A gallery of versatile street art and graffiti writing from Bristol’s Pirate Wall Artist – Soap.
All photographs taken by Scooj.
Soap
Month: August 2019
2404. St George skate park (4)
Discovering St George skate park has been something of a revelation for me. I knew of its existence, but just never bothered to find it, that is until recently. I guess that there is a challenge for artists and ‘hunters’ alike as certain areas become gentrified such as the Carriageworks and others get closed down to artists altogether, like The Bearpit, new areas become more attractive and I think St George is one of those.
This is a really jolly collaboration between Fiva (Fiver) and Nightwayss on one of the ramps in the skate park. Fiva gives us some straightforward block letters with a white fill and black dots, set on a black background with white dots. Yet another fine Fiva piece.
Tucked away to the right hand side of Fiva’s work is a brilliant little story of a naughty monkey playing with a box of matches by Nightwayss. This is an engaging piece that just seems to blend in with the concrete so well and almost has a 3D effect where it looks like the monkey might just decide to wander off at any minute.
Personally I think this is one of Nightwayss’ best pieces, not so much in the artwork, but more in the narrative. A pocket-sized piece that has enough detail and credibility to feel almost real. I love this a lot. I’m beginning to think that a Nightwayss gallery might be on the cards before too long. Watch this space.
2403. M32 Spot (47)
It has been a long while since I last posted anything by Object…, but that might be because he has been very busy with retrieving boards from The Bearpit and running events at the People’s Republic of Stokes Croft gallery in Jamaica Street.
Object…’s work often looks pained and tortured, but especially so in this instance The disfigured fingers have a grotesqueness to them and in a strange way, I find the piece a little upsetting. Of course I don’t know the context of the piece, but it feels terribly troubled. Object… is very good at this challenging kind of artwork.
Silence interrupted
For a brief moment
there is no sound at all, then
tinnitus kicks in.
by Scooj
I have suffered from mild tinnitus ever since I had flu five years ago and as soon as I become conscious of silence I also become conscious of the quiet hum in my head. I am used to it, but there are times when it becomes maddening.
On the upside, Natural Adventures was born during my period of sick leave.
2402. New Stadium Road (19)
I have a feeling that this might be another Monday Club collaboration, this time from Conrico and Rebecca Prince with what might be her debut street piece. (Actually if I had bothered looking properly I’d have noticed the words Monday Club – d’oh)
Conrico has really impressed me since he appeared on the scene a few months ago. His work has such a strong narrative about it and his illustrative style is imaginative and creative. I believe that he painted this dragon on the M32 roundabout but it didn’t last very long, the turnover on this wall isn’t quite as high.
Rebecca Prince is a Bristol artist whose Instagram feed would suggest that she has only very recently started painting walls. I think she has yet to find her touch, but I am very much looking forward to seeing her develop and translate her lovely drawings into great wall art. I love people giving it a go and having the courage to take to the walls.
2401. Lime Road (2)
Another piece form an artist unknown to me, and I am guessing that it might be something to do with Upfest Summer Editions because this is an Upfest spot, previously occupied by a Jody piece. It is a colourful and styalised piece by Amy Vik who I think is from Mexico, although my Google searches aren’t throwing up too much information about the artist.
The art itself does have a central/south American feel about it and it is certainly very different from anything else I have seen in Bristol for a while. It is always good to see overseas artists visiting the city.
And relax
Computer turned off
automatic reply on
me-time for a week.
by Scooj
2400. Brighton Street (3)
Another one from a month or two back from Decay which was painted for this year’s St Paul’s carnival. What is interesting about this piece is that it is a reversion to his older style of work with ‘Chuck’ in the centre of rays of concentric ovals eminating from the middle. I guess this design probably fit the space better than his more recent writing designs which are better on a ‘landscape’ wall.
Of course the colour selection is entirely appropriate to the carnival and many other pieces by other artists carried the same base colours. I can’t think how many pieces Decay has painted this year, and I haven’t captured them all by any means. I think that together with Rezwonk he bears the crown of most productive Bristol artist 2019, unless things change for the remainder of the year.
2399. South Street
This summer has been so very busy for street art in Bristol and I am really struggling to keep up with it all. For every piece that I write about in these posts there are at least another seven or eight that never make it out of my archives, and all of this without the hunderds of pieces I would normally be writing about from Upfest at this time of year. All this means that I have an inevitable backlog.
This not-so-recent collaboration is yet another extraordinary piece to have been organised by Upfest for their Summer Editions event. Who’d have thought of bringing together L7M and Paul Monsters? But here they are working together with their hugely contrasting styles.
The centrepiece by L7M is a delicately, wispily painted finch (I’m not sure which species) full of movement and colour, a skilful mixture of fine detail and blurry ‘smoke’. His work is truly exceptional and we have been lucky in Bristol to see quite a bit of it in this area thanks to Upfest.
The geometric surround is the work of Paul Monsters and is typical of his 3D blockwork, but notably different from anything I have seen from him before in that it is black, white and grey, when I normally associate his work with oranges, greens, browns, yellows and mauves. The whole thing makes for a clever juxtaposition which challenges the norm. Great collaboration.
Thursday doors – 22 August
Doors 81 – Lanhydrock House (1)
Last weekend I was lucky enough to visit a National Trust property in Cornwall, south of Bodmin Moor, called Lanhydrock House. Built out of hard wearing granite, the older parts of the house date back to the 1620s, but after a fire in 1881 that started in the kitchens, two of the three wings were in part destroyed and they were rebuilt and funished in the Victorial style. The remaining wing that survived the fire retains its original walls and ceilings.
The house has been owned and managed by the National Trust since 1953, before it was owned by the Robartes family which declined significantly during the first world war. The heir, Thomas Agar-Robartes MP was killed during the battle of Loos in France while trying to rescue a soldier from no-man’s land.
There were an awful lot of doors to admire in this house, so this week I will tease you by only posting the outside doors, the rest will follow in another post.
The visit begins with a stroll through the original gatehouse dating back to the mid 17th century. Did you ever see such a grand entrance?
Then off to the left are some of the outbuildings such as the coach house. The National Trust use some of these buildings for a cafe and gift shop.
The coach house, with stunning deep red doors, is notable for the clock and little doors below it.
It would be wrong of me not to include this most attractive door within a door.
Then to the main house itself, which had more gorgeous doors on its outside walls than I have hairs on my head (I exaggerate slightly).
The front door is probably the crowning glory of these ‘garden doors’ and dates back to the 1620s. The family crest is on the top right, and the NT lady at the door told us that the crest at the top of the door has no relation to the house or family whatsoever and nobody quite knows what it is doing there.
So there we are. More Lanhydrock doors next time.
Please go take a 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.
Have a great end of week and weekend.
Scooj
Natural adventures 