end of a building, a red heart surrounded by many Dutch flowers such as poppies and tulips, all on purple background, Operation Heartbeat by Gaia

below: Another Gaia mural across the street from his hearts and flowers is this bit of local history – Former Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Joop den Uyl, announces the end of the coal mining in Limburg, December 1, 1965.

street scene with 2 large murals in view, one with a face and tulips and the other with a man giving a speech at a lecture in front of microphones

below: ‘Tulipmania’. The face is that of Frederik Hendrik (1584-1647) who was a Statdtholder of the Dutch Republic, as well as a sovereign Prince of Orange during the Dutch Golden Age, i.e. in the time of Tulipmania. I doubt that he’s a recognizable face these days but it’s an interesting detail just the same.

Tulipmania mural by Gaia, a face partially obscured but the eyes very visible, tulips in purple and white

below: ‘Resilience’ was influenced by the painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder (d. 1569) who painted scenes of everyday peasant life. Here is a contemporary scene of everyday urban life.

mural by Gaia of a city scene, people outside interacting, an orange apartment building, a woman waving, a reddish coloured house,

paink background, part of a larger mural, a woman waving

Platanenweg ten + one

Posted on October 28, 2023 by Mary C

The “If Walls Could Speak” festival in 2019 was an Amsterdam Street Arts (ASA) project whose aim was to create 10 large murals, each on the end of a row of apartments on Platanenweg in Amsterdam Oost. These are the ten murals.

Blue metal sign affixed to brick building, street sign, Platanenweg, in Amsterdam

below: First, “In Case of Lost Childhood, Break Glass” by Leon Keer.

below: This mural is a Sjem Bakkus & IVES.one collaboration and is titled “De appel valt niet ver van de boom.” (in English: The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree).

mural by cobra on the end of a lowrise apartment building, cursive word cobra, a bright red apple, a mouth with a mustache in black and white

close up of part of cobra mural, painting of bright green apple beside a real window

below: A mural by British artist Dan Kitchener of a Japanese Geisha as well as a street scene on a rainy night.

mural by Dan Kitchener, Japanese geisha girl

mural by Dan Kitchener, street scene in Japan city on a rainy night, Japanese geisha girl

mural by Dan Kitchener, street scene in Japan city on a rainy night

below:aka Painting by Studio Giftig (aka Niels van Swaemen and Kaspar van Leek) – a bare footed woman in mid-air with a few pigeons.

Large mural by Studio Giftig,Niels van Swaemen and Kaspar van Leek, of a woman and a pigeon

part of Studio Giftig mural, pigeon beside a small real balcony

close up of woman in mural by studio giftig

below: A bird with pink, green, and turquoise feathers is keeping an eye on the balcony. It was painted by Dopie.

large mural on the side of an apartment building, a large bird, with pink head, green neck, turquoise and green body, pink legs and feet.

below: Lots of arms and hands holding boxes in a mural with the title of “Carrying Belongings” by Case Maclaim.

mural by Case Maclaim, hands holding boxes, on the side of an apartment building in Amsterdam

below: A boy under a tree with a creature (dragon?) in his hands. The text says “When it comes to settling disputes, compassion is more useful than magic”. It was painted by German artist Hera (one half of the artistic partnership, Herakut).

a young black boy kneels under a tree with a small dragon in his hands. a second dragon sits on a branch of the tree and is looking down. Text in the mural says When it comes to settling disputes, compassion is more useful than magic

below: The symbol of Amsterdam, the three white X’s on a black stripe with a red background. It is based on the city’s coat of arms which features a red shield with a black band and three silver St. Andrew’s crosses. The same design is found on the Amsterdam flag. Mural was painted by Kash (aka Friso Kasher) and Chuck (or Chuckone)

mural with symbol of Amsterdam on it, red background, black stripe with three white St. Andrews crosses

below: This girl and her little pink heart are part of a large mural by Julieta XJF, “Wherever you come from, here you are welcome.”

part of a large mural by Julieta XJF, a girl with bangs (hair fringe) is holding a little pink heart

mural with a large white bird and a girl with little pink heart in her hand

below: Three of the buildings with the murals on them.

a street scene, three lowrise apartment buildings with murals painted on the street facing side, trees,

below: “Beter een goede buur, dan een verre vriend.” (English: “Better a good neighbor than a distant friend.”) is the title of this mural by Smug One. mural by Smug One, an older man's portrait, wearing light blue baseball cap and light blue hoodie

Smug One mural of an older man, large, on the end of an apartment building

below: Although it wasn’t part of the 2019 festival, this mural by DFace is across the street from the others. “I feel so incomplete” reads the text. It is actually a few years older than the other murals that I have shown here.

D Face mural in the style of Roy Lichtenstein, a blonde woman with bright red lipstick looking back over her shoulder, with text, I feel so incomplete

A stranger in town

Posted on October 21, 2023 by Mary C

“L’Etranger” by Os Gemeos is a very large and rather strange man with skinny legs and long skinny arms. His feet are bare.

mural by Os Gemeos on a wall in Heerlen, a very tall man with big round head, brown pants, and striped shirt

He’s holding a tiny house with a crooked chimney into which a woman barely fits. Her feet stick out the open door and one arm is out the window but she seems quite content. She’s hardly bigger than the knee patch on his brown pants.

part of a mural by os gemeos, a woman is squeezed into a little box like house, she's sitting with her feet sticking out of the door, crooked chimney on the house,

On the other hand there is a balancing act going on. She’s holding a megaphone while standing on stilts AND while carrying another creature on her back. Yes, this is definitely Strange!

This guy has a little white bird one one finger. His arm is outstretched as he either disappears back into the wall, or as he comes out of the wall. He’s wearing a bright green shirt buttoned up tight to his neck that doesn’t quite match the hexagon patterned pants. One little fancy curl graces the top of his head.

Be careful where you walk!

bottom of mural, man has very large feet, pale blue toe nails, bare feet, a black motorcycle is parked beside the mural

Photos taken October 2023

under a Heerlen bridge

Posted on October 20, 2023 by Mary C

There are two murals, bright eye catching red helping to hold up a bridge in Heerlen. They were both painted by Brazillian artist Finok, aka Raphael Sagarra, in 2014. The first mural is painted in mostly white, red, and green… three masks, a fish, and a chicken-like creature.

mural by finok, bright red background, 3 faces, one fish pointing upwards

On the same bridge, across the street, is another Finok mural. It too is on a red background. Is the fish about to eat the white headed guy? Or like a genie, has he just been conjured from the fish’s mouth? Whatever the backstory is, the white headed guy looks rather frightened.

mural on bright red background, on bridge overpass

photos taken October 2023

Eyes on the Streets

and feets on the ground. Graffiti, street art and murals seen while wandering the streets and alleys of our colourful world.

Category Archives: Netherlands

a walk around Delft

beside Straat’s door

Inti, Aurora and the Heerlen sign

more Heerlen birds

the workmen and the black birds

Treeftsteeg

four for community

Platanenweg ten + one

A stranger in town

under a Heerlen bridge