.
Fading memory
blue skies on Aegean Sea
sing Our Last Summer
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by Scooj
I’m glad I caught this bright and cheerful collaboration, because it didn’t last very long, indeed nothing much lasts too long on this particular wall in Dean Lane. It is great to see Kool Hand, Werm and Zake teaming up, with a guest appearance from Hire as a bonus.
To the left of the collaborative wall, Kool Hand has painted a very crisp, neat and tidy leopard holding a spray can. This fellow has a great tail and even a well painted pair of wings. The cherub theme is central to this collaboration.
Next up is a superb piece of symmetrical writing by werm, although the colours are not quite symmetrical, with two different shades of red used in the drop shadow. a green spotty background decorates the margins, and the white buffed wall helps all the components of the collaboration stand out.
The cherubim theme comes into full force with a grotesque cherub on the left, and a rather more conventional one on the right. Both are floating in ther heavenly scene, and are joined by a signature rabbit, also with wings, by Hire. An uplifting and fun collaboration.
It has been quite a while since I last saw anything painted by Annika Pixie. I am so pleased that the Bristol Mural Collective managed to encourage her to join in with their Lucky Lane paint jam back in September.
Annika Pixie is known for her ephemeral, ghostly pieces, which are deliberately myterious. I have to say that I can only see teeth in this piece, although the little chracters might be some kind of iconic thing that I am unaware of. Although the colours and shades all look a bit random, I’m sure everything in this piece has a purpose in the telling of a story. Great to see Annika back.
This spot is often occupied by 3Dom until it gets bombed. However, Stivs, who is on fire right now, has painted this outstanding portrait piece, worthy of the spot. The combination piece has the calligraffiti letters ST and (I)VS either side of the portrait.
The balance of light and shade used to provide depth and profile to the subject’s face is less subtle than in some of his portraits, but the quite brutal application of colours is in fact incredibly effective. I absolutely love this piece – what an amazing piece of free art for the local community.
A couple of quick ones today – very busy. I always enjoy finding pieces by Desi, there is something very comforting about her drubeat rhythm of producing her work. This is a new one from the north side of M32 roundabout.
Desi has spelled out her alternative letters ‘VEIL’ in this tidy piece. Her choice of colours contrasts significantly with the graffiti beneath it, allowing her work to stand out without the need for buffing the wall first. A neat and tidy, happy piece from Desi.
Doors 373 – Doors of Madeira (part IV) – September 2025
I feel I should start this week with an apology, given that I have missed Thursday Doors for the last two weeks. Admittedly the first of those coincided with my annual fishing trip, but last week I quite forgot. I have had a lot on my mind lately.
I resume with some more doors from a family holiday in Madeira, returning to our honeymoon island 25 years after we were married. The doors this week are mostly from Funchal Cathedral and the surrounding area. I hope you enjoy them:
Looking at these now, I can’t believe that I managed to get my finger in that last shot… I guess it happens to all of us from time to time. I should have cropped it, but I figure that to err is human, to forgive is divine. More from Madeira for two or three more weeks yet, before returning to something a little more domestic. Have a great weekend.
If you have made it this far, you probably like doors, and you really ought to take a look at the No Facilities blog by Dan Anton who has taken over the hosting of Thursday Doors from Norm 2.0 blog. Links to more doorscursions can be found in the comments section of Dan Anton’s weekly Thursday Doors post and his Sunday recap.
This is the first in a series of posts that I’ll be writing over the next few weeks, celebrating the annual (?) Bristol Mural Collective Lucky Lane paint jam/mini paint festival. Nina Raines who organised this year’s extravaganza, dropped me a message inviting me along, but unfortunately it clashed with my recent holiday in Greece.
Nina Rains has done that wonderful thing, where she has created her piece in harmony with an existing piece of ‘street furniture’ in this case a block of concrete, and turned it into a huge Tunnock’s caramel wafer biscuit – a brilliant and faithful reproduction of this iconic snack. This is not the first time Nina Raines has used an everyday object and turned it into something deeply familiar. I am of course referring to her wonderful coleman’s mustard pot in Dean Lane. Props to Nina, for both organising the festival, and for creating such an entertaining contribution to it.
I have missed Mr Crawls this year, he really seems to have slowed down a little, at least in the spots that I go to regularly. There could be any number of reasons for this, but whatever they are, I hope they are positive ones. This bird head was painted alongside Mote and Scrapy on the M32 roundabout.
The bird head, which looks like it might be an eagle, judging from the slightly hooked beak, is cleanly painted. Strong and solid outlines contain solid fills, although the white paint is a little thin. A couple of subtle details, indicating feathers, round the piece off nicely. It would be great to see more from Mr Crawls.
An unusual collaboration recently appeared on the curved wall in Dean Lane. While I am familiar with one of the artists, EFFE, I have not come across Neens before. I have a feeling that these pieces might have been part of a Bristol Mural Collective paint jam, because there were a few other pieces nearby by artists I couldn’t recognise. Neens has painted a banana and an orange – not something I have seen as main subject of street art before. It feels like a piece by an artist more at home in the studio, but is a great idea and lots of fun.
The piece on the right by Effe is one that has all the hallmarks of a tattoo artist – clean clear design, with each element defined and separate. The eagle figure is nicely presented on the black background and the artist’s letters EFFE appear in the orange shapes at the bottom of the feathers. A lovely illustration.
ARSA is known for his uniform bilaterally symmetrical pieces, which are often quite ‘blocky’ in appearance. This recent one in the tunnel, however, is rather softer than much of his work. Gone are the hard and regular straight line letter outlines, and in come some more gentle lines and a few curves. It is amazing what a difference it can make to the appearance of a graffiti writing through the introductoion of some curves.
The colour scheme, which was used by a couple of other artists who painted alongside ARSA, is attractive, although slightly lost in the gloom of the tunnel. The cream border and drop shadow certainly helps to define the letters from the purple background. This is a nice development from ARSA.
