Good morning, Street Art Lovers!
Here are all the works from the mural I've found by the school at Alter do Chão, a small town in the South region of Portugal.
This is such a small place that I wasn't counting on finding any Street Art at all... but to my surprise, while I was taking a few photos around town, I glanced upon a large and colourful mural. So I had to go closer and check it out. 😎
The first part of the mural was the widest one... and it's a very interesting concept.
It shows a little kid in a soldier's uniform but instead of a sword he's carrying a can of spray.
He releases his works in the shape of a few birds who then fly towards a very brightful and colourful area.
In this place we can see a couple of larger birds living their life in a peaceful harmony with the environment surrounding them.
Let's revisit the first part of the mural now, in better detail. It all starts with this kid who's releasing the birds he created with his weapon of choice, the spray can.
A few flamingos and storks are seen flying alongside the wall...
A couple more storks are hanging out at the destination. There's a sea of colours in the background... and a little forest can be seen at the bottom of the picture.
The right side of this scene, however, was my favourite. Here you have a few gnomes and a lot of mushrooms. If you look close enough, you can even glance a witch holding her broom between the last couple of mushrooms. Her hat makes it look she's trying to hide among the gnomes... but the guy on the left wasn't fooled and he's warning the others. 🧐
That image then morphs with a different scene, where the main attraction is a Green Elf surrounded by mushrooms. Those mushrooms were used by the artists to glue both pieces together... and the result is fascinating.
Here you can see how that plays out... as you can see the mushrooms that are in the previous panel are carried on to the next scene in a very smooth way.
Here's a closer look.
Here's a shot of the scene where you can understand just how creative and ingenious this artist is. As you can see, he used the vegetation above to make it look like it's part of the Green Elf's hair. It merges with the drawing in a perfect way, specially when seen from this angle:
A few more gnomes can be seen wandering next to the mushrooms.
Walking over the corner you will find another wall, with a completely different piece and also a very good one. Here is the overview of the scene:
On the left side of the image, there's a kid dressed as a Roman gladiator. Instead of a sword and a shield he carries a pencil and a skateboard, two items way more useful to children nowadays.
Next to him, there's a few people having fun at a skateboard park. A skater is flying high up in the air... while a little girl and her older brother are mesmerized as they watch the radical skater defying gravity. 🤗
At the centre of the frame there's another skater in a Roman gladiator costume. He's having fun doing a little stunt on his board.
To the right side of the frame we see a few more skaters.
On the background, there's a girl waiting for the half pipe to become available and a boy showing his moves at the top of the half pipe.
On the foreground we see a boy jumping on his skate next to a few books. The first book has the same title as the town itself: Alter do Chão. The other books are Portuguese Language, Mathematics, History and Arts, just a few of the classes that every child attends at this school.
After this wall there was another painting with a simple message.
In English this means: Over here, I am happy.
Here's a shot of both walls together.
I felt really lucky to have encountered these works after they have just been painted. Sometimes I find really cool drawings but also so old that some of the paint was already washed away by the passage of time and weather.
Not this time, though. This work is very new... as well as this part of the school. In fact, both works are so fresh that a new street was already named but isn't yet registered at the national post offices... nor it appears on any GPS or online map. Yet. 🤭
The author of these murals is one of the most talented and famous Street Artists in Portugal. He goes by the artistic name Youthone, he has been painting for almost 30 years now... and you can see more of his works on his own blog:
I hope you enjoyed this article and photos. Please let me know in the comments which was your favourite piece.
