Painting Among the Stars: Our Mural for The Stargazer
Tucked just off the bustle of St James’s Street in Brighton sits The Stargazer, and recently, SNUB23 and I had the chance to turn its exterior into an epic, four-storey slice of deep space.
The client wanted something eye-catching and celestial to match the venue's name. A subtle sky scene wasn't going to cut it—we wanted to pull passers-by straight off the pavement and launch them into orbit.
We designed a towering astronaut drifting in zero gravity, reaching outward across the facade. To ground the piece while giving it punch, we kept the suit rendered in high-contrast, graphic monochrome, loaded with chunky linework and industrial mechanical detail.
The real focal point, though, is the helmet visor. Floating inside that curved reflection is a vibrant, luminous nebula—swirling with vivid magentas, deep cyans, and warm amber light, echoing a fantastical galaxy that stretches across the brickwork behind him.
At four storeys tall, this was a massive undertaking, made even more intense by the logistics. With no cherry picker or scissor lift on site, we worked from a mobile scaffolding tower that we had to constantly shift, drag, and re-position around the wall just to reach every section. It was four solid days of heavy lifting, climbing, and dodging architectural quirks.
To tackle that sheer volume of brick, we used a hybrid approach. We blocked in the heavy foundation layers and the deep blacks of space using brushes and masonry emulsion, before moving in with spray paint to work up the soft celestial fades, nebula glow, and crisp linework on the space suit.
Seeing the full figure emerge as the scaffold finally rolled away made every drop of sweat worth it. If you’re cutting through Kemptown or wandering down St James’s Street, take a second to look up and spot our cosmic explorer floating above the rooftops. Huge thanks to the crew at The Stargazer for trusting our vision and letting us take the pub out of this world!
“Sprite was a joy to work with from start to finish, giving clear and insightful feedback on our initial ideas and shaping them into a final piece of art that we, and our guests, absolutely love. And Sprite does it all with energy and enthusiasm!”
