A small snail anchors
atop a shimmering sea
of emerald green.
by Scooj
Month: June 2017
851. Upfest 2016 (138)
I was really pleased to find this delightful small piece by an artist I wrote about way back in February 2016 — Elaine Carr. Her previous piece was of a Bristol landscape painted on a front garden fence. This, as you can see is quite different.
I am always going to favour any scene with a marine theme, and this fun piece ticks several boxes for me personally. It is the kind of work that I would love to have hanging up at home, although I’m not sure what Mrs Scooj would have to say about that. For the time-being it will hang in my virtual blog. I look forward to seeing her work at Upfest 2017 and hope to be able to say hello.
850. Upfest 2016 (137)
Losthills had a field day with his Jake the dog paste ups and this is a collection of three pieces by way of rounding off his Upfest contribution.
With each of these wheatpastes, I would have to say ‘who doesn’t love a dog that dresses up?’
Losthills, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Losthills, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
I hope that Losthills will be returning in July because I do love a good paste up, and hunting around for these ‘gifts’.
Losthills, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Losthills, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
849. Upfest 2016 (136)
I don’t know very much about Johnman, the artist who created this wonderful greyscale stencil set on such a colourful background. I have seen from his Instagram account that the stencil has been used in a piece called ‘Hitching to London’, where the background is a map of London.
It is funny, but I don’t very well recall this piece from Upfest, but on inspecting it closely now, from the comfort of my desk, I think this is an outstanding work. I look forward to paying a bit more attention this year when he returns for Upfest 2017.
848. Raleigh Road, Vector (13)
It has been really interesting to see this ‘Bee-Boy’ come to life. He began as a sketch in Cheo’s black book which he posted on Instagram with the hashtags #cheo, #bee, #sketch and #fart. The sketches became more detailed until he finally sprayed the piece in Raleigh Road.
Cheo seems to have had a love-hate relationship with Bee-Boy and it has been interesting to see the development of the character. Even after he had completed the work, he went on to produce a full colour sketch, for which he apologised, and even after that he committed the ‘little twat’ to canvass.
Whatever cheo thinks of it, I and many, many others love this little character – edgy, mischievous and comical.
Obsession
.
Dreams about painting
creativity and style;
interpret that Freud.
.
by Scooj
Jolly good fellow
.
Old fashioned sayings
echo in my head, from times
when I was a child.
.
by Scooj
847. M32 Roundabout J3 (42)
So here is our weekly dose of Laic217. Reverting back to the format that Laic217 used when I first became aware of his work a couple of years ago. His name and a character . The big difference over the two years is the whole quality of his work, which has improved ten-fold.
His techniques are producing more forgiving textures in the features of the characters, and the clothes are well studied, with beautiful folds and creases. In my view this is an artist who is constantly improving. However, he is sticking to his themes of bucket hats, acid, smileys, flaming spray can and of course facial distortions.
I have just been to the cinema to see The Mummy (Cruise and Crowe…6/10) and although these eyes are stacked vertically, there is something unsettling about multiple eyes. (In the film, the evil character has two pupils and irises in each eye). A digression I know.
846. Leonard Lane (11)
Sirens is getting rather busy all over Bristol at the moment, and here is a recent piece that he produced in my favourite Bristol backwater, Leonard Lane. What to make of this piece?
What Sirens has done here is create a green space in a sea of messy graffiti. I believe it is metaphorical as well as physical and therefore has a double impact. Even more unexpected is that this is, so he says on his Instagram account, a six layered stencil and took a long time to do.
The abstract nature of this work is at complete odds with the chaos that surrounds it. A small green window of tranquility. It has an impressive impact on those that venture down this ancient lane.
845. The Bearpit (73)
I believe this is the third J. Dior piece that I have posted on this site, and still I am oddly attracted to his naïve style. In this work we have some rather unusual reference to the ‘Caped Crusader’ but I am really rather baffled by the figure with six arms and three heads.
The fellow on the right appears to have a specially made super hero suite designed to show off his manhood. Whatever is going on in J. Dior’s mind in this piece is probably best kept there. As far as I’m concerned another winner. I would imagine that his work divides opinion as it may fall into the category of ‘I could probably do that’. The point is that people who say that never do…and If they did it would probably be crap. A bit like me saying that I could play football better than Wayne Rooney (even though I probably could).
Natural adventures 