French street artist Zabou paints beehives and containers in rural North Wales, a shift from her usual urban murals. She's spent eight years building a career in street art, starting with black-and-white portraits, and this project excites her because it lets her adapt colors and shapes to complement nature rather than concrete.
I was actually really excited by the project because it was a little bit different from what I usually do. You know, we're in nature, which is a different setting for me than painting in a really urban landscape, in a busy city street. And we're in this, you know, amazing place surrounded by nature, by, you know, trees. Flowers, bees. I'm Zabou. I'm a French street artist based in London, and today I'm painting in a great location in North Wales and painting set of containers, some beehives, and whatever Lawrence is going to throw at me. So I usually do realistic black and white portraits. So you know, I'm very much focused on humans, and so this time I'm focusing on you know bees. And I think that's nice to do something a little different and painting wildlife as well. I've always been drawing and painting, you know, since I was a little kid. Art is really my passion. So every day I was drawing and painting and just loving it. And then when I moved to London a few years ago, I just kind of fell in love with the street art and graffiti scene. I was really impressed by, you know, seeing those murals, seeing those huge pieces, and I really thought, wow, I really want to try this. And I kind of just gave it a shot. I had no idea what I was doing at the beginning. And then, you know, little by little, I guess I just got better at it. I really enjoyed it, and I kind of developed my style, and I really enjoyed painting, you know, realistic murals. And, you know, it's been— now it's been my full-time job for 8 years actually. So yeah, it's great. I had no idea where it would take me when I started. I think it's really important to try to, you know, get the artwork to work with its environment. And so, you know, the choice of colors, the shapes, the blending, like that really helps. Working this close to nature has been really great and really relaxing actually because I'm usually in very busy, noisy settings, and I just love it, you know, being here. It's really nice as well to be painting objects that are going to be used afterwards. So this is a little different for me. And so I was quite excited to be painting the beehives. I can't wait to see the bees using them. I like to see them in action, you know. It's been really nice working with Laurence. He's really enthusiastic and excited and full of energy. He's always finding new things for me to spray on. I really hope, like, you know, this is gonna be fitting within the landscape. I think I always hope that it's just gonna make people's day a little bit brighter. So, you know, if it makes someone smile, if someone is happy to see it, then my job is done, really.
