Street Artist My Dog Sighs and Friends paint Hilsea Lido as part of levelling up Portsmouth, 2023

Portsmouth-based street artists My Dog Sighs and Fark brought together more than ten local artists through the Corner Collective to transform the 80-metre-long hoardings surrounding Hilsea Lido. Created during a three-day paint jam from 24 to 26 February, the collective mural presented a vivid portrait of Portsmouth through wildlife, maritime imagery, local history and messages of optimism.

Street Artist My Dog Sighs and Friends paint Hilsea Lido as part of levelling up Portsmouth, 2023. Image copyright GraffitiStreet

A Collective Portrait of Hilsea

Across the full length of the hoardings, the artists created works inspired by foxes, birds, ships, local wildlife and the coastal identity of Portsmouth. Fark’s involvement brought his characteristic language of positivity to the project, while the wider gathering allowed contrasting approaches to typography, illustration, portraiture and mural painting to unfold along the wall. 

Credits across the surviving 2023 project listings vary slightly, although the participating artists included My Dog Sighs, Fark, Mister Samo, South Soak, Mook Loves You, Midge, Sadie Tierney, Skank, Gary Stranger, Roo Abrook, Chris Reeves and Matt “M-One” Dixon. Pre-event listings also named Berk, Winnie May and Pogo among the artists expected to paint during the weekend. 

The gathering offered a rare moment in which a substantial group of Portsmouth artists could work alongside one another in public. The resulting wall carried the visual energy of a paint jam while remaining closely connected to the character, ecology and collective memory of its location.

Portsmouth Reflected Through a Familiar Eye

At the centre of the project, My Dog Sighs repainted the monumental eye that had become a familiar landmark for walkers, runners and cyclists passing the historic lido. The new composition retained the artist’s recognisable visual language, using the eye as a vessel for memory, place and emotional connection.

Within its reflection, My Dog Sighs painted a Portsmouth fox based on an image shared with permission by a young local wildlife photographer. The animal stands against the city skyline, bringing Portsmouth’s natural and architectural landscapes together within a single gaze.

“For the reflection in the eyes I was kindly given permission to reference a photo of a portsmouth city fox by a young local photographer William wildlife photography who captures a lot of the wildlife around our island city. While maybe not as apt as Sean Connery climbing out of the lido in the 60’s (used for the reflection of the last eye on this wall) I felt the fox represented perfectly the balance of the urban and rural nature of the city.” My Dog Sighs Insta

The fox was a perceptive choice for Hilsea. Positioned along the northern edge of Portsea Island, the Hilsea Lines landscape brings woodland, water, historic fortifications and major transport routes into unusually close proximity. My Dog Sighs’ reflected animal captured this meeting point between the city’s built environment and the wildlife continuing to inhabit it.

The My Dog Sighs Hilsea Lido mural became a vivid record of local creativity, civic memory and the relationship between Portsmouth’s built environment and its surrounding natural landscape.

Street Art Within the Hilsea Lines Regeneration

The mural formed part of the wider Hilsea Lines programme, with Hilsea Lido placed at the centre of plans to improve the northern coastline of Portsea Island. Portsmouth City Council allocated £8.75 million of its wider £20 million Transforming the Visitor Economy Levelling Up award to Hilsea Lines, while the remaining investment supported projects including the transformation of Portsmouth International Port. 

Alongside the restoration of the lido, the programme sought to create better-connected woodland and green spaces, improve access around Foxes Forest and strengthen walking and cycling connections between Portsmouth’s western and eastern shores. 

The painted hoardings gave this large civic programme an immediate human presence. Before construction plans could be understood through completed buildings and pathways, the artists translated the ambitions of the project into images rooted in local experience.

Why the Hilsea Lido Mural Mattered

Public murals often become informal records of the communities around them, particularly when their imagery grows directly from the location. At Hilsea Lido, the fox, birds, ships and reflected skyline offered more than decoration. Together, they acknowledged Portsmouth as a place shaped by water, wildlife, movement and generations of shared memories.

My Dog Sighs’ eye became the emotional centre of that story. Its reflection asked viewers to look again at a landscape that many passed every day, revealing the quiet coexistence of urban infrastructure and the natural world within Portsmouth’s island geography.

Editor’s Update, August 2026

The 2023 eye mural was removed in 2024 when the lido’s unsafe spectator stand was demolished as part of the redevelopment. Portsmouth City Council worked with My Dog Sighs and Strong Island Media to document its removal and announced that the artists would return to create other murals once the lido was operating again. 

Following the completion of the major renovation, Hilsea Lido reopened to the public on 2 May 2026 as a year-round swimming, wellbeing and community destination.

Discover My Dog Sighs at GraffitiStreet

Explore the wider practice of My Dog Sighs through GraffitiStreet, from his emotionally charged murals and reflective eye paintings to original works created from reclaimed materials.

Discover available artworks online or experience selected works in person at GraffitiStreet Gallery, 25A West Street, Chichester, West Sussex, England PO19 1QW.