Exciting Art in the Streets of
Colombia and France

When was the last time you were stopped in your tracks by exciting art in the streets where you live?

How often has that happened? What did that art show you?

Where I used to live in the Seattle area, the occasional street art was usually a mural, depicting scenes from the history of that town or neighborhood or...

...the business that commissioned the mural.

Sal, one of the subscribers to this blog, years ago showed me some of the wonderful murals he’d completed in his hometown of San Diego.

But this type of art is not that common in the U.S... at least in my experience.

Not so in other parts of the world.

Exciting Art in the Streets of Colombia

In other parts of the world, building walls can be a great canvas for creative street artists.

And in other parts of the world exciting art in the streets comes with a unique diversity of styles and subject matter.

Take, for instance, these next pictures from a so-called “Graffiti Tour” you can take in Bogota, Colombia.

Explained to you in English no less.

When my wife and I visited there in 2018, Anna guided our group through the Candalaria neighborhood in Bogota.

An area of the city known for its street art

Locally, these works of art are known as graffiti. But what I saw in Bogota was far above what I had come to think of as graffiti in the U.S.

It is so refreshing and inspiring to have your horizons expanded by seeing the creativity on display in other parts of the world.

And to be reminded that Fun is one of the vital ingredients in art. Both for the artist creating the art...

...and the viewer of his or her work.

More Exciting Art in the Streets

And when my wife and I moved to our new home in Montpellier, France, it offered its own diverse spectrum of exciting art in its streets.

Everywhere empty space on a building wall cries out for either commissioned or non-commissioned art.

n a diverse array of styles, sizes and subjects.

One big difference is that here many of the smaller pieces are printed on paper by students and attached to buildings’ walls.

Then periodically the city sends around a guy with a power washer to remove them and again create a blank canvas.

For the next aspiring artists.

But, in one way Montpellier is very similar to Bogota.

Guided tours and school groups can suddenly appear on our street, cell phones in hand, snapping pictures of everything, large and small.

Sometimes Spectacular

Another thing I’ve found is there is a wide enough range of creative street art here to satisfy almost any taste.

If you are deeply into realism, there is a masterful work of art I walk past every time I go the grocery store.

And it is HUGE...

It is done so well it is hard to tell exactly where the painting ends, and the actual buildings begin.

If you get closer, it is still just as amazing.

Believe it or not, it took me almost 6 months to realize the left side of this painting is a flipped version of the building across the street!

But we humans like variety because...

Maybe you aren’t into highly realistic work.

You might love art that’s a little funkier. If so, you might be more excited by this part of a much longer wall mural at one of our Tram stops.

A brightly colored combination of nicely done figurative drawing...

...mixed with whiz-bang graphic shapes that feel like they’ve been pulled from a comic book.

And even if this isn’t something you’d do in your own art, there is still a lot to enjoy and learn from exciting art in the streets of my hometown.

BUT MAYBE...

Maybe you’re the type of person who likes to dive into the more abstract end of the art pool.

Well, there is creative street art in Montpellier that has you covered as well.

And this one is just a short walk from where I live.

How can you not smile when you see something like this?

I mean, is this fun or what? Please accept the label Fuddy-Duddy if you did not smile when you first saw this.

And more importantly in all these works I’ve shown you...

...maybe there is something you want to try in your own work.

Or even on your own house!!

Best Wishes,
Gary Gumble
Founder of BeginningArtist.com
Without art the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable. (George Bernard Shaw)

P.S. Have you seen some exciting art in the streets of your hometown or on a trip?

Something that really caught your eye.

And stopped you in your tracks.

Pull out your cell phone and snap some pictures of it.

And send the pictures to me at info@beginningartist.com.

I would love to share your inspiration and enjoyment with other aspiring artists in this blog.