Great to see Soap and Tasha Bee teaming up to paint this collaboration in Dean Lane skate park. What is interesting about this piece is that both artists are doing something a little different from what we normally see.
Soap, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2019
I’m not too sure why, but Soap has been doing a few chickens recently. I think it might be a bit of a legacy from a mini paint jam he took part in at St Werburghs City Farm. I think I have some pictures somewhere. I rather like the way that he has done a speech bubble with his tag in it. A fun piece.
Tasha Bee, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2019
Tasha Bee has been doing a bit of writing recently to accompany her beautiful styalized portraits and her choice of letters is LUNA. I think that she rather likes the symbolism of the moon and skies, of nature and love. Luna is a really great word and will lend itself to all sorts of writing variations. I totally adore her colour selections here and I have been using similar colours in my ‘teach yourself spray painting’ activities. Note to self, ‘get hold of some of that gold’. Very nice collaboration.
Haka has been incredibly prolific this year, something that has been a little under-represented in Natural Adventures and that I intend to address starting here and now. This fun piece is in Mina Road and features Macaulay Culkin from the Home Alone series of films.
Haka, Mina Road, Bristol, May 2019
Haka has a style that is all his own. He creates what I would call representative art, rather than the other end of the spectrum which is photorealism. His lines are not sharp and clean like some of the writers in Bristol, but there is a warmth and comfort there. He often paints political or humorous pieces, like this one entitled ‘Chrome Alone’.
Haka, Mina Road, Bristol, May 2019
Haka is well established on the Bristol street art scene painting both characters and graffiti writing. I have several other pieces by him in my archive and will try to dig them out.
Doors 75 – A walk along the River Avon cycle path.
Last Sunday was Father’s Day, and I took the opportunity to be a little self-indulgent and go off on a street art hunt to parts of Bristol city I haven’t been to before. I think that wandering around aimlessly, whether in an urban or rural setting is one of my favourite things. No plan, no map, no directions, just looking around and exploring keeping my eyes open and spotting things that might interest me.
This type of exploring is best done alone, because it involves a lot of side tracks and doubling back which could prove tiresome for any companions.
I decided to drop down onto a cycle path which runs alongside the River Avon (literally river river… Avon is derived from a word abon which means river or Afon in Welsh). The cycle path is sandwiched between the river and the backs of buildings on an industrial estate. On the opposite bank is the Paintworks, which is a reconstructed industrial estate full of rather fancy industrial/business units. The cycle path side is definitely the less salubrious of the banks.
I found a fair amount of graffiti, most of it just tagging, and an awful lot of industrial unit fire escape doors, none of which looked like they had been used in years. I share those doors with you now. I don’t expect a lot of love for these doors, but they are doors, I saw them and feel it is only fair to post them.
Rather bright yellow door, River Avon cycle path, Bristol, June 2019Warehouse rear door, River Avon cycle path, Bristol, June 2019Charmingly decorated fire exit door to a warehouse, River Avon cycle path, Bristol, June 2019Door painted by Sirens, River Avon cycle path, Bristol, June 2019Overgrown fire exit door, River Avon cycle path, Bristol, June 2019
there was a bit of a contrast with the opposite bank, which had rather a wide margin of brackish plants spreading down onto the mud (the tide was out), and hosted a fair amount of wildlife including these Canada geese.
On the other side of the River Canada Geese graze in the thick estuarine mud, River Avon cycle path, Bristol, June 2019
So that is another week of doors gone by, maybe soon I’ll find some rather more attractive doors to post, but don’t bank on it.
If you’d like to see more doors take a good look at the Norm 2.0 blog – the originator of Thursday Doors where there are links to yet more doors in the comments section at the end.
A view of St Werburghs tunnel that I haven’t shared before, seen from the city farm end. The entrance to the tunnel is guarded by a pair of ‘monolithic’ gurning faces by Atchue, one on either side.
Atchue, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2019
I haven’t seen much from Atchue lately, so to be presented with these two-for-the-price-of-one faces is definitely a bit of a bonus. On the left is one of his more familiar pink pieces, but the one on the right is in magnificent chrome.
Atchue, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2019
The chrome face appears to be in mid gurn and you can almost hear him making a groaning noise. A lovely idea executed brilliantly by Atchue.
It would seem that artists from Cardiff like to swing by Bristol every now and again, and when they do come they tend to paint together, I suppose a bit of a paint jam on tour really. This is a really lovely piece by Unity, a graffiti writer I met at Upfest last year whose work I don’t get to see too often so it was nice to find this one down at the M32 roundabout.
Unity, M32 roundabout, Bristol, June 2019
Her work is quite organic in appearance, and this piece looks almost edible, like icing on a cake or something. Unity blends her colours very nicely and this piece drops from yellow to brown to pink without any harsh lines. Great work. It is a pity we have to wait so long between visits.
This piece has been lurking in my archives for quite a long time now, but what better time to dig it out than right now? It is of course by the brilliant political commentator John D’oh and was created back in July 2016, and who’d have thought after all this time we’d still be caught up in a Boris Johnson circus?
John D’oh, North Street, Bristol, July 2016
The Michael referred to in this witty Forrest Gump pastiche would of course be Gove, and surprise, surprise here they both are making headlines in the contest for leadership of the Conservative Party. What a dismal mess this country is in, and what a sad indictment that the leader of our country will be chosen not by the electorate, but by a small number of fee-paying conservatives. There is no hope other than that the appointment of a clown for PM might just bury the Tories for the next 15 years.
It is galling that the mess we are in was not created in the aspiration to make life in the UK better for all, but simply to shore up the division in the Conservative party, and guess what, they F*cked that up good and proper as well.
Back to one of my trusty favourites with this beautiful piece at the M32 roundabout by Face 1st. Here he returns to his winning format of a sweet face covered with sumptuously decorated hair which spells out FACE if you look carefully.
Face 1st, M32 roundabout, Bristol, June 2019
I like the way that Face 1st has diversified over the last few months, but kept these great face pieces in his locker. I hope to come across Face 1st again this summer and tell him that he has inspired me to give it a go myself. I tried copying one of his simple faces, but it didn’t work out too well. More to come from this Bristol stalwart.
Natural adventures 