James Straffon

James Straffon is a London-based fine artist, who explores the relationship between the natural world, and the urban environment. Over a number of years he has created a vibrant street art 'safari', within an expanding quarter of north London, exposing residents and visitors to a snapshot of diversity and adventure. 

By introducing a broad array of species, he aims to promote the concept of integration, alongside a more vital theme; that of endangerment and the threat to global ecosystems. His large-scale artworks span countries such as India, Madagascar, Africa, New Zealand, the frozen north, and South America, as well as indigenous species. He is keen to foster an ongoing environment of free-to-view imagery, which engages the younger generation, and those who might experience a lack of inclusion and opportunity, within the arts.

If you would like to discuss a commission project, of any size, send an email using the CONTACT link above

To view a full timeline of artworks click HERE

All artwork, text and images © James Straffon 2025.

Let's Stay Together [The Mandarin] - limited edition print

Let's Stay Together [The Mandarin].

Limited edition of 25. Signed.
Hahnemühle German Etching pigment print.
42 x 29cm.
[includes folder and postage]

£150

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To purchase send an email shop@james-straffon.co.uk

All artwork, text and images © James Straffon 2025.

This little piggy...

Support Farm Sanctuary by buying a limited edition THIRTY-FIVE TALES print.

With thanks to Perkyns's
Neighbourhood coffee, craft beer and sandwich shop.
10 Vicarage Parade, West Green Road, London.

 

Photo © Veronica Aguilar

All artwork, text and images © James Straffon 2025.

Flood. A sign.

Flood. A sign.

Spray paint on metal street sign
75 x 86cm.

During the course of the twenty-first century, global sea levels are predicted to rise by up to 2 metres, possibly more. As a result, land occupied by 300 million people will fall below the elevation of an average annual coastal flood. By 2100, 200 million people could sit permanently below the high tide line.

The UN is warning that our planet is on course for 3C of global warming. This will ultimately redraw the map of the world. A key variable in this outcome will be how much heat-trapping pollution from human activities is dumped into the atmosphere, and how quickly the land-based ice sheets in Greenland and especially Antarctica destabilise. Another factor is widespread, intensive farming, which changes land cover by removing preexisting vegetation, thereby increasing the risk of flooding.

It is now widely accepted that extreme weather patterns, caused by long-term global climate change, make floods more likely. The science is impossible to ignore.

As global temperatures rise, there is significantly more energy in the Earth’s system. This amplified state results in higher air temperatures, which increase the possibility for evaporation and ultimately cloud formation. In this perfect storm scenario, the air is also able to hold more moisture content, which leads to an increase in precipitation intensity, duration and/or frequency.

"If you have more moisture in the atmosphere, the same rainfall systems rain harder - that is something we see globally. And that has a human greenhouse gas signal in it."
Professor Gabi Hegerl, University of Edinburgh.

All artwork, text and images © James Straffon 2025.

Flood. A sign.

Flood. A sign.

Spray paint on metal street sign
75 x 86cm.

£550 + postage

During the course of the twenty-first century, global sea levels are predicted to rise by up to 2 metres, possibly more. As a result, land occupied by 300 million people will fall below the elevation of an average annual coastal flood. By 2100, 200 million people could sit permanently below the high tide line.

The UN is warning that our planet is on course for 3C of global warming. This will ultimately redraw the map of the world. A key variable in this outcome will be how much heat-trapping pollution from human activities is dumped into the atmosphere, and how quickly the land-based ice sheets in Greenland and especially Antarctica destabilise. Another factor is widespread, intensive farming, which changes land cover by removing preexisting vegetation, thereby increasing the risk of flooding.

It is now widely accepted that extreme weather patterns, caused by long-term global climate change, make floods more likely. The science is impossible to ignore.

As global temperatures rise, there is significantly more energy in the Earth’s system. This amplified state results in higher air temperatures, which increase the possibility for evaporation and ultimately cloud formation. In this perfect storm scenario, the air is also able to hold more moisture content, which leads to an increase in precipitation intensity, duration and/or frequency.

"If you have more moisture in the atmosphere, the same rainfall systems rain harder - that is something we see globally. And that has a human greenhouse gas signal in it."
Professor Gabi Hegerl, University of Edinburgh.

All artwork, text and images © James Straffon 2025.

URBAN FAUNA

 A limited edition print series, featuring street art works created by James Straffon, placed within the urban environment.

Each animal is currently endangered.

For buying enquiries email shop@james-straffon.co.uk
[include the print name.]

Let's Stay Together [The Mandarin].

Limited edition of 25. Signed.
Hahnemühle German Etching pigment print.
42 x 29cm.

£150

[plus packing and postage]

A Giraffe at the Drinking Fountain.

Limited edition of 25. Signed.
Hahnemühle German Etching pigment print.
42 x 29cm.

£150

[plus packing and postage]

A Red Panda up the Drain Pipe.

Limited edition of 25. Signed.
Hahnemühle German Etching pigment print.
42 x 29cm.

£150

[plus packing and postage]

A Tiger in the Tree House.

Limited edition of 25. Signed.
Hahnemühle German Etching pigment print.
42 x 29cm.

£150

[plus packing and postage]

A Rhino in the Herb Garden.

Limited edition of 25. Signed.
Hahnemühle German Etching pigment print.
42 x 29cm.
[includes presentation folder and postage]

£150

A Leopard guards the Landlord.

Limited edition of 25. Signed.
Hahnemühle German Etching pigment print.
42 x 29cm.

£150

[plus packing and postage]

A Tree Frog by the Snakes and Ladders.

Limited edition of 25. Signed.
Hahnemühle German Etching pigment print.
42 x 29cm.

£150

[plus packing and postage]

All artwork, text and images © James Straffon 2025.

Coastal Chic

Coastal Chic

In association with Collen & Clare.

A special commission for a boutique store in Southwold, Suffolk.
Work on canvas, plus interior walls. Spray paint and graffiti marker.
Main artwork 300cm x 150cm.

The project included a limited production of unique Anchor Tattoo artworks.

All artwork, text and images © James Straffon 2025.

sKATE

sKATE

Repurposed vintage skateboard. Spray paint on plywood.
75cm x 20cm x 10cm
POA

In 1994, on a shoot for Harper’s Bazaar magazine, German photographer Peter Lindbergh created what was to become an iconic image of the twenty-year-old British fashion model Kate Moss. The style was raw and atypical of the ubiquitous, over-sexualised gloss of the fashion industry at that time. Lindbergh was inspired by the work of American photographer and photojournalist Walker Evans (1903 - 1975), specifically his celebrated chronicle of America’s mid-1930s Great Depression.

In a later interview with Nick Knight for Show Studio, Moss said of the shoot 

“When I was doing it I remember thinking ‘this is a classic Lindbergh picture’.”

In representing this immortal image, sKATE appropriates the same rawness, mirroring the wooden, weather-beaten vertical shutter-board background used in the original Lindbergh photograph through the skate deck’s time worn surface.

All artwork, text and images © James Straffon 2025.

A Rhino in The Herb Garden

On 4th June 2018 the enlightened pupils at North Harringay Primary School, London returned from a half-term break to discover a Rhino in the herb garden. Further exploration of the outside zones of the school uncovered a climbing Red Panda, a majestic Tiger, an enquiring Red-eyed Tree Frog, a glorious Giraffe, bending to take a drink from one of the playground’s child-proportioned water fountains, and a mature Rhino, casually chewing on a clump of fresh Oregano shoots. A mini-menagerie had magically appeared in their absence.

The five animals in this collection were chosen to introduce the children to the diversity of the animal kingdom, and more critically bring focus to the plight of those species in danger of extinction, along with the rapidly disappearing flora on which they depend. The Sixth Mass Extinction is now a recognised phenomena - this a disconcerting and destructive component of a new epoch known as the Anthropocene age - in which human activity on our planet has become the dominant influence on climate and the environment; polluting the oceans and altering the atmosphere.

This influence has set a new and different trajectory for the Earth system. As the children grow up, and in time produce families of their own, will animals painted on walls be how we remember the creatures which once existed? Will the faded paint-marks of a rhino in the herb garden suggest a visual metaphor for how human caretakers failed to co-exist?

This series of artworks were created with the generous help of the North Harringay Primary PSA, along with the assistance of staff members.

A Rhino in the Herb Garden is partly created in the memory of Sudan - the last male Northern White Rhino of his species - who passed away in March 2018.

Project limited edition prints available on request.

All artwork, text and images © James Straffon 2025.