Jimmy C at Whitby Street, Shoreditch.

You may not realise it, but art is everywhere around you. From that god awful picture that is on one of the walls of your office of a set of three smudgy squares of colour, to pattern in the lift carpet, these have all been created from a pattern or design that someone, somewhere, along the line lovingly created. It’s the same for every statue you walk past, every fountain and every piece of graffiti or street art. I do get that you’re probably rushing to work as you snoozed your alarm one to many times or you’re concentrating on the screaming child you’re holding the hand of, to always take a look around at the sights and influences that saturate our lives.

What this does mean, is you don’t need to be a culture vulture and visit museums and galleries to get your fix of daily art. You can simply have a look on your daily travels to spot things. Granted, some graffiti and street art is terrible, tags that look like someone dipped a spider in paint and let it walk across a wall, or like they have taken a tin of paint and tripped up with it, but some are truly awe inspiring.

Jimmy C aka James Cochran, is an amazing street artist, that you can see works on walls in cities around the world. He played a key role in the development of the underground graffiti movement in Australia in the early 1990s. Jimmy contributed to community art projects and mural commissions, moving on to complete a masters degree in visual art in the university of South Australia. His interest in urban realism and figurative oil painting merged and developed in to the pointalistic works that we see today adorning walls in techniques that Jimmy calls “drip paintings” and “Scribble paintings”. Jimmy is now London based, but his work can be seen throughout many major cities.

Pointalism, is a technique where small, distinct dots of colour are built up in a pattern to create an image. The style was developed by Seurat and Signac in around 1886. The term for this style was originally created by art critics to ridicule the work, but while the mocking of the technique subsided the term remained. There are many artists who have used this technique to create beautiful pieces such as Van Gogh and Pissarro.

Turning the corner at Whitby Street, I can quite honestly say that my breath was taken away with the piece of art in the above photo. There are actually two pieces of Jimmy’s work here, but I was instantly struck by the unassuming beauty of this face. It has almost an Escheresque type feel with the spheres moving towards the audience, giving a perspective and depth to the work.

The face, with eyes cast upwards, seems to be filled with a naive wonderment and you can really see the “drip” technique demonstrated within this piece.

Next to this, you can also see an example of the “Scribble” technique, and while an amazing portrait, did not take my breath away as much as the first.

In both the pieces, I love how the colours and technique add to the depth of field and feel of the work. The capture of the facial expressions are remarkable and being up close to these pieces is in some ways much better than viewing traditional art from behind a rope and a layer of glass.

If you’re a London dweller, or planning a visit any time soon, I strongly recommend taking a wonder around Shoreditch,Whitechapel and the surrounding areas to check out the many talented and astonishing artists that fill the walls here.

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