Here we are playing catch-up with an absolutely fantastic work from Airborne Mark placed up a couple of months ago helping out on a community led initiative around the back of Selhurst Station to brighten up the area. The work in question was by Polish born, but London based, Street Artist Airborne Mark who took the space provided and the chance afforded to craft one his case studies in light and shadow through his favoured paper platforms.

On this occasion Airborne Mark set to depict an original origami Blue Whale design that Airborne Mark folded himself spending a similar amount of time on this as it took to actually paint the design on a such large scale. For this wall Airborne Mark set the whale as it ‘breaches’ the waterline just above the pavement – something it is believed Whales do in the wild to communicate with other members of their species – and a moment captured so perfectly by Airborne Mark in this design, you really can sense the movement in the work as this massive entity is set to come down on the surface of the water, leaving an almighty splash and travelling ‘slap’ sound. Additionally Airborne Mark stepped away from his more prevalent colour scheme of solely orange and blue and on this occasion opted to add green to his colour palette in order to give his subject a more natural look appropriate for its environment.

We of course have to say a massive thank you to Cassa – Roz and Becky for helping so much with the logistics, we would be so much further behind if not for all your help! Big thank you to Kevin for helping us out again with this spot! Big thanks to NinjaBoyRuns for the help when needed also! Big thank you to the team at Network Rail for supporting such initiatives and all their help on this project and who along with CASSA trusted the artists to do what they do best by giving them free reign to do their thing. As well as a really big THANK YOU to Airborne Mark for coming to down to support this initiative and for leaving such a vibrant and beautiful artwork in the process. This superb work can be found Newhaven Road, Selhurst, just behind the back of Selhurst Station.

Airborne Mark at work in the initial outlines.

Airborne Mark at work.

Airborne Mark at work.

Airborne Mark at work.

Airborne Mark at work.

Airborne Mark at work.

Airborne Mark at work.

Airborne Mark at work.

Airborne Mark at work.

Airborne Mark signing his work.

Airborne Mark at work.

Airborne Mark holding the reference design in front of his finished work.

The exceptional original Origami whale by Airborne Mark.

The striking finished work.

The texture of the splattered paint to create the foaming water and drip effect is a superb touch that ties the fantastic origami model and scene together masterfully.

You can view this video by Airborne Mark on the making of his ‘Origami Blue Whale’. You can also watch the second video featuring the painting of the work if you click on the top right of the video.