In 1995 and newly returned from overseas, artist Nicole Stewart applied fresh eyes to the familiar streets of her East End stamping ground. The drawings she produced are the basis for the East End Art Trail.

On the phone to CityMag, artist Nicole Stewart reminisces about another time in a much-loved part of Adelaide, which decades later has given birth to an art trail.

Nicole was one of the first design graduates of the newly founded University of South Australia and, like many young people back then, she gravitated toward the East End.

“When I think of the 90s, the area was pretty grungy, really,” she recalls.

She uses the words as a term of endearment. For those who came of age in the closing decades of last century, Rundle Street and its surrounds offered a vibe that was cosmopolitan, bohemian and unlike anywhere else in the city.

“We spend a lot of time there setting up exhibitions, watching friends in bands [and] drinking cappuccinos at Alfresco’s. I look back at those drawings and think it really was the epicentre for our early 20s,” she says.

In 1995, Nicole had returned from an extended period overseas, during which she’d travelled through India, Iran and the Middle East, sketching every day.

“I became quite practised at drawing and, coming back to Adelaide and the East End, I wanted to capture the familiar places that I knew so well.

“I guess I was trying to express something. I was starting to see things in a certain light from my travels.”

Nicole produced a series of pen sketches of the city’s East End, a snapshot in time. Their playful looseness and the pen lines themselves convey a sense of energy and life. Almost all the sketching was done onsite before she took the pieces home to finish it at her desk. They were quick, each taking only an hour or two to complete.

She recalls being perched in a corner of Frank’s barbershop, with people “having a bit of a nosy” as she sketched.

“I quite liked that part of it actually – sitting there and having small conversations with lots of people as they’d go about their day.”

The places Nicole chose to record were ones she felt a connection to.

“But also, there’s quite a few of the back streets and the murals that you can’t see anymore … As I said, it was quite a grungy place at the time. So, things that were familiar, but had some kind of charm as well.”

The images were exhibited that year in the front bar of The Austral. Nicole remembers that she approached publican Gosia Schild about hosting a solo exhibition there.

Happily, Gosia was receptive and the exhibition was also well received. The 16 artworks on display were, in fact, high-quality prints of the originals, allowing the displayed work and smaller postcard-size copies to be sold – and the East End Art Trail to be birthed all these years later.

In those days before the ubiquity of the internet, emails and smartphones, everything was done in a “lo-fi way”, says Nicole.

“It was just about walking the streets and speaking to businesses.”

Fast forward to 2023, where Nicole stumbled across the original sketches while “clearing out some stuff” and decided to post a few to Instagram. Call it divine intervention, or a well-timed algorithm, when the images found their way into the feed of Rundle Street East’s marketing coordinator, Sara Della Verde who immediately connected with the drawings and the 90s nostalgia they stirred.

“I had been toying with the idea for an art trail for a while, public art breathes life into our city streets, and I wanted to develop something that resonated with people,” Sara says.

“There’s a real, cultural connection everyone in Adelaide has to the East End in some way, from visiting the former produce markets in the 80s, to the warehouse parties in the 90s – this art trail celebrates those memories, while recognising everything the East End is today and the connection people will have with the precinct in another 30 years’ time.”

Teaming up, the duo applied for a public art grant released by the City of Adelaide, along with additional support from Maras Group and the East End Coordination Group.

The recently launched East End Art Trail provides a window into the past. A lot has changed in the East End since the nineties and Nicole admits to feeling nostalgic about how things used to be, particularly when she looks closer at each sketch. Her memory is jogged by the small details, like what was on the menu at Don Giovanni’s.

Today, the trail weaves past new restaurants, small bars and upmarket boutiques, with Nicole’s images wrapped, stuck onto and hung from poles and buildings. But not everything has changed – icons like Miss Gladys Sym Choon and Amalfi, the camera and adventure stores remain, as well as many others – and Nicole says, “you can still see the bones of the place”.

She’s also pleased street art is still a big part of the East End.

“I love that area behind the shops, in Sym Choon Lane, where there are layers on layers of different people’s art over time,” she shares. “It gives it a real dynamic feel, a real sense of life.”

Just like all those years ago.

Find a map for the East End Art Trail at the website. Purchase Nicole’s prints here.