This weekend Glasgow welcomes Yard Works 2018. And I’m certainly looking forward to seeing how they follow last year’s event. To remind everyone of what to expect, here’s a taste of what I saw on a sunny weekend last May.
I loved seeing the array of street art, urban and graffiti artists at Yard Works 2017 at SWG3. Believe it or not, I’ve never given urban art much thought before and almost didn’t make it to this event. But a stroll around the site and was enough to convince me to try it myself one day.
The Yard Works 2017 event took place in Finneston which is fast becoming Glasgow’s answer to Shoreditch. Glasgow itself has quite a range of street art, so it’s fitting that we get such an event.
YARD WORKS 2017
The best thing about this festival is watching the works take shape. It took place over a boiling May weekend – yes, we do have hot weather in Scotland! So kudos to the guys and girls who worked over two days in the searing heat and with precious little shade. And to create such amazing work while the world watched.
The skills involved in street art may seem easy enough, but I wouldn’t bet on being able to turn out some of the detailed and delicate work I saw. Check out the amazing man and dog work above plus all the various shading, lines and shadows in the portraits. One particular well-known street artist couldn’t make it to the show from his home abroad. Never mind, thought his friends, who just created a big piece of art with his coupon on it (see photos at the bottom of the page).
A big shout out to pal of ours Marcus of the Notorious Gasoline Company. We enjoyed seeing his take shape bit by bit and here is the finished result. Very much Marcus style-wise (and wouldn’t this make a great piece of stained glass?). He even managed to pop a Saltire into his work (though he said it was unintentional!).
MY FAVOURITE PIECE AT YARD WORKS 2017
You’d think with all my years living in London I’d have developed a taste for it. But it was actually a Business English language student from Italy who turned me who I met while working near Bath. He was bonkers about art, urban in particular, which brightened up my working week no end. One day mid-course he visited Bristol to buy a painting from a local artist. Meanwhile his co-workers were surprised – fancy filling your workplace with this instead of huge prints of Italian Renaissance works! I’m with supporting living artists and I bet he has the most interesting office in the building.
Meanwhile, my favourite piece has to be this Japanese style piece below with all the soft and vibrant pastels colliding and merging. Beautiful work – I really should’ve gotten a photo of me in my purple frock in front of this one! 😉
Overall verdict: More of these please. Let’s bring more art out of galleries and museums!
AND WOULD I LIKE TO TRY SOME STREET ART?
Absolutely! Although I’m aware that a lot of practice is needed, I left the event thinking about which of my works could make it onto a huge wall. Maybe some of the abstract work would survive the leap, but how about a big, bright Bass Rock? I think it’ll take some time to reach this stage.
Nonetheless, art which inspires you to try your hand, whether it’s in the same vein or something completely different, is a success. So with that thought in mind, Yard Works 2017 did exactly what it said on the tin.
Roll on next year!
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