Sheffield street artist Faunagraphic brightens up Gleadless Valley with stunning mural 

Faunagraphic, also known as Sarah Yates, has been busy over the last couple of weeks painting a huge mural with birds and flowers at the side of the Gaunt shopping centre. Fauna started it on June 10, and has just a few finishing touches to make.

“I’m enjoying it, the locals are really happy,” Fauna said. “People that own the shops there as well are all very motivated to get everything nice again and not so neglected.”

The 37-year-old has been the name behind around 100 murals across the city over the past 15 years, and was commissioned by the council for this project after carrying out similar work in March in Jordanthorpe.

The new mural, on Blackstock Road, in the Hemsworth area of the city, forms part of a £100 million ‘masterplan’ in Gleadless Valley. The plans include making the Gaunt shopping area more ‘vibrant and attractive’, after it was identified as in need of improvement and investment by the council.

Other plans for the area include the planting of wildflowers and trees, new seating, and repairs to and repainting of existing railings.

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For Fauna’s mural, the artwork now splashes some much appreciated colour on the neighbourhood. The mum-of-two said: “It does make such a big difference, it can completely change the atmosphere of a place.

“They’re trying to regenerate the area and make it feel a little bit friendlier. I’ve taken before and after photos and it did look a bit derelict before. Some of the imagery is really bold, but in general everybody’s really enjoyed seeing it develop. I think it will have the effect that I was hoping for.

“I think everybody is very keen on making it a nice little community. I’ve had people that have left the area or pass by a lot come back to say it’s such a shame to see all the shops empty, it’s not what it was, but that they hope it gets better again.”

While most of Fauna’s work has been in Sheffield, she now also travels to Manchester, Nottingham - and even abroad, for her work.

She said: “I've been painting murals for 17 years now. I started painting murals in Sheffield when I was 22 and I built my business from there. 

“I think as kids we grew up thinking that whatever we put on paper, if it didn't look perfect, it wasn't good enough. That was a bit of a trap that I ended up in, because I was trying to capture everything.

“Now you get so many artists who are much more free and expressive and loose with all their colours and sketches. It's almost unlearning something that we've been programmed to think about if we can't draw or not - and we all actually can.”