Street painting

The works of screevers often were accompanied by poems and proverbs, lessons on morality, and political commentary on the day’s events.

"[citation needed] They appealed to both the working people, who (on the whole) could not read or write, but understood the visual images; and to the educated members of the middle-classes who appreciated the moral lessons and comments.

For centuries, many Madonnari were folk artists, reproducing simple images with crude materials such as tiles, coal, and chalk.

In 1973, street painting was being promoted in Italy by the formation of a two-day festival in Grazie di Curtatone in the Province of Mantua.

[1] In 1993, Rosy Loyola created Festival Bella Via in Monterrey, Mexico, which has launched several Mexican artists into the international street painting field.

More than 200 artists spend hours during the weekend turning the streets of Larimer Square into a museum of chalk art.

[7] At Sarasota's 2011 chalk festival Dutch artist Leon Keer and the team of Planet Streetpainting created the 3-D street painting of the Lego Terracotta Army.

The chalk painting was inspired by Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang's Terracotta Army "in honor of the arrival of Ego Leonard and to support his release out of his custody.

[7] In 2012, A company called We Talk Chalk, led by Creative Director Melanie Stimmell, and Remco Van Latum, introduced the art of 3-D street painting to countries such as Israel and Thailand.

The festival had as many as 50,000 visitors, including Israel’s President Shimon Peres who posed with paintings by Melanie Stimmell and Ruben Poncia.