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Helping Hands (8 Photos)
Content warning: Look down. Look up. Sometimes the city literally reaches out to grab you. We’re talking giant hands breaking through the concrete, wrapping around trees, or holding pure fire. Artists around the globe are obsessed with this shape. Why? Because hands don’t
Look down. Look up. Sometimes the city literally reaches out to grab you. We’re talking giant hands breaking through the concrete, wrapping around trees, or holding pure fire. Artists around the globe are obsessed with this shape. Why? Because hands don’t need words. They protect. They lift. They connect.
These aren’t just quiet sculptures or flat paintings. These are massive urban takeovers that make you stop, stare, and feel something real. From tiny hidden stick figures to colossal wooden carvings, these artworks turn cold streets into living, breathing spaces.
Here are 8 times street art gave us exactly the helping hand we didn’t know we needed.
More: Made You Smile (11 Photos)
Nature Fights Back — Eva Oertli & Beat Huber in Glarus, Switzerland
Nature fights back. A colossal concrete hand punches right through the grass just to keep this living tree safe. Eva Oertli and Beat Huber didn’t just build a sculpture; they built a guardian. You can practically feel the heavy stone fingers gripping the bark. It’s raw, it’s grounding, and it’s a powerful reminder that we need the forest as much as it needs us.
About and more photos: The Caring Hand – Sculpture in Glarus, Switzerland
Holding Up The Leaves — Adrien Martinetti in Ajaccio, France
Plot twist: the tree is real, the hands are paint. Adrien Martinetti pulled off an absolute masterpiece of blending here. He slapped two massive hands onto a flat wall perfectly aligned to hold the living green leaves in front of it. It’s playful, it’s clever, and it totally blurs the line between a boring wall and Mother Nature taking center stage.
🔗 Follow Adrien Martinetti on Instagram
The White Marble Gift — Lorenzo Quinn in Venice, Italy
This one is pure magic. Lorenzo Quinn dropped two smooth, blindingly white hands right into the green grass of Venice. What are they holding? A tiny, fragile sapling. It’s completely still, but it screams a massive message: the future of nature is literally in our hands. It’s delicate, it’s loud, and it absolutely demands your attention.
🔗 Follow Lorenzo Quinn on Instagram
If you love Lorenzo Quinn’s work, check out his other famous piece: Support – Two massive hands rising from a canal in Venice.
Holding The Fire — Dmitry Dendenko in Istanbul, Turkey
Watch out. You might actually burn yourself looking at this. Dmitry Dendenko painted two glowing blue hands floating in the dark, clutching a blazing red sphere of pure energy. The lighting is so insanely good that the wall actually looks like it’s glowing. It’s like someone grabbed a piece of the sun and held it tight. Pure urban electric vibes.
🔗 Follow Dmitry Dendenko on Instagram
Stepping Through The Wall — Michael Rosato in Cambridge, Maryland
This isn’t a wall anymore; it’s a time machine. Harriet Tubman literally breaks through the painted bricks, reaching her hand out directly to you. Michael Rosato crushed the depth on this mural. People walking by actually stop and reach back. It pulls history right out of the shadows and dumps it onto the sidewalk. Absolutely legendary.
🔗 Follow Michael Rosato on Instagram
The Last Reach — Simon O’Rourke in Wales, UK
When the tallest tree in the UK got ripped down by a storm, Simon O’Rourke said: ‘Hold my chainsaw.’ He carved the shattered trunk into a towering hand pointing straight to the clouds. The scars and rings of the old wood are all still there. The tree might have fallen, but this absolute beast of a sculpture proves it’s still reaching for the sky.
More about it!: From Tallest Tree to Towering Sculpture: The Giant Hand of the UK
🔗 Follow Simon O’Rourke on Instagram
The Corner Climb — Exitenter in Florence, Italy
Sometimes you don’t need wild colors to stop traffic. A few black lines will do the trick. Exitenter sketched two stick figures right on the harsh edge of a building corner. One leans way down, the other stretches up to grab hold. It’s fast, it’s tiny, but it hits hard. The ultimate snapshot of pulling your friend up a steep climb.
🔗 Follow Exitenter on Instagram
Mending The Nets — Muraleslian in Ondarroa, Spain
Respect the hustle. This massive grayscale mural honors the women of Ondarroa who kept the coastal town alive by mending fishing nets. Two rough, tired hands pull the ropes, but the threads woven through the fingers pop in bright colors. You can see every single wrinkle. It’s a massive, beautiful tribute to hard work and community backbone.
More photos and about it!: Tribute to the womens of Ondarroa (Spain) – Mural by Muraleslian
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Want more amazing art interacting with the real world? Check out: Playing With Statues (11 Photos)
More: 9 Sculptures That Blur Reality and Nature
Which one is your favorite?
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Made You Smile (15 Photos)
Sometimes the world feels like it’s moving too fast, but these artists are here to remind us to stop and look at the little things.
From a simple rock that tells a joke to a pedestrian crossing that has come to life, these small artworks prove that creativity is often most powerful when it’s unexpected.We’ve gathered 15 photos that will brighten your day and remind you that there is magic waiting in the cracks of the sidewalk—if you only take a moment to look.
More: Funny Signs (20 Photos)
Balcony Illusion by Oakoak in Paris, France
By adding a mural of two figures peeking out from a boarded-up window, Oakoak breathes life back into an abandoned building. The way the characters seem to be watching the world go by creates a playful loop of “people-watching” that adds charm to a neglected space. More!: Wrong but Right – Art By Oakoak (9 Photos)💡 Nerd Fact: Oakoak has been building tiny site-specific jokes out of cracks, shadows, and road markings since 2006, so works like this feel almost like street-level readymades: the city supplies the object, and the artist supplies the twist.
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Nadine and the Surprisingly Effective Joke by David Zinn
David Zinn is a master of the “temporary smile.” Using nothing but chalk and the natural shape of a rock on the sidewalk, he created a scene where a little green monster is cracking up at a joke told by his character Nadine. It’s a perfect example of how a bit of imagination can turn a gray corner into a scene of pure joy. More!: 9 Cute Spring Drawings by David Zinn💡 Nerd Fact: Zinn’s own site describes his temporary pavement works as improvisations made from chalk, charcoal, and found objects. That makes him a great example of pareidolia in action: the brain’s habit of seeing meaningful images in random shapes, pebbles, and cracks.
🔗 Follow David Zinn on Instagram
Have You Seen This Dog?
This isn’t your typical lost pet flyer. Instead of a missing dog, the poster simply asks, “Have you seen this dog?” and then answers with a picture of a happy pup: “Now you have. Have a GOOD day.” It’s a wonderful bit of low-tech street art designed specifically to lift a stranger’s mood.
Little People Museum — Slinkachu in UK
A miniature installation where tiny figurines examine a cigarette butt displayed as if it were a museum artifact. More!: 7 Tiny Street Dramas by Slinkachu💡 Nerd Fact: Slinkachu’s mini scenes are not just cute visual gags. He says they are meant to mix surprise with the loneliness and melancholy of big-city life, which is why his tiny characters often feel funny and slightly heartbreaking at the same time.
🔗 Follow Slinkachu on Instagram
Keeping the Feet Warm
Someone decided that these pipes looked a little too cold standing on the sidewalk. By painting colorful socks and sneakers onto the concrete below them, the artist turned a dull plumbing fixture into a pair of legs ready for a walk. It’s the kind of whimsical detail that makes city life feel more personal.
R2-D2’s Day Off by EFIX
Even droids need a moment of romance. EFIX added a cardboard character to a public trash can, making it look like R2-D2 is sheepishly offering flowers to a bin. It’s a brilliant way to humanize our city streets with a bit of pop-culture humor. More!: EFIX’s Clever Art (9 Photos)💡 Nerd Fact: EFIX says he uses childhood pop-culture characters to keep our “child soul” alive and make people see street furniture differently; the Star Wars trivia layer is that R2-D2’s name itself came from a sound-editing label, “Reel 2, Dialog 2.”
🔗 Follow EFIX on Instagram
Museum Quality Dandelion by Michael Pederson in Sydney, Australia
Michael Pederson treats the most ignored parts of the city with the highest respect. By placing tiny museum stanchions and a “Please Do Not Touch” sign around a common dandelion growing through the pavement, he forces us to appreciate the resilience of nature in the concrete jungle. More!: Clever Art By Michael Pederson (17 Photos)💡 Nerd Fact: Pederson has been making tiny public interventions since 2013, and his signature move is to leave small, playful installations in unexpected places. So the “museum” around the weed is really part of a bigger practice: making overlooked corners behave like cultural landmarks.
🔗 Follow Michael Pederson on Instagram
Charlie Chaplin by Tom Bob in Massachusetts, USA
Tom Bob is the king of the “before and after.” Here, he transformed a standard red standpipe and a bit of patched concrete into the legendary Charlie Chaplin. By adding the iconic bowler hat, mustache, and cane, he turned a boring piece of infrastructure into a cinematic tribute that makes everyone stop and grin. More!: 33 Artworks by Creative Genius Tom Bob (That Will Make You Smile)💡 Nerd Fact: Tom Bob once said some street objects seem to “tell” him what they want to become. Chaplin is an especially nerdy match here, because the Tramp costume was famously built out of contradictions: baggy pants, tight coat, small hat, and huge shoes.
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The Ghost Crossing by Oakoak in Auchel, France
Street artist Oakoak is famous for his “blink-and-you’ll-miss-it” wit. By adding eyes and a clever shadow to one stripe of a crosswalk, he transformed a standard piece of traffic safety into a floating ghost. It’s simple, smart, and impossible not to smile at. More by Oakoak: Lovely by Oakoak (10 Photos)💡 Nerd Fact: Oakoak’s real trick is how little he actually adds. His whole practice is built around letting existing road markings, cracks, and shadows do most of the storytelling, which is why pieces like this feel more like discoveries than decorations.
🔗 Follow Oakoak on Instagram
“The Fabulous Tale of Being Different” by Case Maclaim in Madrid, Spain
Case Maclaim’s mural in Madrid depicts a young person in a wheelchair draped in vibrant fabrics, blending strength and softness in a single portrait. More photos!: The Fabulous Tale Of Being Different (by Case Maclaim in Madrid)Case Maclaim: I believe the actual beauty of fairy tales is that it is up to our imagination how the character looks and moves and that version is not really up to debate, as it is just like a fingerprint, very unique and personal. With this mural in the old, historical city center of Madrid I wanted to try a different approach. So I gave the viewer a new character of a yet unknown fairy tale. I have high hopes that it will encourage specially the young audience to come up with their very own story, in which the lead is a confident, black child in a golden wheelchair and in a self-made mermaid costume.
🔗 Follow Case Maclaim on Instagram
A Helping Paw by Trevor Cole in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada
Sometimes the best art is the kind that triggers a real-world reaction. This photo captures a real-life dog reaching out to “comfort” a stencil of a sad boy on a wall. It’s a beautiful, spontaneous moment that proves empathy isn’t just for humans.Stencil by Trevor Cole in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. Photo by Erika Lopez of her dog Carlos.
Lego Man by Näutil in Saint-Pierre-Église, France
Turning a cold, concrete bunker from WWII into a giant, smiling LEGO man is a brilliant way to reclaim a historical space. This mural by näutil creates a sharp, playful contrast between the heavy history of the structure and the simple joy of a childhood toy. It’s a perfect example of how art can change the energy of a location completely. More photos here!More: Life and Poetry By Näutil (15 Photos!)
💡 Nerd Fact: For näutil, painting bunkers is biographical, not random: he grew up in a seafaring family and started doing graffiti on coastal blockhaus walls. The LEGO skin also echoes Jan Vormann’s Dispatchwork project, which has been “repairing” damaged walls with toy bricks since 2007.
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Viviane Hesitate by Seth Globepainter in Paris, France
In the La Butte-aux-cailles neighborhood, Seth Globepainter captures a perfect moment of childhood curiosity. This interaction—where a real girl stops to watch a mural of a character jumping into a wall—bridges the gap between our world and the world of imagination.More by Seth!: 34 Murals That Turn Walls Into Wonders: Seth’s Street Art Will Blow Your Mind
💡 Nerd Fact: Seth’s children often hide or turn away their faces on purpose. He says that lets viewers project themselves into the work, and since 2003 he has used childhood as a way to make murals question, dream, and look beyond rather than preach.
🔗 Follow Seth Globepainter on Instagram
Pop Art Pink Panther by Matt Gondek in Toronto, Canada
Matt Gondek is known for his signature “deconstructed” style, where iconic pop culture figures appear to be melting. This massive mural in Toronto takes the suave Pink Panther and places him on a colorful, gritty throne. It’s a bold piece that proves even the most classic characters can be reinvented with a modern, slightly rebellious edge.💡 Nerd Fact: The Pink Panther did not begin as a standalone cartoon star at all: he was created in 1963 for the film credits and later spun off into more than 125 theatrical shorts and multiple TV shows. So handing him to a “deconstructive pop artist” like Matt Gondek is basically pop culture remixing one of its own oldest cool icons.
🔗 Follow Matt Gondek on Instagram
La Linea on the Barn
The classic character “La Linea,” created by Italian animator Osvaldo Cavandoli, makes a surprise appearance on the side of this rural barn. The simplicity of the single continuous line is a masterpiece of minimalist storytelling. Seeing this high-strung character “walking” across a farm building is an instant nostalgia trip for anyone who grew up with his expressive adventures.💡 Nerd Fact: La Linea is older than many people realize: the rights holder Quipos says Cavandoli introduced the character in 1969, and that single-line grouch later travelled to around fifty countries. It is basically a masterclass in how much personality one uninterrupted line can carry.
Which one is your favorite?
When Trees Become Art (12 Photos)
Content warning: Trees already have character. These artists add just enough to let trunks, branches, leaves, and roots become part of the artwork. From giant forest hands to murals that use real leaves as hair, these twelve works show artists working with nature, not aro
Trees already have character. These artists add just enough to let trunks, branches, leaves, and roots become part of the artwork.
From giant forest hands to murals that use real leaves as hair, these twelve works show artists working with nature, not around it. Sometimes the gallery is a sidewalk, a stump, or a patch of forest floor.
There is an older word for marks carved into living trees: the National Park Service notes that they are called arborglyphs or dendroglyphs. These works are different. Here, artists respond to trees as collaborators, materials, or living parts of the scene.
More: Nature Is Everything (8 Photos)
💧 The Legend of Giants by Natalia Rak in Białystok, Poland 🇵🇱
Natalia Rak’s mural gets shared a lot for a reason. Painted for the Folk on the Street festival in 2013, it shows a giant girl in traditional Polish dress tipping a metal watering can toward the real tree growing below. The tree is not extra. Without it, the scene is missing a main character. More Natalia Rak: 10 Murals by Natalia Rak That Turn City Walls Into Dreams
💡 Nerd Fact: This mural is often reposted without an exact location, but early street-art coverage placed it at Aleja Józefa Piłsudskiego 11/4. That detail matters. The living tree is part of the address; move the mural away from it and the scene no longer works.
🔗 Follow Natalia Rak on Instagram
🤗 Hugging the Tree
A real tree grows over a low concrete wall, and the painted child below holds a red pot around the trunk. The artist and location have not been confirmed, but the idea is easy to read: the wall becomes a flowerpot, and the tree becomes the plant. The hug is not subtle. It works anyway.
💡 Nerd Fact: The joke has a practical side, too. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says urban street trees help cool heat-island streets, slow stormwater runoff, and capture rainfall through leaves, stems, and roots. The painted hug has a point beyond being cute.
😴 The Trees Also Sleep by Dinho Bento in Debrecen, Hungary 🇭🇺
Dinho Bento’s The Trees Also Sleep series places quiet faces into the worn openings of old trees in Nagyerdő. Local reporting noted that Bento made the works on wooden panels fitted into the hollows rather than painting directly on the trees. The exposed wood reads as the face, with bark around it like a frame. More: The Trees Also Sleep: Art Installation in Debrecen’s Great Forest
💡 Nerd Fact: In a 2021 interview, Bento said tree knots had already inspired a canvas series. For the forest pieces, he traced each knot, painted on a thin wooden board, and used removable paste so the tree itself would not be damaged. The point was to add a face without hurting the tree.
🔗 Follow Dinho Bento on Instagram
🐗 The Old Sow Between the Trees by Hannelie Coetzee in Knislinge, Sweden 🇸🇪
At Wanås Konst sculpture park, Hannelie Coetzee used stacked wood to create a huge wild boar portrait. Wanås identifies the 2015 work as Gamla suggan mellan träden (Ou sog tussen bome), and it was part of the Barriers — Contemporary South Africa exhibition. Viewed straight on, the log ends form the snout, eyes, and markings. From another angle, it almost slips back into the woods. More: Stubb Boar (5 Photos)
💡 Nerd Fact: Wanås Konst says Coetzee chose the wild boar partly because the animal had disappeared from Swedish fauna for several centuries, then returned and sparked debate about fear, adaptability, and coexistence. So the work is also about return. A boar made of forest, placed back in the forest.
🔗 Follow Hannelie Coetzee on Facebook
🍂 Four Seasons — Tribute to Kora by Bruno Althamer in Warsaw, Poland 🇵🇱
This 2019 mural of Polish singer Kora uses a chestnut tree as her changing hair. Wysokie Obcasy, which launched it as part of the Kobiety na mury project, described the work at Nowy Świat 18/20 as a portrait combined with the chestnut growing next to the wall, so it changes with the seasons. The mural was reported vandalized in March 2026, but the original idea remains one of Warsaw’s most memorable tree-and-wall works. More: Four Seasons Tribute to Kora in Warsaw, Poland
💡 Nerd Fact: Kora was born Olga Aleksandra Ostrowska, and Culture.pl describes her as a singer-songwriter and lead singer of the celebrated band Maanam. That matters here: this is not just a likeness. It is a public memorial to a voice that shaped Polish rock.
🔗 Follow Bruno Althamer on Facebook
🍁 Vortex at Little Milford Woods by Jon Foreman in Wales, UK 🇬🇧
Jon Foreman shared this temporary work as Vortex, created at Little Milford Woods in 2024. Fallen autumn leaves form a spiral that climbs the trunk and then unwinds across the forest floor. It uses what the woodland already offered: leaves, earth, a tree, and a short window before weather takes over. More Jon Foreman: 9 Leaf Sculptures by Jon Foreman in the Forest
💡 Nerd Fact: Little Milford is not just a pretty woodland. The National Trust says the woodland may date back to at least the 11th century, later lost large areas of oak to commercial forestry, and has been replanted with broadleaved trees. Foreman’s temporary leaf spiral lands in a place already changing through restoration.
🔗 Follow Jon Foreman on Instagram
✋ The Giant Hand of Vyrnwy by Simon O’Rourke in Wales, UK 🇬🇧
When Wales’ tallest tree was badly damaged by a storm, Simon O’Rourke carved the remaining 50-foot stump into The Giant Hand of Vyrnwy. On his site, O’Rourke explains that the hand was inspired by the Giants of Vyrnwy and by the tree’s final attempt to reach for the sky, giving the stump a second life. More: From Tallest Tree to Towering Sculpture: The Giant Hand of the UK
💡 Nerd Fact: O’Rourke notes that the project needed two days just to erect scaffolding, followed by six days of chainsaw and grinder work. The finished carving was coated with plant-based tung oil, chosen because it was safe near waterways. The behind-the-scenes engineering is part of the story.
🔗 Follow Simon O’Rourke on Instagram
👀 Googly Eye Tree by Vanyu Krastev in Sliven, Bulgaria 🇧🇬
Vanyu Krastev’s eyebombing project does a lot with very little: two googly eyes and the right object. Here, a railing crosses a swollen trunk in just the right place, making the bark look like a surprised creature staring back. Simple, silly, effective. More googly eyes: The City Has Eyes (8 Photos)
💡 Nerd Fact: Eyebombing has surprisingly clear “rules.” Co-creator Kim Nielsen describes it as googly eyes only, public urban spaces, non-destructive, and removable, with the goal of humanizing the street. Krastev’s tree works are part of a tiny global movement built from almost nothing.
🔗 Follow Vanyu Krastev on Instagram
🪵 Nature Is Everything
The artist and location are not confirmed, and this may be a natural pareidolia moment rather than a verified carving. The cracks, rings, moss, and broken bark do much of the work, making a fallen log look like an old face in the forest.
💡 Nerd Fact: Johns Hopkins Magazine explains pareidolia as our habit of finding meaningful patterns, especially faces, in vague stimuli like tree knots, clouds, rocks, and other ordinary shapes. That is why this log reads as a face, even without a confirmed artist.
🐭 Nadine and the Shared Log Cabin by David Zinn 🇺🇸
David Zinn shared this piece under the title Nadine and the Shared Log Cabin, and the stump does most of the world-building. Two tiny tenants peek from the openings, one holding a cup, as if the log came with a lease. Small, funny, and gentle. The tree is not just a surface; it is the cabin. More: Happy Art by David Zinn (16 Photos)
💡 Nerd Fact: Zinn’s own bio says his temporary street drawings are improvised on location with chalk, charcoal, and found objects, and that Nadine is one of his recurring characters. That makes the stump less like a backdrop and more like the thing that gave him the idea.
🔗 Follow David Zinn on Instagram
🌱 La grandeza de lo pequeño by Sabotaje Al Montaje in Calldetenes, Spain 🇪🇸
On his own site, Sabotaje Al Montaje lists this 2025 FACC La Pera work in Calldetenes as La grandeza de lo pequeño — “the greatness of the small.” The title fits. The painted woman crouches on the wall and reaches toward a young real tree at ground level. The smallest thing in the scene gets the most attention. More: 10 New Street Art Murals Worth a Closer Look
💡 Nerd Fact: FACC La Pera identifies Sabotaje Al Montaje as Matías Mata, born in Lanzarote, and describes his work as giving visibility to social and environmental problems. Here, the “small” tree is not a prop. It is the point.
🔗 Follow Sabotaje Al Montaje on Instagram
☁️ In the Sky by Seth Globepainter in Le Port, Réunion Island, France 🇫🇷
Seth’s mural is identified in coverage of his On Walls monograph as In the Sky (2015), Le Port, Réunion Island. The child pulls the building open as if the sky were a curtain. The real tree at the base keeps the scene grounded. More by Seth: 34 Murals That Turn Walls Into Wonders by Seth
💡 Nerd Fact: Seth’s recurring children are often faceless. Urban Nation describes them as figures staged in places that suggest vulnerability and resilience. Here, the faceless child keeps the scene open. It is less about one portrait and more about what viewers bring to it.
🔗 Follow Seth Globepainter on Instagram
Which one is your favorite?
Nature Is Everything (8 Photos)
From towering floral murals in Switzerland and Serbia to delicate natural creations shaped from petals and stones, these works bring us closer to nature in public space. Featured are a bird mural in the UK, a prowling ocelot in Belgium, and sculptures blending seamlessly with gardens. Each piece highlights a different way artists connect the human world with the natural one.
More: Absolutely Stunning (9 Photos)
1. Bird and Hand — Bacon in Southend-on-Sea, UK
A large mural showing a hand patterned with flowers holding a bird, surrounded by blooming yellow petals. The piece emphasizes balance between human and natural forms.🔗 Follow Bacon on Instagram
2. Halved — Sculpt the World in Pembrokeshire, Wales
An arrangement of stones on the beach forming a circular yin-yang shape. Different sizes and colors of rocks create a sense of rhythm with the surrounding landscape. More!: Amazing Sculptures by Jon Foreman! (12 Photos)🔗 Follow Jon Foreman on Instagram
3. Coral Peonies — Korallpionen in Frauenfeld, Switzerland
A mural featuring tall pink coral peonies painted across the side of an apartment building. The flowers rise above windows, merging architecture and nature.🔗 Follow Korallpionen on Instagram
4. Natural Bird Art — Hannah Bullen-Ryner in the UK
A bird shape created on the ground using petals, leaves, pine needles, and seeds. The vibrant purple and green tones highlight the fragility of ephemeral land art. More!: Nature Is Everything! 18 Stunning Artworks by Hannah Bullen-Ryner🔗 Follow Hannah Bullen-Ryner on Instagram
5. Ocelot — SMOK in Belgium
A mural of an ocelot crouching low against a brick wall. The animal’s gaze is intense, with detailed fur patterns blending into the red brick surface.🔗 Follow SMOK on Instagram
6. The Glass Slipper — Philip Jackson in the UK
A garden sculpture of a tall, elegant figure in a flowing dress with a wide sculptural hat. The work blends stone textures with the surrounding greenery. More!: 10 Haunting Sculptures by Philip Jackson🔗 Follow Philip Jackson on Instagram
7. Thirst for Nature — Artez in Belgrade, Serbia
A mural of a woman holding a vase of flowers to her face. Her patterned robe and the oversized bouquet connect urban walls with natural growth.🔗 Follow Artez on Instagram
8. Pheasants — Collin Van der Sluijs in Laon, France
A large mural of two pheasants in a dynamic scene. Bright plumage and strong movement dominate the wall, contrasting with the muted building background. More!: Out Standing… Murals By Collin Van der Sluijs (7 Photos)🔗 Follow [b]Collin van der Sluijs on Instagram[/b]
More: When Trees Become Art (10 Photos)
Which one is your favorite?
Julien Malland (Seth Globepainter). Seth: On Walls. – Urban Nation
On Walls presents a decade of mural work by French street artist Julien Malland, known as Seth Globepainter.E. Wilson (Urban Nation)
From Tallest Tree to Towering Sculpture: The Giant Hand of the UK
Content warning: Giant Hand of Vyrnwy" is a breathtaking sculpture carved from the remains of the UK’s tallest tree, a Douglas Fir. Artist Simon O’Rourke transformed the tree’s 50-foot stump into a hand reaching skyward, symbolizing the tree’s final connection to the sky
The Douglas Fir known as the “Giant Hand of Vyrnwy” was once the tallest tree in the UK, standing over 50 meters high.
But as it grew older and weaker, it became unsafe. Instead of cutting it down completely, artist Simon O’Rourke turned what was left of the tree into a giant hand sculpture reaching for the sky.
“The Forestry Commission, who are looking after the area, decided that it would be a good idea to have a memorial to the tree and left a 50-foot stem when they felled it,” said O’Rourke. “They invited eight artists to tender for the job, and I got it.”
The sculpture is now part of a place called The Giants of Vyrnwy, which inspired O’Rourke’s idea. “There are a few tall Douglas firs growing in the Giants of Vyrnwy area, and I was going on the giants theme,” he explained.
O’Rourke, who has been carving wood for nine years, used 12 different chainsaws to make the sculpture. He has also carved other things, like a swan, an angel, a kingfisher, a chipmunk, and a giant clock.
In 2011, the tree was found leaning dangerously to one side. It also had two large cracks going up from its roots to about 3.5 meters high. To keep visitors safe, the Forestry Commission decided to cut it down. Before this, a tree expert had climbed it to confirm it was the tallest tree in the UK, ensuring its story would be remembered even after it was turned into art.
Tree Carving Specialist - For Home, Estates & Public Spaces
I am a world-renowned tree carving specialist in the UK. I create sculptures inspired by nature from statues to furniture. Worldwide bespoke commissions.Simon O'Rourke