Anonymous street artist leaves new mural in Chichester city centre

The black and white stencil painting depicts a little girl holding a bouquet of flowers, and seems characteristic of Hendog’s other work. Dubbed “Beauty’s In The Eye Of The Holder,” on his website, curious art lovers can spot the piece at the turning off East Street into Little London.

The graffiti artist’s tag has appeared all over the South Coast, with similar murals popping up in Camberley, Eastleigh and Winchester, but it seems this is the first time they’ve left their mark on Chichester.

"I think aesthetically the piece fits Chichester really well,” they explained. “It’s a lot like Winchester in that there’s a lot of Roman influence, which I think it’s really fitting. But more than that, you guys have embraced street art from some really famous artists and I thought my piece would fit in really well, that it would be embraced.”

Hendog’s work often focuses on children, youth, innocence and nostalgia. The Camberley piece, for example, depicts a little girl putting up a poster for her lost teddy bear, while another, in Dorset, shows us a little boy fishing out of a bowl.

"With pieces like this, they’re built on my own nostalgia, hence the off-white tones. There are stories behind each one but I like to leave it up to the viewer to connect with my work, and I don’t want to take away from that,” Hendog said.

Their work is joins street art by other artists including Stix, RUN and Thierry Noir, all of whom were celebrated during this year’s Chichester Street Art festival, which returned after a ten year hiatus, and saw several new murals erected in and around the city.

That heritage is part of why Hendog thinks the stencilling has been so well received since it first appeared in Chichester back last month: “I feel like Chichester was a really positive place. People usually really embrace what I do, and Chichester is a great example of that. I’m always wary of towns with hugely rich history so I do a lot of research before I start because you don’t want to make a mistake with something like that.”