The wall sits right between a police station and a school — a pretty interesting spot for this piece.
Big thank you to my neighbor Guillermo, who filmed a lot of the process and even invited me into his family apartment, where I got to see the biggest toy collection I’ve ever seen in my life. (You’ll see more of that in a YouTube video sometime soon!)
Wish I had a bit more time to refine some parts, but the past month or so has been quite rough. Still, I’m really happy I got to take part in this anniversary edition.
Mural painted for the 10th edition of ArtWalk Festival in Patras, Greece. This piece is a continuation of my Flea Market series, and it was largely improvised on the spot — the composition kept evolving as soon as I saw the wall I’d be painting. Thankfully, I always carry around one terabyte of reference photos I’ve taken over the last five years, so I had plenty of material to build a composition that fit the space. Big thanks to Artwalk for the invitation and for extending my stay so I could finish the mural as intended. The weather turned against me halfway through the process and washed away some of the earlier painted parts, but in the end, everything came together as planned. Also, a huge thank you to all the wonderful volunteers for the company and laughs along the way.
Over the past year, I've had the privilege of traveling, painting, and capturing the process along the way. This video documents my first trip of 2024, taking you behind the scenes of the mural I painted for the DUK Festival in Čačak, Serbia.
In the video, I wanted to capture the scenery of the local flea market, as the mural's subject is the famous flea market in my hometown of Zagreb.
Filming my travels and mural projects has become essential to my process. It allows me to reflect on the work, the challenges, and the small moments that make each piece unique. Editing all the footage takes time, and, as they say, many of the cool shots end up on the cutting room floor. However, as I continue developing my filming and editing style, I might eventually create more extended versions of my travels and painting process.
I want to emphasize that my goal isn’t to become a YouTuber or anything like that. Painting large-scale murals is challenging enough, but having good process footage to look back on—especially editing it during the cold days—helps me stay in a creative mindset and motivates me to keep working.
Watch the full video here.
The mural titled "Browsing" features two scenes and marks a slight shift in my style and approach—something I had been eager to explore for some time and finally had the opportunity to do so. The first scene is inspired by the view you encounter every Sunday while walking toward Hrelić, where many people sell old items along the embankment that runs parallel to the market. In contrast, the second scene depicts items you might find while browsing. I sometimes buy things like this for drawings and small studies, just for fun.
While I’m happier with some parts than others, I’ve stopped viewing my work as a "finished product" and now see it as an opportunity to experiment and try something new each time.
Finally, the new season of painting outdoors has arrived.
This is a cropped image of the first day's progress.
I'm trying a different approach this time by doing an underpainting and solving the light and shapes monochromatically first ( because I have more time than usual to finish).
The mural is organized by Pučko Otvoreno Učilište-Zabok, and the wall is on the building of the Regeneracija factory.
I didn't want to do a release date / online event for the now available prints since it's mostly "older" reproduced works. Once I start working on a new series of murals and studio works, there will be a release date for every future print and a limited time to purchase it for a special price.
Since I'm writing about printmaking, it's good to mention my old ( not used much, so basically new) printing press for woodcut and intaglio that's been quietly waiting for me to clean it up and fall in love with it again...
Well, I also finally managed to find out some new techniques for transferring digital sketches on a board or a lino, so the plan for this winter is set. 💪
Mural painted at @xstaticfestival in Split, Croatia. Big thank you to the city of Split and to @senkzzzone for having me and for trusting me with such a big wall.
“Polupani Lončići”
In Croatian, that would mean something like smashed or broken pots.
This phrase would be used in our childhood game known as hide and seek. During the game, if you saw someone snitching, not counting correctly, calling out the wrong name, pretending to have not been seen and called out, simply cheating, or in other words, not playing by the rules, you or some of your playmates would have to yell "POLUPANI LONČIĆI"
The phrase would symbolize the end of the unfair or crooked game. It would also mean a reset, a new start for a fair and just game.
I also started filming and editing my own painting process, so here is my first ever "serious" video.
Subscribe to the channel for more future videos, from now on I'll try to do this for every project.
This is just half of the wall I started painting today at Lauba in Zagreb.
I've also started another wall with my buddy Chez at another location.
some other news:
A month ago, I got an invitation to take over the Paint Guide Instagram profile in June. I'll be posting daily about various artists that inspired me. Take over will last five days, as usual, posting several posts daily with lots of images and texts. This is a huge honor and a privilege I won't take for granted, so I'm already starting with preparations.
I’ve been wanting to write something about this blog, my work, my progress, and a possible change of direction for a while now.
Last year was rough. I had some seriously bad experiences with a few festivals, and they made me question this whole “street art” thing. It forced me to look back at everything I’ve done so far and to think about where I actually want to go next.
This doesn’t mean I’ll stop painting murals, at festivals or otherwise.
Not being put in a box and avoiding labels has always been one of the main reasons I loved painting outside. If I wanted to do something more realistic, more illustrative, or just different, there was no one there to tell me, “That’s not what we know you for—don’t do that. Do what we like.” That kind of attitude used to belong mostly to galleries, but more and more I’m seeing it in the so-called “urban art scene.”
I should say that my experiences with galleries in the last two years have actually been very positive. On the other hand, a lot of “street art” projects are funded by cities and often connected to tourist boards, and in those cases the artist can easily become a tool for propaganda. Not always—but it happens.
It is a good thing that this type of art has been accepted. It’s easier than ever to paint a big wall without worrying about prejudice or being accused of vandalism (even when you have permission). Mural festivals can’t really function without sponsors, and the more money a project has, the higher the production quality should be. I don’t have a problem with that.
Many of the people involved in these organizations are my friends. I know how hard it is to start something and how much work it takes to pull off a big event.
Still, I don’t think artists should be invited to projects just to please sponsors or to make a tourist postcard for a city. At that point, it stops being “your own thing” and becomes a commercial or commission job—and that should be treated and paid very differently.
My own thing
When I look at my older work, I can see a lot of bad decisions, compromises, and approaches that didn’t really make sense. But I’m glad they happened. Like Cicero said a long time ago, “More is lost by indecision than wrong decision.”
Lately, I’ve been spending more time in the studio, working with oil, gouache, and aquarelle, slowly shifting from spray to brushes. That doesn’t mean I’m abandoning spray or changing who I am as an artist. I just want to expand my tools, so I’m not dependent on a single medium—especially when I’m working outside my hometown.
I’m also trying to develop different palettes, work more on brushstrokes, and avoid fully rendered surfaces. Spray makes rendering and smooth transitions easy, but when everything is treated that way, the work can start to feel flat. Trying new mediums keeps things alive. Doing the same thing over and over just drains me and kills the desire to paint.
I could go on, but I’ll let future work speak for itself.
In future posts, I’d like to write more about influences—adopted art parents, inspirations, and some contemporary artists whose work keeps pushing me forward.
This kind of text might feel a bit out of place, but I needed to get it out. Having it written down should keep me working and help me stand my ground if situations like last year come up again. Hopefully, they won’t.
Peeling away layers of bad influences and mistakes can hurt—but it creates space for healthier growth.
Last week I visited the city of Tomar in Portugal and painted a mural for "Com-Templ.-Arte" festival.
I'm not that happy with the work because I had the sun on the wall the whole day, and also not enough days to define some details ( hands, faces, cones).
I like the composition, repetition of the number 3, and the light, but maybe if the execution were a bit different, it would work better.
The whole work was a kind of improvisation in a way.
I wanted to try a few things, and I certainly plan to revisit the idea, maybe try out only with brushes.
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