Roa’s Crane

Roa's Crane

This is street artist Roa’s Crane on Hanbury Street in London.  This is his biggest work yet and the story goes that he laid down the whitewash for a stork but that a restaurant owner remarked that it looked like a crane.  The crane is revered in Bangladeshi culture and thus the crane was born. 

Once he had painted the white background, he sketched in the detail.  I’d really recommend that you click on either of these photos to see the detail because this work really is exquisite.

Roa's Crane (detail)

I liked this story of the cranes for three reasons:

  • The blue crane is the national bird of South Africa
  • My favourite band for several years was Cranes
  • My original online handle for nearly a decade was Crane

I saw this piece of street art on a recent Alternative London walking tour.  The tour was free of charge and fascinating and I’ll be sure to upload more of my photos in a future post.

15 comments on "Roa’s Crane"
  1. thats beautiful. they should have more stuff like that around to cover unslightly buildings shoudnt they

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  2. What an amazing image! I wonder how long it took him to do?

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  3. I've never really understood how artists see the whole when they are applying the paint at close quarters. This is a fantastic piece of work.

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  4. Hi Emm, Lauren here. This reminds me of Seurat, who as many know, painted basically dots of paint. How is it that artists can see the big picture before it ever happens...REALLY AMAZING!

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  5. Great work !!!
    Marvelous...
    Thanks to share ,
    Regards from france,

    Pierre

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  6. this is fantastic!! Have a great weekend :)

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  7. Very detailed! You can even see its hairs. I wonder if the artist had a hard time painting it around the pipes.

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  8. this is cool. The building looks familiar - is it on the south bank near the Tate?

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  9. Hey, when did you do the tour? I went maybe a month ago. Loved this piece...especially the oscar the grouch on that same street.

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  10. Wow, amazing details! How perfect with the way the crane has come into your life. What an excellent design--I love giant pieces of art on buildings

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  11. @ Tina: I agree, I think street art can be really stunning.

    @ Kathy: If I understood our tour guide properly, I think he did it over two evenings. He painted over the white base freehand.

    @ Sheila: I know!! We saw some amazing works on the tour that looked impressionist.

    @ Lauren: We actually saw a piece very similar to Seurat.

    @ Pierre: Thank you!

    @ Aviary Images: Bridget! So good to see you back. Isn't it lovely.

    @ AVC8teur: I never thought about the extra skill they must need to paint around the pipes, bricks and uneven surfaces!

    @ David: No, it was near Brick Lane. A couple of months ago, I'd never been in the area and now I spend quite a lot of time in the Liverpool Street area.

    @ Melissa: Melizza saw it on your blog and so we decided to book it! We went about three weeks ago.

    @ Faith: Me too! I'm loving street art more and more.

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  12. Wow, I always wondered how someone could be so patient and so persistent to paint such a large area and so high!

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  13. Thanks for sharing this!! I love graffiti art... and this one is brilliant :-)

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  14. Such a good post. I have just blogged on street art, and found yours by chance. Some of the works are still there, even if some of them are a bit spoiled. I need to do one of these walks.

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