Brazilian street artist Mateus Bailon paints a new Mural in Ostend, Belgium

Hookedblog has just returned from a few wonderful days in Ostend, Belgium for this year's edition of the Crystal Ship street art festival curated by Bjorn Van Pouke. 

Despite the crisp sunny skies, it was bitterly cold in Ostend and we were happy to have brought some ski thermals, gloves, and scarf with us to keep warm as we cycled around Ostend shooting the artists at work.

As with previous years, the festival curator has invited a number of national and international artists to create works across the city. An unexpected surprise this year was finding out Brazilian born artist and friend Mateus Bailon was also in Ostend.

A one time regular on the streets of London, the South American artist left his mark on a number of the cities walls back in 2013 when he first visited and later again in 2015 on a subsequent visit which saw him work on a collaborative mural with artist Sliks.

Street Artist Mateus Bailon at work on a Mural in Ostend, Belgium

Artist Mateus Bailon in Ostend, Belgium 

Bailon has been traveling with one of the invited festival artist Paola Delfin and was assisting her in Ostend for the initial stages of the ginormous wall she was painting for the festival.

A small wall became available while he was in Ostend and he took the opportunity to leave his mark on the city spending two days working just outside the city center.

With so much going on in the city it was late on the first day before we caught up with Bailon, only managing a few quick photos before the light and temperature dropped. Returning a little earlier on the second day we arrived just in time to catch him adding his signature to the finished mural.

Details of the flowers and buffalo in artist Mateus Bailons'  Mural in Ostend, Belgium

Artist Mateus Bailon takes a phone photo of his finished Mural in Ostend, Belgium

Portrait of artist Mateus Bailon in Ostend, Belgium

Portrait of artist Mateus Bailon in Ostend, Belgium

With some drone footage captured and with our photos taken, the property owners invited us all into their space for some food and shots of vodka to warm up and celebrate the completion of the wall. Unable to find their bottle of vodka we instead celebrated with some large shots of Poppies Gin!

We were then tasked with assisting the owner name one of the new chickens they kept in their yard. The owners run yoga classes in their space and had asked their students to suggest names for their chickens.

Fellow blogger and photographer Julie from Instagrafite was asked to select one from the large bowl of the suggested names. Drawing one piece of paper from the bowl she called out the name 'J'Adore' much to the owner's delight, ' perfect she said, J'Adore will join her sisters, Coco Channel, and Gucci. We said our goodbyes and thanked them for their hospitality, time, and the wall for Mateus.

Brazilian street artist Mateus Bailon pictured at work on a mural in Ostend, Belgium

Bailon added his signature to the completed mural in Ostend, Belgium.

Brazilian street artist Mateus Bailon pictured at work on a mural in Ostend, Belgium

Brazilian street artist Mateus Bailon paints a new Mural in Ostend, Belgium

Mateus Bailon's completed mural in Ostend is located on Verlaatstraat in Ostend, Belgium.

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