Lewis and Helen relax on the mosaic steps, Valparaïso
One morning, Lewis the Lion packed up their things and once again headed for the Santiago metro: they were going to catch a coach to a pretty coastal town called Valparaïso. So,they met their other friend Helen at the coach station and were just in the nick of time to catch the next coach to Valparaïso. Lewis the Lion couldn’t believe how cheap the fare was for an hour and a half journey: just $2,100 Chilean pesos! (Check on Lewis the Lion’s previous blog to see how much that is in pounds sterling).
Lewis likes Top Cat near his hostel!
When the two Helens and Lewis arrived in Valpo (as it is affectionately called!), they hopped in a taxi and headed towards their hostel, La Casa Verde Limon, which they has chosen especially. This was because they knew that the city of Valparaïso had a reputation for being a place of poets, painters and dreamers and the owner of this particular hostel happened to be an artist! As soon as they arrived, they booked in straight away for an art class the next morning: how exciting! The hostel itself was charming with artwork and mosaics abounding.
Lewis the Lion poses on the mosaic outside the hostel
The artist’s sister was a acrobat and had even installed a trapeze in the hostel. Lewis the Lion being the cheeky cat that he is, couldn’t help but give it a go himself!
Lewis plays on the trapeze
In the meanwhile, the group of friends met another English girl, Kelly and headed out to explore the town. There were three main things that struck Lewis about town: firstly, it was a port town and so had a certain wealth with its historical architecture but it also had a certain grittiness to it too. (It reminded him very much of Genoa in Italy with its multicoloured houses).
Lewis the Lion looks over the port of Valparaiso
Secondly, it was an undulating kind of a town because it had 45 steep hills, each one forming its own particular neighbourhood.
Lewis the Lion with a map of Valparaïso
Lewis with the Valparaiso logo painted on some steps
Thirdly and perhaps most importantly, this city had a real bohemian feel to it as street art was apparent everywhere you looked. (It reminded Lewis the Lion of a neighbourhood in Bristol that he had visited called Easton but this was on a much bigger scale).
Lewis admires the children's street art
Lewis rides a lion statue in Valparaiso
Street art is everywhere in Valparaïso
As they strolled around the city they felt like they were in an open-air art gallery with wonderful artwork adorning many of the buildings.
Lewis sees a tribute to Van Gough on a Valpo building
Even if houses didn’t have specific artwork on them, they were usually painted in a variety of colours which made the town look as if it had been painted by a rainbow.
The rainbow houses
Lewis with the rainbow coloured sky and houses
Look at this video of Lewis the Lion as he looks over this beautiful city from the top of one of its many hills.
However, they were reminded of the vulnerability of living in Chile when they saw the sign to warn of tsunamis. (A tsunami is an earthquake that takes place at sea). Lewis the Lion hoped that that wouldn’t happen while he was there, that’s for sure!
Lewis sees a tsunami warning sign in Valparaïso
By chance, the group of friends stumbled across a rickety old elevator which creaked up the Cerro Concepción hillside.
Lewis goes up the Cerro Concepción funicular
Lewis the Lion discovered that there were 14 such elevators throughout the city but many of them were no longer in use as they climbed almost impossibly steep hills. One thing was for sure, the residents of Valparaïso had to be incredibly fit to climb such hills!
Lewis notices the bright colours around him
Lewis the Lion thought that the town was simply charming, even if like most cities in South America there were lots of stray dogs and you had to watch where you were walking! As he descended the Cerro Concepción, he came across this inventive stairwell and passed by more fabulous artwork.
Lewis loves this painted piano staircase
He was looking forward now to his art class the next morning as this seemed the perfect place to indulge in some artwork! The next morning was bright and the colours around the town seemed to shine all the more. Along with Lewis and Helen were his friends Justine (another friend of Lewis the Lion who he had met in Buenos Aires!), Helen, Kelly and Sarah. The artist, nicknamed, Pancha,
Lewis the Lion with the artist
came to collect the girls and Lewis from the hostel and pointed out some of her work as they went, such as the mosaic entrance and the bottle-top bathtub used for growing plants.
Lewis in the bottle-top, garden-bath tub!
She led them to her house not far away and what a treat it was! She had even built a tree-house in the garden.
Lewis eyes up the tree-house
Lewis the Lion eyed it up, thinking to himself that he might enjoy climbing that later on if the artist let him? The group decided that this morning, they would like to try their hand at creating their own mosaics. Luckily for them, the artist had collected many coloured tiles and bits of glass to help them be creative. She demonstrated how to cut the big tiles with a tile cutter and how to neaten the edges of smaller pieces with a hammer. She made it look so easy!
The artist showing Lewis the Lion how to cut the tiles
The group of friends went quickly to work and it felt very relaxing being outside in the garden under the shade of a tree.
The girls have fun creating art in the garden
Lewis the Lion's friends get busy selecting their materials
Helen decided there was only one mosaic she could do really and she had the perfect face to copy from: Lewis the Lion himself! So she went about finding bits of tiles with the right colours and knocking them into shape with a hammer. The artist also helped with some of the tricky bits like the eyes and nose as this was a particularly thick bit of tile. She started by placing all the pieces on the table in front of her.
Lewis the Lion's first composition
Just when she thought she was finished, she suddenly remembered that she’d forgotten about Lewis’ blue, spotted neckerchief so she found some blue and white bottle tops which she thought might do the job instead.
Stage 2 - with Lewis the Lion's neckerchief made from bottle tops
When she was satisfied with her design, she then had to move the pieces carefully onto a tray and then decide where she wanted to put her mosaic? The artist suggested that she put the design alongside the picture of a sleeping cat right by the front entrance to her house.
The cat painting on the side of the artisit's house
Lewis loved this idea, especially when he saw another real cat there soaking up the sun.
Lewis the Lion befriends another cat!
Yes, this would be the perfect place for him to leave his mark on Valparaïso!
The artist then mixed a kind of sandy paste and showed Helen how to put a good amount onto the back of each piece before sticking it to the wall. Helen thought it was a bit like doing a jig-saw puzzle, trying to remember where each piece went!
Here is a picture when the mosaic was half done.
Stage 3 - The pieces are stuck carefully to the wall with a paste
Here is a picture of the final result.
Stage 4 - The artwork is complete!
Lewis the Lion was very flattered and thought that Helen had done a great job of representing him. He then looked at the other mosaics that his friends had created. Wow! They could be very proud of themselves too.
Helen Mason's artwork
Sarah Dawson's mosaic collage
Justine Stanley's artwork
Kelly Bordiuk and her sunflower mosaic
In a morning they had all become artists and Pancha was happy that they all left their artwork on her house!
Lewis poses next to his mosaic along with Helen and the artist
As a special treat, because we all know that cats like climbing trees, don’t we? Lewis the Lion gingerly crept his paws up the scaffolding towards the tree house.
Lewis stands at the bottom of the tree-house
What a fantastic view from the top over Valparaïso and the garden below!
Lewis climbs the scaffolding to the top of the tree-house
And what a fabulous morning where Lewis the Lion felt he had truly become part of the artistic fabric of Valparaïso!
All of the cat artwork is together!
If you had the opportunity to create some artwork on a building, what would it be? Would it be a painting? Would it be a mosaic? What would it look like?
