The city of Valparaiso Chile is full of over a thousand large scale open air art murals, some like the one above, cover the walls of multi-story buildings.
The first murals were painted by art students from a local university in the 1960’s and 70’s, in an area of the city called Cerro Bellavista.
This area is now a landmark named El Museo a Cielo Abierto (The Open Air Museum).
Valparaiso in entirety was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003.
Walking in this city wide open air art museum, one is struck not only by the talent of the amazing artists,
but also by their appreciation of the beauty,
joy, and humor of life.
To this day, artists are continuing to add their talented contributions to this remarkable city.
Valparaiso is a magnet attracting artists of all kinds. Their artistry makes visiting here a pure joy.
Cheers to you from beautiful Valparaiso and her amazing artists~
Cindy thank you so much for sharing this amazing place. I love all the color and whimsy! How wonderful. Hugs on the wing.
Hugs back to you & thank you for supporting artists like yourself my friend <3
Wow, these are beautiful! And from the 60’s and 70’s too. Thank you for posting. ❤️
The art from the 60’s and 70’s is in Cerro Bellavista and is older art. The first murals I chose for this post are from this period, and they are stunningly wonderful. The continuing art, all over the city, is a testament to the original artists vision, and the evolution of artistic talent.
Wow – over a thousand!
I think the last count I read was 1400, but new art is being added as I type.
These are awesome! 🙂
Yep. Artists are awesome. Especially those who give their art to people for free <3
I think I would burn out a few camera batteries in this place. Wonderful post, Cindy.
You definitely need to bring a few memory cards!!! 😉
Very handy things!
<3
Also I meant to say that I find my batteries die more quickly when I do a lot of zooming (which may not be an issue for you if you have the big lens you can just attach) – but I have three spare batteries with me all the time, just in case.
That would be a major hassle. I commiserate with you <3
Wow! very impressive!!!
I’m so amazed at anyone who can draw, but when they can make the proportions correct on such a huge building that is really incredible.
That entirely blows me away. I watched a muralist work. He had no sketches with him. He just free formed his design on a massive wall. Amazing!
I love the artists, especially when they paint the streets for us. Thank you for these gorgeous shots, Cindy!
They do it to make us happy, and because they can. Just like you Resa <3
😀 😀
Oh the vibrancy!
Nothing like what artists working together can create <3
How fabulous! I want to book a ticket to go there right now. Thanks for sharing.
If you do go, let me know, I can give you some tips!
Gorgeous art, Cindy. Thanks for posting!
Thank you more for appreciating the artists Susan <3
Very cool indeed!
Vive Chile <3
😎 si!
I absolutely love an open art community. They are all awesome but I really loved the cat looking around the corner! 💕
The cat murals get me too. They capture a cat’s whimsy so perfectly. Artists are just wonderful people to be around <3
Such wonderful talent. When I was scrolling through the pictures I could literally see the cat peeking around the corner. It was just amazing to me.
Yes, I know me too. And how did the artist create such a detailed, actual curious cat, on such a large scale and crude space?
It just proves that artists triumph over all, because they show us how valuable we can be.
I so agree on all points! You said it perfect. 💕💕💕
Thank you Bernice <3
Fabulous, Cindy! We’ll have to get there someday. Thanks for sharing the work of these talented street artists!
So happy you enjoyed. Chile is a gorgeous place to visit, so I hope you do go!
Reblogging this to my readers at sister site Timeless Wisdoms
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Thank you, Cindy, for posting this second series of photos. The art here is as wonderful as in the first series. The colors, the structure and the artistry are astonishing, especially on that grand scale. The difficulty of executing these pieces blows me away. What an extraordinary fount of talent in one place! I feel I would want to return there over and over to drink it all in!
There you go again, being so able to cut to the core. I learned how amazing these artists are, and how wonderful Valparaiso is for sheltering them. I watched a person start a really large scale mural. I thought he would outline it first. But he didn’t. He just free form painted it in huge swatches of brilliance.
These murals have a child-like, happy vibe to them. Love it.😊
They do! So glad you see this. There is nothing more beautiful than a child <3
I love the intensity of the color in all the wall art. It’s just beautiful and full of life. How exciting to get to see it first hand.
You know the greatest thing about it? It restores your faith in humanity <3
Love the colours! And people! 🙂
Yes, colorful people are the best on the planet.
Beautiful. My kind of art. COLOR!! Rembrandt, eat your heart out with you shades of black.
Laughing….I hope you know how much I like you John. <3
Reblogged this on Echoes in the Mist.
Thank you sincerely, kind Sharon <3
Wonderfully vibrant art and joyful celebration of life! 😀 I imagine my head would be be spinning with so much to take in and my arm aching from taking all those photos! 😀 Many thanks for sharing and such a colourful and creative start to my morning, Cindy! 😀
Awww, I am touched by the thoughtfulness of your comments Annika. Thank you & cheers to you!
They are so beautiful with all those colours !!
The impact of this art, covering so much of this large city, is stunning.
I believe that !
Hi, Cindy. Thanks for sharing such stunning vibrant art works. Have a wonderful day. Goff
Thank you for the thank you & Happy Weekend!
My pleasure. Happy Weekend. Goff
<3
Have a great day. Goff
Visa versa 2UX2!
Thanks. Best Wishes. Goff
<3
Thanks.
Wow. What intense, vibrant colours!
I love the way some countries embrace and celebrate color!
Lovely work very well photographed
You are very kind Derrick. Thank you.
Beautiful photos as always shared by you Cindy. Yes, Chile has such talented artists@
The world is full of talented people. I wish recognition of individual talent was more equally distributed.
I think my favorite of this group has to be the one with the angled buildings on the very steep hill.
You have a good eye. Valparaiso is stunning because it is comprised of steep hills, covered by stacked houses and buildings, that crawl down the mountainside to the sea.
echt interessant, liebe Cindy, genieße das schöne Wochenende, Klaus
Frohe Wochenende mein Lieber Freund Klaus <3
mache es gut
Danke schoen!
danke, alles Gute
<3 <3
immer wieder gerne
Wow! Whimsical, colorful, and stunning.
I love the whimsy & color too!
😀
Thank you for the tour. Love this set of murals. A pure joy for us of traveling with you. 🙂
You make my travel better Amy <3
💗🙏
There’s a lot of talent there Cindy. The art is really neat.
Leslie xoxo
It makes me wonder how many seriously talented people go unheralded and remain unknown.
So true Cindy….
<3
WOW! How fantastic, to live where art is everywhere. So very beautiful. Once again I’m going to reblog your wonderful post. Thank you.
People like you are why I love blogging <3
Pingback: Valparaiso Open Air Art II~ — (another wonderful post from Cindy Knoke) | Rethinking Life
Ah, how I love to look at your photos of the colourful street art, Cindy! They sure brighten up the city scenery.
They certainly do! They are gifts of love and talent.
Such lovely artwork! Of course, you know my favorites are the ones with the kitties! 😉
We think alike. Herbert our cat approves <3
How wonderful and visually stimulating. I love places that encourage public art, especially vibrant murals like these. Thanks for sharing Cindy!
Thanks more for appreciating these artists Brad & Happy Weekend!
How wonderful! And I’m sure these amazing artists “feed” off each other, adding to their creativity, too. Love the kitty playing with the fish in the glass!
Such a whimsical scene! I love it too~
Wow love the wall art. 🙂
So happy you do & thank you!
I love the vibrant colors 🙂
So amazing! I’m not gonna lie, I kind of want to move to Valparaiso now; artists are some of my favorite people to chat with.
Yes, their personalities match their talent!
I’ve been to Chile a number of times but mostly in the North (Iquique). This makes me really want to visit Valparaiso!
Valparaiso and the coastal cities around it are wonderful, and then of course you can venture even further south where the landscape becomes even more magical. This is why we keep going back to Chile and Argentina.
Engaging public art.
Happy you enjoyed & cheers Sally!
Fantastic art that you shared of Valparaiso, Cindy, thank you. I never knew an entire city could be a UNESCO site, it must be extraordinary. Your photos are a delight, not only for the art and different styles you highlighted, but also for the perspective you were able to show in the hugeness of each mural.
Thanks my friend. Looks like we both headed south. I was marveling at your tapir photographs!
Just AWESOME…
Muchos gracias!
Wonderful photos, stunning murals. I don’t understand why we bypassed Valparaiso. Clearly we should have gone there!
Alison
Since we both travel the globe in hopes of seeing ‘stuff’, we both have learned, the more we see, the more we miss.
It’s wonderful isn’t it Alison, this pursuit of ours, and this recognition, that it will never ever begin to be enough to capture the beauty of this planet and it’s occupants.
Love to you.
Reblogged this on Musings on Life & Experience and commented:
Cindy Knoke’s lovely photos of the stunning art of Valparaiso, Chile.
Have a wonderful weekend dear Patricia and thank you <3
It must be the most amazing place, Cindy! Especially like the second. 🙂 🙂 Happy weekend!
Happy Weekend Jo & thanks so much for stopping by <3
So colorful and perfect!!! A treat for the eyes! Thanks for sharing with us!!
Thank you more for your very kind appreciation my friend & thank you!
Très joli et très coloré, un de nos futur voyage, ma belle soeur travaille là bas, en tant que professeur de sciences.
Oh c’est merveilleux! J’espère que vous postez vos photos lors de votre visite.
So much more interesting that our usual Berkley Beige all over the neighborhoods in the USA! -Oscar
Oh, the beige on beige in US cities and suburbs is the bane of my existence. People in the US seemed afraid of color. Even our cars are mono-chromatic! Bring back the blues, greens, yellows. I am so tired of grey, white, silver, and black cars!
Thank you for sharing this beautiful place!
I always am amazed by big art works like these. Love the color and especially the one that has a cat sticks its paw into the fish bowl.
Isn’t the cat with the fish wonderful. I loved the humor in it. Thanks for stopping by & Happy Caturday!
Ah, Cindy – how COOL! Thank you for taking us…could have stayed forever!
You are an excellent travel companion Leya! Cheers to you <3
♥
That looks so amazing, what wonderful artist…what stunning colours . Thank you for taking us there!
I love traveling with you my friend <3
One of our neighbors is from Chile – such lovely images. A beautiful place with beautiful people.
Yes, a fascinating, varied, and justifiably proud country.
Wonderful to see the colorful art – you captured the amazing talent of the local artists.
And they are so generous to share their talent for everyone to enjoy. An open air museum with no entry fee <3
Reblogged this on Vijayagiri views.
Thank you for your kind thoughtfulness & cheers to you!
Pingback: Valparaiso Open Air Art II~ – Vijayagiri views
Thank you!
This is art of the heart and the soul – proudly and beautifully expressed for all to see.
So good, so lovely ! Thanks for sharing it with us too. ❤
How can you not love street art such as this? There is so much to observe, and appreciate, and learn hidden in the surface beauty. The cats were my favorites. Wonderful pics, Cuz 🌺🐱🌹
The cats are my favorite too cuz. Cheers to you from Orca Island <3
What an exceptional variety, and all so beautiful. Fabulous post.
Very pleased you enjoyed & thank you for letting me know!
Reblogged this on charles french words reading and writing and commented:
Here are beautiful photographs of outside art in Valparaiso, Chile, from Cindy Knoke!
Thank you for your kindness Charles. People like you are why I love blogging!
Wow! This is amazing! Wonderful collection! <3
We have lots of super talented people in this world! So glad you enjoyed~
When we were there somebody told us the artwork was started as a means to cut down on graffiti.
These are unique. I haven’t seen any like this. How very colorful they are! Best wishes for an awesome week, Cindy. Cheers!
Pure joy!
Oh wow, I want to visit. There are some places in Glasgow and London that would really benefit from such vibrant and colourful, talented artistry. I drove through the City yesterday and there is some ugly graffiti and lots of litter and I would love to just colour it all over.
I so agree. Take a run down and neglected area and turn the artists living there loose to turn into an outdoor art gallery, drawing people, and their cash back to the area. Pure genius! Everyone wins. <3
stunning work!
So much talent in this world!
Beautiful work!
Aren’t they amazing artists!
I cannot imagine what kind of excitement one can get in that museum! Awesome place and pictures!
Thank you Alexander. It is inspiring to visit and humbling to realize how talented so many people are.
I love this art movement. Let us see more.
Awww, so appreciated! Thank you and I will show you more. These artists so deserve the recognition for their talent and unselfishness.
Amazing. So colourful. Thank you for sharing, Cindy! Have a beautiful week! Michael
Thank you Michael for appreciating these oh so talented artists!
They are really unique and professional. Michael
Very talented and generous people.
Think so too. Thank you Cindy!
So inspiring. Thanks for this post. I like all of them. The paintings are so powerful and colorful 🙂
These wonderful artists transformed a city. How cool is that!
Very cool. I wish we had artists like that over here 🙂
They donate their talent to make life more beautiful for all of us <3
Yes they do and it’s lovely 🙂
<3 <3
So wonderful! I love good streetart!
I do too and the artists who gift it to us!
Looking again here. (Great thing about online travel: you can drop everything snd go. And go back whenever) Bright stuff, an energy and attitude I haven’t experienced, but admire, sometimes wish for. Hard to come by in buttoned-down, manicured suburban mid-west.. Grateful for you!
Online travel has no congested airplanes with airplane germs, no lost baggage, and no cost. It is the best way to fly! Your comment touched my <3 Thank you! And I do know exactly what you mean. In so many countries color is celebrated, mixed around, used so creatively. I love it. I come home to beige on beige American suburbs and wonder why we are so timid about color.
I saved the yellow cat one. Even though the sign says no stopping, each time I do the cat stops me from thinking. I just smile for a while.
I meant to say, the whole thing stops me: the colors, the forms, the story, the sign, and the facts that someone made this right there in the street, and that you thought to put into your little electronic museum. Cheers all around!
You know the amazing thing about the sign? The artist incorporated the painting around it. How cool is that! I just loved the cleverness and whimsy, and how it captured the the cat’s cute cattiness. Cheers back to you Albert. It is lovely to meet you here in our peaceful electronic world.
Just wow, the art looks amazing. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for appreciating these generous artists Annabel <3
Thats incredible!
Lucky people to live in this beautiful place, but they deserve it because they take such good care of it.
It’s nice to see people take such good care of their community.
These artworks are so beautiful. I really admire their talent. Thank you so much for sharing. Just looking at these gave me so much happiness
Your happiness just made be so happy. Thank you for telling me, and thank these amazing artists who are making so many people happy, for free.
Thank You showing these – gorgeous pics. I visited Valparaiso in 2004, when my daughter was working in Santiago de Chile during three months, then we did not see these..
Happy you enjoyed them and wonderful that you have been to both Valparaiso and Santiago.
Amazing. 🙂 And lovely bright vibrant colours. 🙂
Yes the colors create such beauty. Thank you!
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Grazie mille <3
Absolutely stunning!
Grazie mille <3
Valparaíso en la noche,
Siento tus pasos de baile,
Van recorriendo mi cuerpo,
Van despertando mi sangre,
Valparaíso en la noche,
Eres más libre que el aire. (…)
From ‘Valparaiso en la noche’, a beautiful song by Angel Parralog is marvellous
P.S. – Cindy, your site is marvellous! 🙂
From ‘Valparaiso en la noche’, a beautiful song by Angel Parra 🙂
Thank you so much & lovely to meet you! დ
You are so kind, Cindy! Have a nice week.