Going back through my pictures from Upfest 2016 I am left a little puzzled by some of the pieces that I failed to post. This work by Diff looks rather like a studio study as much as it does a piece of street art. A silhouetted woman wearing a bowler hat surrounded by pink yellow and white bubbles.
Although not necessarily one of Diff’s best pieces, there is an air of grace about it and some care and attention to detail has gone in to the bubbles, especially where they overlap.
The big news for 2019 is that there will be no Upfest this year, the organisers have decided to have a fallow year to regroup and hit 2020 with renewed vigour. What this means is that I might be able to catch up a little on Upfest pieces passim that still need writing up. I am starting this batch of 2016 pieces with work from, I think, Douglas Trodge.
I have looked all over the Interweb, but I cannot find a Douglas Trodge, so am unable to write anything further of any use here. The two cartoon portraits are rather unusual and certainly memorable… way too good to sit in my archive forever.
I might have to do a little more research on this piece.
Sledges languishing
in front gardens and back yards
left ‘on ice’ in hope.
by Scooj
At the high tide line
an orderly row of huts
shut up for winter.
by Scooj
Street art is a mysterious beast and manages to catch me out consistently. I don’t know how long Panskaribas has been spraying in Bristol, but having not been aware of his work only a few months ago, I now seem to come across it on a really regular basis. Either there has been a mental block or gap on my part, or Panskaribas has only recently moved to Bristol or started spraying walls.
Whatever the reason for this heightened presence of Panskaribas, in my view, it is a good thing. I like his characters with faces sketched out in a cartoon doodle style. There is a simplicity to his work that is oddly sophisticated and I am looking forward to learning more.
It is such a pleasure to come across something new in Bristol, and visiting artists are always very welcome. This is an easy piece to miss, as it is on one of the ramps at Dean Lane skate park which is easy to walk past while focussing on the larger walls behind. The stencil of Kurt Cobain (from a photo shoot for a hat retailer) is by Cartoonneros, an Argentinian artist who appears to reside in London, judging from his Instagram posts.
Although I have pictures of his work from my London trips, I haven’t yet posted anything by him… but finding this one in Bristol recently might be just the prompt I was looking for to post his London stuff. The stencil itself is nicely composed with a basic black outline and areas coloured to bring the whole thing to life.
The style reminds me a little of Bristol’s Hoax, but only a little. I am so pleased with this find, especially as any art sprayed onto skate walls become scuffed very quickly and this still looks relatively fresh. I hope Cartoonneros makes another trim to the west of England again soon.
So very simple, but so very effective. This is a Rezwonk motif that he sprayed back in November last year, and it is still there (or at least it was earlier this week), untagged and just as brilliant as the day he created it.
Sometimes less is more, and this small piece definitely makes more of this tatty doorway than the amorphous tagging that lies underneath. Great design, striking colours, and enough ambiguity to make it interesting. Nice one.
Long before Bristol became inundated with Nevergiveup’s jolly bunny rabbits, there were some rather more moody, sinister even, rabbits lurking in dark corners. They were the creation of fellow Polish artist Hire. A little while back, Hire sprayed a few of these at Dean Lane, and this one with those scary eyes was, in my view the pick of the bunch.
I haven’t seen any of his work for a little while now, but that is the name of the game… artists, just like the rest of us have peaks and troughs in the spare time they have, and maybe Hire is in one of those troughs. I really do like his rabbits, they have an edge to them.
.
On seeing the first:
‘Good morning Mr Magpie’
a superstition.
.
by Scooj
Undeniably
new season is in full swing
a little early.
by Scooj
Natural adventures 