El Joel in the Riera

I’ve written about street art in Sant Feliu before but I don’t think I have mentioned the dried river bed (riera in Spanish) that is full of pieces. I don’t really remember how I found this place but I did, two years back maybe and periodically I pop in by to see what’s going on. Another one of those amazing accidental finds.

I’ve not really been on the ball with regards to street art hunting the past few months. Not really sure why, but I’ve not had such a big urge to hit the spots and see what’s going on. However, last Sunday I got myself up and headed down to Sant Feliu to see what was going on.

To my surprise I saw five pieces by El Joel. Regular readers may remember that I interviewed Joel before and whilst I like his street art pieces I really love his graffiti work. Funnily enough I have seen these pieces on Instagram but for whatever reason it didn’t click where they were. Put that down to the never ending list of locations that artists paint outside of the city I guess. These decaying buildings with blue skies behind them often merge into one in my head.

So, five whole works from Joel, someone’s been busy! Not a huge surprise really, it seems like El Joel paints every couple of days if not more. He is someone who really loves to paint! One thing I love about Joel is that he always seems to be painting with someone new. Visiting artists on a ‘spraycation’ always seem to be in touch with Joel to go hit up a spot. I’m sure it’s amazing helpful for Joel when he’s travelling Europe himself, having all these graffiti contacts to hit up.

Looking at Joel’s Instagram page all these pieces are from this year and all done within a three week period. Maybe this is a new spot for Joel and he really wanted to leave his mark? Three of these works are in Joel’s classic style. Nice, clean, chunky lettering with his character flowing through the letters. Each one uses completely different colours but all are distinctly Joel.

The fourth of these pieces is again in a classic graffiti style but with bubble letters as opposed to wild style. Because I am pretty useless with reading letters, I like seeing bubbles as they are easier to read! Sorry graffiti die-hards!

I reckon the Garfield piece on the bridge was just a cheeky ‘I’m finished early and have spare paint’ kinda deal. I like it though, it’s an unexpected place to see a piece. The E with the tail is quality too.

Artist Info:

Instagram