This was a modest piece from Rezwonk, tucked away on a back fence at the M32 Spot from August last year. It includes a wonderful Charlie Brown character and yellow bird and the writing faithfully adopts the colours of Charlie Brown’s shirt.
Rezwonk, M32 Spot, Bristol, August 2019
The interesting thing about this piece is that although the colours of the letters match Charlie Brown, the writing style doesn’t. I would love to see if Rezwonk could reproduce this idea with writing that adopted the cartoon curves and line drawings of Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz. That said, I love this piece and Rezwonk is a favourite on Natural Adventures.
Last August I took a day trip to Weston-super-Mare, just me and the dog, while my wife and daughter were holidaying in Greece and my son was doing his own thing. I had contrived to go to WSM so that I couls photograph the street art. The dog didn’t know that and was just grateful to have a whole day out sniffing and running. Most f the pieces in WSM are by JPS and this ‘young girl throwing a strop’ is one of the best in my view.
JPS, Richmond Street, Weston-super-Mare, August 2019
The story about this piece from JPS is that the young girl is having a strop because she has spilled her paint before she was able to paint the wall. There is so much to like about the composition, for example incorporating the drain pipe, let alone the quality of the stencil itself. Such a wonderful piiece. I can thoroughly recommend a trip to WSM for the street art alone.
I cannot think how many times I have driven past this amazing pizza piece by Feek at the bottom of Ashley Hill, but I have never taken a moment to photograph it. This particular picture is pretty terrible… not only is is rather shaded, but I took it from the car window because I am lazy. Not ideal.
Feek, Ashley Hill, Bristol, July 2019
Shutter pieces are not easy so this crystal clear and fun piece by Feek is a bit of a triumph. It is pieces like this one that Bristolians take completely for granted. It is there, it has always been there, that is the way of things. Personally I think that this is rather special, the vegetables are amazing and the animated pizza character is brilliantly painted. At last I get to post it!
Anyone who reads Natural Adventures regularly will know that I have a soft spot for Polish artist Hire, whose Gothic writing and spiky rabbits regularly adorn the walls of Dean Lane skate park. This piece from July last year treats us to both central elements of his work.
Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2019
The writing part of the piece is expertly done and I particularly like the way that two tones of orange are used and blended to great effect. The 3D shading is very distinct, but I fear slightly dominates the brittle nature of the letters.
Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2019
The rabbit, although menacing, is perhaps a little kinder than some of his spikier cousins… it looks like it has had a bit of a shampoo and set. How on earth I allowed this one to sit in my archive until now, I’ll never know.
When a large wall like this one at Dean Lane skate park is prepped along its full length, you know you are going to be in for a treat. This piece is a collaboration between Dasco and Apnea.
There are three basic types of collaboration. One is where two or more artists contribute to a single piece of work and it can be difficult to be sure which artist painted which bit; another is when two artists paint together at the same time, but their pieces are discrete. The third type of collaboration is amply demonstrated here where artists paint alongside each other, but the theme or colour scheme used join the pieces up in some way. There are other types of collaboration of course, but I’ll not go into those here.
Dasco, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2019
On the left is a super piece of writing from Dasco, who in recent months has made his presence known in Bristol with a series of outstanding productions. His work is assured and clean and he changes his design and style with each new piece, where some artists such as Elvs or Slim Pickings tend to stick to a basic formula that they play with.
Apnea, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2019
On the right of the wall is a piece from Apnea, and I have to confess that I know nothing about the artist and don’t recall seeing much of their work. I am guessing that Apnea may have bee a visitor who hooked up with Dasco for a while, but I could be quite wrong (I usually am). This too is a nice piece, although not quite as tight as Dasco’s.
I’ve been looking forward to finishing work all day today to be able to pop up to the allotment before cooking an evening meal. A badly timed shower has goofed up all my timings and my excitement. Tomorrow it will have to be.
Just in case anyone is suffering from withdrawal symptoms from a regular dose of Nevergiveup’s (#followmyrabbits) rabbits, I thought I’d throw in one of dozens still unpublished on Natural Adventures.
Nevergiveup, Leonard Lane, Bristol, July 2019
This beauty was sprayed on one of the doors at the eastern end of Leonard Lane, and I think I must have photographed it fairly soon after it had been painted because it is very crisp and clean without any tags. This one is notable for the use of lots of colours, maybe he was using up dregs. Lovely rabbit this one, and a great location.
I miss The Bearpit street art so very much, particularly when I find pictures like this one of a Tian wheatpaste in my archive. Using his favoured sepia tones, Tian presents us with another glamorous lady… possibly famous, possibly not. All of his work is designed to get us thinking about the central character, even if we can’t help ourselves.
Tian, The Bearpit, Bristol, May 2019
I am a very big fan of paste ups, and finding them in Bristol is a bit of a treat, because unlike other parts of the country/other countries, the scene is pretty small here, and most wheatpastes are from visitors like Tian or qWerT or Upfest artists. It was Kid Crayon’s wheatpastes that drew me in to being more curious about street art some five or six years ago, and I haven’t looked back.
I am a little pressed for time this week, so here are a couple of doors I photographed over the last two days during my brief walks escaping from lock down.
I really struggle with social distancing, it feels so unnatural and uncomfortable. Crossing into the middle of the road to avoid oncoming pedestrians on the pavement feels embarrassing, almost insulting, but I guess we all have to do it. I am lucky that it is impacts like this that have most affected me so far, they are trivial compared to the impacts on others.
The point being that my walks are not linear but rather they are zig zaggy and the upshot is I do walk to places I might not have walked before and get to see interesting things.
The first door is up some steps, that look like they could do with a bit of repair work. Not a house for people with mobility problems. The wall on the left of the steps has a great warning to us all… zombies are coming.
Steps and daisies lead up to a yellow door, Gloucester Road, Bristol, May 2020
The second door isn’t really a door, it is more like a window, both physically and metaphorically. Lock down has certainly led to a surge in creativity, with gardening and baking topping the charts, but a local family (I am guessing) have made this brilliant model of a home in lock down. Take time to look at it and see what it tells you about the family. I think this is lovely and a great capture of life in the time of Coronavirus.
Behind a glass door, a scene from a lock down household, Bishopston, Bristol, May 2020
A wonderful interpretation of lock down life, Bishopston, Bristol, May 2020
That’s it for another week. Look after yourselves.
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.
Natural adventures 