Dubai Canvas 3D Art Festival at City Walk

Brand Dubai is the creative arm of the Government of Dubai Media Office, who have created a platform for some of the world's leading 3D artists who have been showcasing their 3D art at the Dubai Canvas 3D Art Festival in City Walk.

I visited twice, once as they were setting up and again to see the finished art work.

You can see the size of the canvas if you look carefully at the artists at work.

Let me know which one is your favourite, I'm hard pressed to decide.

Dubai Canvas 3D Art Festival at City Walk. Week 114 - My Sunday Photo. A is for Art.

Brand Dubai is the creative arm of the Government of Dubai Media Office, who have created a platform for some of the world's leading 3D artists who have been showcasing their 3D art at the Dubai Canvas 3D Art Festival in City Walk.

Standing at a marked view point to see the full effect of each piece of art.

The paint brush on the child's leg is removable and approximately 3 ft long, she can also see the artist at work in the second photo to get an idea of the scale of the work.

If you want to see the rest of the art work then simply click here.

The Green Planet, City Walk. Tropical Rainforest in Dubai with AnimalTales and HDYGG

The Green Planet at City Walk is home to a tropical rainforest, a standalone bio-dome that is home to over 3000 plants and animals.

While I was very impressed with my first view of The Green Planet, I was slightly disappointed to it's size. Everything in Dubai starts with 'The worlds first/biggest/largest....' and whilst not meaning to put down the efforts of their Tropical Rainforest in the middle of the desert, from the hype and media advertising I just assumed it was going to be bigger and better than what it actually was. So with high expectations, based on previous experiences I was a little disappointed when I visited.

I did have the option to fill in a customer survey at the end of the visit and had the pleasure to meet the project manager, who has invited me back as the project continues to grow for a walk round to hopefully impress me some more.

This isn't meant as a negative review, because once I put my initial thoughts to one side, I could see the effort and work that has gone into the planning, design and construction of this project and the more I read on The Green Planet, the more I appreciate the mammoth taks they undertook to build a rainforest in the desert.

So I'll leave you with these photos and tell you that the entry price was worth every single dirham, you can also visit using the Entertainer App. There are restaurants, cafes and shops and plenty of parking at City Walk and you can access the area by the number 93 or number 8 bus along the Al Wasl Road.

 There was lots of information on the animals inside the dome and educational and interactive areas, but I was disappointed by the lack of information on the plants and it would've been handy to have had a printed guide to carry around with the names of the birds and butterflies, seen throughout the visit as most of the information was on the top floor, where you start the tour.

You can read more about The Green Planet on their website.

City Walk, Indoor Rain Forest and Art

I know this isn't a garden I've taken photo's of, but it's outdoors and living in Dubai, being outdoors isn't something anyone does between mid May and Mid October.

City Walk is just up the road from us, off Al Wasl towards Dubai Mall. It's also a short trip on the bus for us. 

I've been up there a few times, but this was the first visit since the new area was opened a few months ago. It's a mixture of indoors and outside dining, shops, activities, open space, water fountains and art.

It was still a bit hot to be walking around in the day in September and despite driving past every day, to and from work, I can't see myself popping in their too much as it's aimed at the high end of the market in regards to it's shops and although it has a large car park, both above and underground, it's not that convenient to stop off at, especially in rush hour an a couple of U turns involved. It is also the  main route to and from the Dubai Mall, which is the largest Mall in the world.

We'll probably visit a bit more in the evenings once winter kicks in, but I imagine it'll be very busy as apart from Box Park there aren't many other shopping and dining areas near us.

 From the car park

 Inside

 One of the many fountains

 Yarn bombing the palm trees

The architecture is stunning.

The views are pretty spectacular too.

 Inside the chocolate factory, we had chocolate butter on our breakfast toast. 

There are some fantastic pieces of art around but no information on what it's all about or who the artist is.

I'm saving my visit to the indoor Rain Forest until my mum visits in November and I'm sure she'll pop up here on the bus on the days we're both working.

My patch of sand in the garden is sadly neglected, we did tidy out the shed over the weekend and recovered the garden tools and pots and located all the packets of seeds. The temperatures are now below 35c in the day and dropping as low as 24c over night so I can begging to plant some seeds now it is cooler for them to start geminating. Last year I did this in June and July as I kept the seedlings indoors, but I spent the summer in the UK and being flat out with work, I just haven't had the time or inclination to be dealing with tidying up the mess.

The school gardening club is going well, this week we experimented with growing cress seeds on different surfaces and talking about what we think will be the best for them to grow on, we also planted sunflower seeds which the children have taken home with them to look after. We have tomatoes and peas growing nicely in pots and the children have enjoyed decorating plant pots, making plant labels and just generally getting their hands in the compost bag.