July!  That’s Summer supposedly, the start of Summer holidays and based on this year’s experience the time when every street art fan must consider carrying sun tan cream, an anorak and an umbrella!  The weather was a bit bonkers but the art was sensational.

The feature image above is Frida Kahlo by Lost Hills looking like she is creating all that art on the streets of Brick Lane

It is always a great pleasure to chance upon a new street sculpture by 3x3x3 and it seems that on this year’s visit to London he may have left at least 6 new sculptures on the streets.  At the time of writing I have 2 more to find.

July was ushered in with Benjamin Irritant ruffling a few feathers with the placement of his rabbits, by the time I arrived to take a photo of the wall below within 24 hours another artist had already gone over Benjamin!  The ripples continue to spread out with tactical placements by other artists over Benjamin’s art still occurring just this past weekend.

On one tour in the middle of July the group had the pleasure of street artists Neon Savage and MeandBlue turning up and after a friendly chat they proceeded to put some fresh street art right in front of us.

London’s wild parakeet population increased by one more during the month with this wooden character looking overhead thanks to Trips And Pieces, Voxx Romana and Arrex Skulls study from above.

Some DaddyStreetFox art was spotted in a major artwork by Gilbert and George exhibited in their most recent exhibition at the White Cube Gallery.  After a bit of sanitising of the bins in that area, a new fox has appeared to lay waste to the bin bags there.

It has been a few years since we saw art by New York street artist Stefani McDade on the streets of Shoreditch but she was spotted on the streets of Shoreditch pasting up in the company of DaddyStreetFox.  This particular piece suggests Stefani has had a successful conclusion to her unicorn hunt, or is unicorn homicide what has led to them being so elusive?  Apparan and Bruno, Neon Savage’s dayglo dog look on.

Currently riding high on my list of break through street artists is Fat Cap Sprays who has a busy month.  This absolute quacker is currently running close to Village Underground, it was spotted for the first time by a guest on our recent novelty Old Street public street art tour.

Street Art is temporary, it is short lived, the always sensational painter Ed Hicks painted this masterful void which survived in pristine condition for only a very short time.  I chance upon another Ed Hicks painting in July so I took a snap on my phone, the next morning I returned to find it had been completely taken out, which as it was on a legal graff wall is standard.

Graffiti writer Only has created a succession of astonishing graffiti pieces with medieval crusades themed painted in the letter fill.   The latest one appeared just off  Brick Lane incorporates a Roman theme, is it just me or is there a hint of MF DOOM about the gladiator?

Dan Kitchener’s night-time street scenes are appreciated for their Blade Runneresque perpetual rain.  The rainy window effect of this gorgeous piece on Brick Lane is superb.  Obviously the best way to photograph this is when it is wet but the rain recently has been so biblical that the last thing on our mind was iphone snaps of street art!

Black Dove from Dublin was in London at the end of the month for a blink and you missed it solo show, we have seen Black Dove’s art in Shoreditch in the past though at the time of this visit I only found two new pieces, including this rather lovely sticker.

I hope you like this eclectic selection of street artists active on the streets of London in July, some practicing legally, some without permission, some freehand spraypainters, some paste up artists, all committed to taking advantage of the wonderful gallery out there on the streets.

Artists links in the post.   All photos: Dave Stuart