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It’s the international street art festival that has been brightening up some of Cardiff’s unloved and run down buildings.

But, for all the colour the Empty Walls project has brought to the neglected areas of the Welsh capital, one piece of graffiti has proved, well, just a bit too blue for some people.

Emblazoned on a pine-end wall on Bute Terrace in the city centre, the mural "Love Your Master" by Italian-born spray-can wizard Zed 1 – in which an aroused horse tries to mount its fallen rider - has prompted a resounding “neigh” from passers-by.

Chief among its critics are the residents of the adjacent Altolusso Apartments, one of the city’s most expensive apartment blocks, many of whose flats directly overlook the offending art work.

The Empty Walls project has been warmly received by most residents of the city - and includes striking images from a huge portrait of an owl’s eyes on the side of a shop building, a vast dragon on the side of a pub and images in a wide variety of colours and styles dotted throughout the city.

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On Saturday, it was expanding with the hoardings around WalesOnline's now-demolished city centre former headquarters Thompson House being decorated with colourful, larger-than-life images.

But the amorous warhorse on Bute Terrace has been too much for some.

“Can you imagine flinging open your curtains each morning to look out at that - a horse trying to have sex with a man?” said one tenant of Altolusso who asked not to be named.

“There’s quite a few families with small children living here and its hardly the sort of thing they’re going to want their little ones seeing.

“That’s not to say I disagree with for the general principle behind the project, I just think this is a step too far.”

“Also, it’s the appendage in question which was added on last, so the guy who painted it clearly knew he was being a bit controversial.”

Nearby office worker Paul Talbot also said he thought the painting had been misjudged.

“It’s well done, don’t get me wrong - but when I first spotted it I almost walked in to a lamp post,” said the 23-year-old.

“In fact, I’m surprised there haven’t been any road accidents given the amount of drivers who’ve been doing double takes at it.”

However, after Cardiff Council – who helped organise the festival - received complaints, its curator Helen Bur agreed to make the necessary amendments to Zed 1’s work.

“We’d not had any negative comments ourselves, but when we found out some were unhappy with the art we were happy to change it,” she said.

“So we contracted Zed 1 and he agreed to us painting over the problem area - he said he’d rather that than have the whole piece white-washed over altogether.”

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She added that, above all, she wanted the Empty Walls festival, which ended yesterday with a collective graffiti ‘jam’ in the city centre – to be seen in a positive light.

“We’d rather celebrate it successes, because we’ve had a lot of great feedback about what we’ve been doing.

“It’s meant to be a celebration of visual culture and a way of encouraging people to look up from their mobile phones once in a while and take in the beauty of their surroundings – the last thing we want is to upset anyone.

“Personally, I think Zed 1’s great but I’d rather he’d done something a bit more subtle in this instance,” she added.