Wall to Wall Art Festival Benalla: The old

I had heard of the Wall to Wall Street Art Festival but not investigated actually attending.

 So decided to go up for the day and an overnight stay. It's 2 hours from Melbourne up the Hume Hwy. and a straight run via the Ring Road. 

The weather had cooled off in Melbourne but Benalla was 35 degrees so hot walking around! 

My hotel was just next to the main Hub for the festival and sported a pool, so after getting very hot I headed back for  break and had a swim! Then headed out again.

You can see how concentrated the works are.
My handy Hotel was at the edge of the thick cluster

In 2015 a small artist group, Juddy Roller in Benalla had a vision and belief that they could bring Street Artists from around the world to paint murals on bare walls, some over 3 stories high, over a weekend in March 2015. 

Victoria's first Regional Urban Contemporary Street Art Festival called Wall to Wall was born. 

The event was funded through canvassing local residents and local business who donated over $20,000. The generosity and vision of the locals paid off.

The results are truly amazing and speak for themselves. 
14 high quality colourful murals created by world reknowned street artists adorned  once featureless walls in 2015: the town now boasts of an impressive amount of murals which has grown to over 50 in total.
In November 2015 this piece by Adnate, was voted 8th best in the world earning international acclaim and put the Festival on the map.

One piece that is permanent is this one by Adnate 

Based in Melbourne, Adnate has evolved from his roots in graffiti art to become one of the world’s foremost large-scale portrait artists. Heavily influenced by renaissance painters like Caravaggio, he utilises spray paint to carry his realist style into what many would regard as the fine art realm. 
Majority of the murals can be viewed in approximately 1 hour, making it one of the most densely populated outdoor street art “galleries” in Australia
Some of the works are painted over to allow for new work to go up this year 

Artist is  Maid
"a touch of Pop Art and Japanese Kawaii elements and a subtle undertone of girl power."

A piece by Dvate Unfortunate slightly blocked by dumpster!!

Dvate (pronounced Deviate) More on him with the Silo post

Jimmy 'Dvate' grew up in Melbourne, a stone’s throw from a railway station, he was instantly drawn to the colourful work along the suburban railway lines. In 1996, he began experimenting with leaving his own mark on society. His work is truly amazingly colourful and stunning!

http://www.walltowallfestival.com/dvate-2/

 This is by RONE whose work we will see on our Silo Art total next months

Rone is the Street name of Tyrone Wright (born 1980), based in Melbourne, and most of his work is this tonal faces.

Jason Parker is an artist originally from New Zealand 
 

This is 2 parts of a wall at the Country Women's building in Main street 

The work by Sirhc (Chris backwards)

Chris Henderson originally from a "bush town in North East Victoria", SIRHC is now based in Melbourne. A deep fascination for Australia’s wildlife has contributed greatly to his creative process and has served as an inspiration to his artwork. Some of his previous works were stunning. 

More on the NEW in 2018 in next post