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Street Art Weekly #002: A lifeboat crew sailed in to say thank you for a mural
Street Art Weekly #002 · 28 September to 11 October 2026
Eight walls I can't stop thinking about, from the Isle of Sheppey to Denman Island, starting with the best thank-you note a mural has ever had.
1. Julie Bradshaw-Drury and Anna Piles, Minster-on-Sea, Isle of Sheppey
The finished mural in Minster. Credit: John Nurden/Sheppey Scene
Mother and daughter Julie Bradshaw-Drury and Anna Piles were commissioned by Minster on Sea Parish Council to paint a seaside mural of familiar Sheppey sights on The Leas. Among them is Sheerness RNLI's Shannon-class lifeboat, Judith Copping Joyce, with her number 13-38 painted on. On Sunday 27 September the crew brought the real boat as close to shore as they safely could and thanked the artists from the water. I can't think of a better review a mural could get.
Paint the things a town loves and the town turns up for it. New Brighton has its own RNLI station, and I'd love to see our crew get the same treatment one day.
Source: RNLI
2. Tang Zixi, China
Tang Zixi turns pavement cracks, weeds and forgotten corners into tiny worlds, full of animals and little figures that look as if they've moved into the damage. It isn't new work. She has been painting the flaws in streets and walls since her university days, and now works from her own studio in Shanghai. But a video of her pieces, shared on X by the Science girl account, passed 5,000 likes and 200,000 views, and the replies weren't about technique. They were about delight. No scaffold, no blank wall, just a sharp eye for what's already there. Science girl reposts other people's work, so follow Tang Zixi herself: she posts on Douyin as tangzixi4.
Not every piece needs a gable end. A small, joyful surprise on a found surface can travel further than a three-storey wall.
Post: Science girl on X
3. El Mac, Paris
El Mac has painted Instant de Grâce, a portrait modelled by his friend Sophia, on a building beside Église Notre-Dame de la Gare on Place Jeanne d'Arc, in Paris's 13th arrondissement. He calls it a homage to Alphonse Mucha, with Moebius in the line and colour, and hopes it offers brief moments of grace in troubled times. Galerie Itinerrance helped make it happen, and the gallery has worked on outdoor art in the 13th since 2004.
One partner, one district, more than twenty years. That's how a neighbourhood becomes a destination, and it's the long game we're playing with the OpenAIR Gallery.
Source: StreetArtNews
4. Chris Devins, Hyde Park, Chicago
Chris Devins has finished a three-storey mural in Hyde Park honouring the late sculptor Richard Hunt, the first African American artist to have a solo retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The wall on East 54th Street was chosen for Hunt's ties to the area, near several of his sculptures and less than a mile from the Obama Presidential Center. Hunt died in December 2023, before it was finished.
A tribute lands harder when it's painted where the person actually mattered.
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
5. Francisco Fonseca, Figueiró dos Vinhos, Portugal
Francisco Fonseca posted his finished mural, Entre portas e janelas (between doors and windows), on his own account and drew more than 700 likes, a proper response for an independent muralist. It's a figurative piece that works with the building rather than ignoring it. This is the kind of post I love: the maker talking about his own wall, and the people who follow his work turning up to cheer.
The doors and windows are part of the canvas. The best walls work with the building, not over it.
Post: Francisco Fonseca on X
6. Vincent Chignier, Dosy Doss and Dose, Olomouc, Czech Republic
At the Urban Art Jam in Olomouc, Vincent Chignier, Dosy Doss and Dose painted a collaborative mural right beside a playground, documented on X by Eva D. Her post was reposted 127 times on 323 likes, a share rate most accounts would envy. Jams aren't just a day out for painters. They leave something behind for families.
Put a wall where kids and parents already gather and it's theirs from day one.
Post: Eva D on X
7. "Art is Human", Denman Island, British Columbia
A blunt little mural reading "Art is Human" has gone up on Denman Island, shared by the specialist account Radical Graffiti. The post doesn't name the painter, so if you know who it is, tell us and we'll credit them. After last issue's AI remix row, it felt like the street answering back. Clear message, clean execution, and the replies were properly engaged.
The human hand is the whole point. It's why we never use AI to make artwork, and why we'll keep naming the people who hold the cans.
Post: Radical Graffiti on X
8. Art This Way Fest, Fort Wayne, Indiana
Art This Way, founded and directed by Alex Hall, marked ten years of murals in once-ignored alleys and along Fort Wayne's Urban Trail with a free two-day festival on 2 and 3 October. A juried art fair of about 60 booths sat alongside live music, a hip hop dance competition, busking and a fashion show, all timed with First Friday on Broadway. The coverage didn't name the painters, which is a shame. If you know who painted this year, tell us.
Make the birthday free and bolt it onto a night people already come out for. Cheap, simple, and it fills the street.
Sources: The Journal Gazette and WBOI
Closer to home
Read the last fortnight's news together and there's a clear split. In Nottingham, the city council launched a dedicated graffiti removal team on 30 September, with people convicted of minor offences helping to clean up through the Police and Crime Commissioner's Immediate Justice programme, and not a word about legal walls or commissions. Meanwhile in Johor Baru, at the second Graff For Nation event at Kota Jail, P. Pannir Selvam, who chairs the state's unity, heritage and culture committee, said the city council and Tourism Johor treat murals and graffiti as tourism attractions.
I know which side I'm on. Here in New Brighton we look after more than 45 murals in the OpenAIR Gallery, and every one of them makes the case that curated walls are the answer to grey paint and tagging, not part of the problem. Come and explore the OpenAIR Gallery, and if you've got a wall, an idea or a local hero who deserves painting (lifeboat crews very much included), get in touch. Which of these artists would you love to see paint in New Brighton, and on which wall? Tell us in the comments or tag us on social. I read every one.
Missed the first one? Read Street Art Weekly #001.
This week at NBCF
Big week for us. We've launched five free apps, made in New Brighton, for New Brighton. No ads, no sign-up, and nobody pays to be listed. They're part of our placemaking work: making a town easier to love.
Trains shows every train in and out of New Brighton, live, and is run by Friends of New Brighton Station. Enjoy shows what's open in town right now, from pubs and cafes to takeaways. Play puts everything to do by the sea on one page, the OpenAIR Gallery included. Stay lists the hotels, guest houses, B&Bs and holiday lets, and Shop has every shop in town, independents first.
Have a look at all five on our free apps page and save your favourite to your phone.
On the walls, we gave the Captain Mike Lowe mural a clear anti-graffiti and UV coat at the end of September, to protect it through the winter.
And on Sunday 11 October I visited Liam Bononi's open studio at Elevator Studios in Liverpool's Baltic Triangle. Liam is the artist we're working with on our next big mural, and it was a joy to see him at work.
That’s all for this week.
