Yesterday we here at London Calling Blog were fortunate enough to find Street Artist Dan Kitchener at work on his latest piece in Shoreditch. Setting to rework a spot that previously hosted one of his ‘Liquid Lights’ pieces for the last year, Dank set to create this beautiful work entitled ‘Butterfly’ based on one his geisha paintings from his recent solo exhibition ‘Queen of Neon’ (covered here). This work presents a new dynamic to Dank’s work for a couple of reason, firstly for the mixed media approach taken, working with paint pens in addition to spray paint. Secondly the style showcases a much more energetic and fluid painterly tone than we have previously seen from this artist in his geisha portraits. Over some six hours or so we were lucky enough to be able to witness the meticulous manner in which Dank built up the piece applying the spray paint in a series of direct solid bursts as well as adding the many colours in a more loose, energetic and almost frantic fashion. Never an artist content to coast on his success, we love seeing the range of techniques and approaches to Dan Kitchener’s works and we eagerly anticipate future developments in this artists repertoire. This lovely piece can be found in Curtain Road, Shoreditch.

Dank laying out his primary sketch.

Barely underway and already people are stopping to get a selfie with the artist at work.

Dank at work adding touches by paint pen.

Job done, Dank signs his work.

The striking finished piece.

We especially love how much flow and energy within the subjects Kimono.