San Francisco artist Ian Ross has this week been painting the courtyard of Heritage Coffee, on the corner of Vogel and Jetty Sts.
Mr Ross said the total wall area was about 4m by 20m and the project would use more than 20 litres of paint and 25 cans of spray paint.
''I like my work to be freestyle and spontaneous, so when I got here I was just inspired by all the arched windows and the arched doors and all the beautiful light blues around.''
The work seems to depict archways surrounded by plant life.
''I really like the evidence of speed. The pure line that happens when you don't hesitate.''
He liked his work to ''slow people down a bit'', he said.
''It invites people to stop and look at it. If you keep coming back to this cafe, you might notice different things over weeks and months and years.''
Mr Ross had been aware of Dunedin's street art scene.
''Whenever you have someone like Phlegm or Pixel Pancho do a mural somewhere, wherever they do it is going to come up in the general scene because those guys are so prominent.
''I'd definitely been aware of how Dunedin was attracting some really exciting street artists and I was excited to come here and add to the catalogue of what you guys already have.''
Mr Ross has travelled the world with his art and spent much of the past few years working in Tokyo.
He also wanted to use the opportunity to create some of his signature sand art on Dunedin beaches, he said.
He did this by raking large areas of sand at low tide to create elaborate patterns.
''Dunedin is really ideal with all the estuaries and the river mouths. The type of sand and the tides are all pretty good.''
He began the Heritage Coffee project early on Monday and yesterday afternoon said the project was about half finished.
Mr Ross was visiting for the recent wedding of his friend, architect Damien van Brandenburg.
Cafe owner Riah McLean was excited to have the artist painting, as he was a ''rock star'' in the street art world.
''When I came in this morning I was blown away.''
The project was commissioned jointly by her and the building's owner, Dr Hayden Cawte.
It was a way of drawing people into the building, Dr Cawte said.
''We sent him [images of] some pieces of his that we liked, but mostly gave him freedom to do what he does.''
