Month: April 2020

2880. Upfest 2016 (175)

I think that my favourite festival artist at Upfest 2016 was this gentleman, Feoflip. I managed to catch him working on his ‘official’ piece although never saw it completed, which is a real pity and possibly the reason I never posted this before.

IMG_5549_edited

The reason I liked him so much was probably down to the unofficial ‘extras’ that he painted during his stay all over the city. The style is so different from anything we are used to seeing and he truly entered into the spirit of the Bristol street art scene. I would love to see him return and bless us with more of his outstanding work. Some of the pieces he painted are shown below:

Feoflip, North Street, Bristol, November 2017
Feoflip, North Street, Bristol, November 2017
Feoflip, Little Paradise, Bristol July 2017
Feoflip, Little Paradise, Bristol July 2017
Feoflip, Gloucester Road, Bristol, September 2016
Feoflip, Gloucester Road, Bristol, September 2016
Feoflip, Welsh Back, Bristol, October 2016
Feoflip, Welsh Back, Bristol, October 2016
Feoflip, The Bearpit, Bristol, August 2016
Feoflip, The Bearpit, Bristol, August 2016
Feoflip, Wilder Street, Bristol, September 2016
Feoflip, Wilder Street, Bristol, September 2016
Feoflip, City Road, Bristol, August 2016
Feoflip, City Road, Bristol, August 2016
Feoflip, North Street, Bristol, August 2016
Feoflip, North Street, Bristol, August 2016
Feoflip, Ashton Gate School, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Feoflip, Ashton Gate School, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

2879. Upfest 2016 (174)

Another throwback to Upfest 2016 and this lovely Minion piece by The Agent. Not only is The Agent a street artist and regular at Upfest, but he is also a central part of the ‘on the ground’ logistics team for the event and can be seen pretty much everywhere at the festival checking things are going smoothly.

The Agent, Upfest 2016, Bristol, July 2016
The Agent, Upfest 2016, Bristol, July 2016

Known for his Minion pieces (from the film Despicable Me), he is also the father of another prominent Bristol street artist. This piece typifies his strong links with the festival and screams out fun. A nice piece.

Warning

 

Chook, chook, chook, chook, chook

blackbirds send distraction call

the threat diverted.

 

by Scooj

2878. Upfest 2016 (173)

Like many of these archive posts from Upfests passim, it is hard to understand why I haven’t posted this one from SkyHigh and Roo before. I can only think that it is because I never got a clean shot of the finished collaboration.

SkyHigh and Roo, Upfest 2016, Bristol, July 2016
SkyHigh and Roo, Upfest 2016, Bristol, July 2016

These two London-based artists collaborate often, and where you find a SkyHigh piece, there is usually a Roo piece nearby. I took these pictures just as Roo (who previously I have assigned a male gender – dammit) was putting the finishing touches to her work. I suspect the lower right hand quadrant is not quite finished in these pictures.

SkyHigh, Upfest 2016, Bristol, July 2016
SkyHigh, Upfest 2016, Bristol, July 2016

The SkyHigh half of the collaboration spells out SKY in his characteristic variety of block letters, each different from the next, and the colours used here are incredibly bright and cheerful. This is first class graffiti writing.

Roo, Upfest 2016, Bristol, July 2016
Roo, Upfest 2016, Bristol, July 2016

Roo has painted what I think is a dog, but looks a lot like a moose without antlers to me. The mischievous character has been spraying the letters Roo in magenta paint on the wall behind – a nice idea executed really well. This is a fine collaboration and I can only apologise for not sharing it before. (lots more apologies to come as I continue to scour the archives).

2877. Upfest 2016 (172)

Somehow, since the lock down I have a lot less free time than I had before, which feels rather counter-intuitive. I am still working full time, only at home and mostly on Covid-19 communications. The kids are at home all the time and there is no respite from looking after them 24/7. The dog still needs walks. My wife too is working full time at home and occupies the study to work, which is where our main computer resides, and all my associated street art files etc.

The upshot is that I am writing these posts in the few minutes I can when my wife takes a shower in the morning. I am on leave next week, and might be able to write a whole bunch of posts to get a little bit ahead. I don’t like flying by the seat of my pants.

Rusk, Upfest 2016, Bristol, July 2016
Rusk, Upfest 2016, Bristol, July 2016

This is a stunning piece from the perfectionist Rusk on the RAW wall at Upfest 2016. I consider this to be an outstanding piece of writing and somehow Rusk, using highlights, has managed to create a metallic effect, so the whole thing looks like the side of a car or something like that. I can’t understand why I’ve not posted this before. Worth the wait.

2876. Upfest 2016 (171)

The Coronavirus pandemic and subsequent UK lock down has unsurprisingly seen a dramatic decrease in new street work. This, while disappointing especially given the spell of gorgeous weather we have been having, is not all bad news, as it is giving me the opportunity to unearth some not-seen-before on Natural Adventures pieces from the archives. Starting with this spray can bin stencil from John D’oh at Upfest 2016.

John D'oh, Upfest 2016, Bristol, July 2016
John D’oh, Upfest 2016, Bristol, July 2016

The organisers of Upfest had provided these drums for artists to dispose of their spray cans in an orderly fashion, and in true Upfest style, selected a few artists to decorate the bins, This one by John D’oh. I have to say I am not entirely sure who the people on the bin are, but I love the stencils in any case. In Bristolian he has written ‘John D’oh’s bin yer’, which tickled me. More Upfest 2016 work to come.

2875. Upper York Street (22)

This is one of the last pre-lock down pieces from March this year (photographed in April) that I have (not strictly true, as I do have more, but it is the last one I am posting for a while, before I start on a trip through the archives. Painted by Bnie, this beautiful piece of graffiti writing was sprayed at the same time as Hazard and Smak decorated this hoarding (see yesterday’s post).

Bnie, Upper York Street, Bristol, April 2020
Bnie, Upper York Street, Bristol, April 2020

This, I think, is the crispest, cleanest piece I have seen from Bnie to date and shows off her talents perfectly.The alternation of graded yellow and blue fills is really nicely done and the patterned 3D shading, a bit of a Bnie trademark, is superb. A classy piece.

Thursday doors – 16 April 2020

Doors 102 – Bristol doors past

Lock down due to the Covid-19 pandemic is in place in the UK, and looks set to continue for at least another three weeks. This means that doorscursions are limited to rifling through my archive or photographing doors within walking distance of my home. Today’s offering is a bit of a mix of the two.

I was going to do a theme of multiple-doored buildings, but gave up on that very quickly. Instead this is just a small random selection of Bristol doors.

Multiple workshop doors, Frogmore Street, Bristol, July 2019
Multiple workshop doors, Frogmore Street, Bristol, July 2019
Shop door, Anchor Road, Bristol, November 2019
Shop door, Anchor Road, Bristol, November 2019
Large metal doors, Baldwin Street, Bristol, December 2019
Large metal doors, Baldwin Street, Bristol, December 2019
Multiple doors, Gibson Road, Bristol, March 2020
Multiple doors, Gibson Road, Bristol, March 2020

 

Work is super-busy at the moment, so I’m afraid this post is a little light this week. Hope I have time to do a few next week.

If you have made it this far, you probably like doors and you ought to 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.

by Scooj

Room at the inn

 

Front garden bushes

heavy with buzzing insects

pollinator’s inn

 

by Scooj

2874. Jamaica Street (18)

On the People’s Republic of Stokes Croft wall in Jamaica Street, this simple and kind collaboration celebrates our amazing (underfunded) NHS, in a gesture of love for all the hard work they are doing in this difficult time. The collaboration by 3Dom and Sepr is a collaboration in name only as the artists each painted their halves separately on different days, following social distancing guidelines.

3Dom, Jamaica Street, Bristol, April 2020
3Dom, Jamaica Street, Bristol, April 2020

On the left is an exquisite piece of script writing in NHS blue. 3Dom has managed to write these delicate letters with the tops and bottoms appearing to vaporize into a white mist. The subtle cream shading just to the right of the letters helps them to stand out a bit more. This is beautiful, technical writing.

Sepr, Jamaica Street, Bristol, April 2020
Sepr, Jamaica Street, Bristol, April 2020

Painted the following morning is this wonderful heart by Sepr. Simply done and conveying all the right emotions for the circumstances. I don’t know how he does it, but Sepr can even manage to get his retro style into a heart. Fantastic.

As I have said before, we must also celebrate all other key workers and public/civil services that are keeping us all safe and well.