Sheffield street artist nominated for world's best painting
2025-01-10
Category: entertainment

A Sheffield street artist has been nominated for creating the world's best street art in 2024.Megan Russell, who works under the name Peachzz, painted for up to 12 hours a day for 10 days in a row to create the 25-metre tall artwork in the city centre. Reverie, depicting a heron and a kingfisher, has been nominated for "best mural in the world" in Street Art Cities' best of 2024 awards.She said working on the project, which overlooks Pounds Park, was the "biggest highlight of my career so far".
"I had free reign to be as vibrant and bold as I wanted. It's really refreshing when clients tell you that, it doesn't happen often," she said.
The piece, commissioned by Sheffield City Council, was voted the best of last June's entries in Street Art Cities' monthly competition."It's just been crazy. When June's votes came in, it blew my mind," Megan said."It was an amazing feeling to have such support from Sheffield, and it also showed how much Sheffield is interested in street art."Now, it has been pooled with 50 other artworks, from countries including Argentina, Colombia, Russia, Spain and Denmark, for people to vote for the best of the year."Looking back 10 years ago, I would've never thought I could've reached this space where I am now," she said.
'An emotional January'
"I remember looking at those competitions and thinking I'd love to be nominated, and now I am. It's unbelievable."The nomination came during "an emotional January" as Megan's grandmother Iris Reynolds, who inspired her nickname, died on Tuesday."She was a super creative person and inspired me a lot into being an artist. She had an iPad and was following my artwork. She seemed really proud," Megan said."She used to feed me tinned peaches and ice cream, and I ended up using Peachzz as an online pseudonym when I was young."I just never changed it, and people would call me it in person. It felt like it was a part of me."Megan started spray painting a decade ago in old industrial buildings in Sheffield and has been working professionally for about seven years.
This year, she is working on launching a street art festival, Lick Of Paint Fest, alongside fellow artist Alastair Flindall.The graffiti and street art scene in Sheffield has "quietened down", she said, so the festival hopes to give it a boost.If Reverie comes in at, or near, the top in the Street Art Cities rankings, this would give the budding festival a platform, Megan said.Voting takes place on Street Art Cities' website and is open until the end of January."There are so many incredible artists that are up there. It's an honour to be among such big names," she added.
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