2017 is the third year of Waterford Walls festival. They say there are 40 artists working in the streets, some names are already familiar from the previous years. This year’s festival hosts artists from five continents – Australia, both Americas, Africa and Europe.

In the picture below: Sarah Jane Hanton, Visual media and event manager, and Gabe McGuinness, Assistant project manager.

I start with the New Street Gardens, a temporary community park built on the derelict site in 2014. Edel Tobin, founder of the Gardens, is also the founder of the Waterford Walls festival. There is plenty of wall space for artists and their projects. My opening image is the work of Caoilfhionn Hanton, 19 years old artist from Tramore, Waterford. Caoilfhionn is a veteran of Waterford Walls.

(Click on the images to enlarge them if you want to see more details)

These Love Hearts are the work of Kevin Bohan , Ireland.

Louise McKenna, Waterford based artist.

SHUK , Ireland.

ADOR, Fance, and SHUK.

I am leaving the Gardens and walk up the hill, in direction to the Barrack Street. There I find a few more works.

ADOR, France. The Cloud. I love this character 🙂

OMIN, from Dundalk, Ireland.

The side wall of Bobby’s Bar is particularly loved by artists. This time there is a stunning work of  SONNY , British born artist based in South Africa. Electric Fury!

I turn to the Major’s Walk.

ANIMALITO LAND, brilliant artist Graciela Gonçalves Da Silva from Argentina.

Looking down to Stephen Street I see another work. CRUINNIU WALLS – Louisa Donnelly & Ciara McKenna, Ireland.

I walk down the hill again, but cannot get a closer picture because of the parked cars. Next to CRUINNIU’s work, I see the Irish graffiti godfather RASK, from Drogheda, giving a lesson (workshop?) to a lone student.

There is another work of SHUK in Michael Street.

It had been raining almost every day during the festival. Some artists from ‘dry’ countries had a hard time in Waterford helplessly watching paint drip down their works. The artists from the Emerald Island were not bothered.

VERZ, artist based in Belfast, working away in the rain.

I am heading to the Patrick Street where, according to the Festival map, I will find SMUG and FIVE8 working on their projects. No such luck, but I see another artist who has just started working. It is Jonny McKerr, or JMK, from Belfast.

The artist works in a steady pace, regardless of the weather.

This is the final image. Beautiful.

James Earley’s work still stays unfinished.

Thank you for taking the tour around Waterford Walls. You might love to visit Graffiti Lux and Murals blog by Resa McConaghy from Toronto, Canada and enjoy the ephemeral art of murals.

More works in my next blog post.

 Have a wonderful weekend!