In the music industry there is a phenomena known as 'the difficult third album'. This is where a band may have had a big hit with their first album, having seemingly come from nowhere, and follow it up quickly with their second which also does well and is normally similar in sound to their first. The band or artist then takes a break or finishes their touring and goes back to the studio to work on their next album but they have grown musically, mentally, financially and their sound might not be the hotest thing since sliced bread anymore. They decided to head in a different direction and the result is nowhere near as good or popular as their previous offerings. This doesn't mean that they are finished in the business as it can lead to a honing of their sound and hopefully a much better fourth album.

And so the difficult third post for me. I think the first two posts showed some wonderful street art and I am sure there will be plenty more around the city and surrounding areas as I go out over the next few months looking for it. I didn't want to leave a big gap between my posts but I don't have the time at the moment to find something that can compare. So I have decided to go simpler and smaller and hopefully it will fill the gap while I get to my bigger and better future posts.

Last week after my daughter had finished ballet we took a five minute walk around to the Centre d'Art to take some photos of the artwork on the front of the building. You can see some of the paintings from the street but to get a proper view and decent photos we had to squeeze through a broken gate. My five year old was excited about us sneaking into the small garden because she thought we had entered a secret place that not many people knew about.

The artwork at the Centre d'Art is the first street art I remember seeing in Nouméa and encouraged me to look passed the overwhelming amount of tagging that adorns everthing in the city and one piece in particular is still my favourite.
There is a young boy sitting at the end of the wall looking out onto the busy street. I wonder what he is thinking about and who or what he is waiting for as he sits quietly. For some reason I find it reassuring that everytime I go passed he is still there.

There are also other paintings on the walls around the small garden area including this beautiful one of the 'blue' woman and also I suspect there will be many artistic interpretations of the man below.

Location: Centre d'Art - 6, bd extérieur, Faubourg-Blanchot, Nouméa.

I found out on Tuesday that my free time was going to be dramatically reduced from Thursday as I received confirmation that I would be recommencing my job at a bilingual school outside of Nouméa. I decided to use my last morning to go and spend an hour taking photos. I didn't have a plan of where to go so I googled 'grafitti' and 'Nouméa' to see what pictures it would bring up. Three of the first six pictures were of the same image and it was one I had seen on the side of La Fédération des Oeuvres Laïques de Nouvelle-Calédonie (F.O.L.) building late last year when I went to see the movie 'L'ordre et la morale'.

The F.O.L. building sits on a hill looking out over Nouméa. Currently it can be see day and night because of the large SOS, lit up at night, on the front of the building. The building needs major works to bring it up to saftey standards and sadly money is lacking hence the call for help.

Okay, back to the artwork. The reason I think that the following picture is on the net so often compared to other street art in Nouméa is due to the number of buses bringing Australian holidaymakers, who have just arrived for the day on their cruise ship of choice, to look at the view but what they see first as they are driven up to the building is this.

I personally think it is beautiful and the best artwork I have seen around Nouméa. It has been encroached on as other artist have added to the wall and I think eventually someone will work over it which would be a shame.
The building itself is covered on three sides with commisioned and uncommisioned work. As I wondered round I took quite a lot of photos and below are a few of my favourite ones.

So I had a fun morning taking my time and enjoying the artwork and grafitti around the building. I know I could come back again next year and there would be new and interesting artwork for me to discover as it seems to be a place that groups and individuals can express themselves freely.

I have added lots of pictures of my trip to F.O.L. on the photos page along with further photos from my first post. I'm happy for your thoughts and again if there is any street art that you have seen that would be good for me to visit and photograph let me know.

Location: La F.O.L. - 51 Rue Du Pasteur Marcel Ariege, Centre Ville.