Month: September 2020

3181. Cheltenham 2019 (34)

This is another outstanding piece from last year’s Cheltenham Paint Festival that I never got to see in its finished state until I visited for this year’s festival. It is a superb Hamlet work by French artist Zabou that I actually saw her working on last year, but haven’t been able to find my work in progress photographs.

Zabou, Paint Festival 2019, Cheltenham, September 2020
Zabou, Paint Festival 2019, Cheltenham, September 2020

Zabou is without doubt one of my favourite street artists. Her work is not only technically brilliant but her subjects and the emotional texture she conveys is quite remarkable. I think that this might be my favourite piece by Zabou, I am in love with it and cannot fault it.

Zabou, Paint Festival 2019, Cheltenham, September 2020
Zabou, Paint Festival 2019, Cheltenham, September 2020

The blue tones and flowers add some real interest, but it is the relationship between Hamlet (I am making that assumption) and Yorick’s skull that is so intriguing. ‘Alas poor Yorick, I knew him Horatio…’

Daily grind

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Washing up, cooking

breakfast work lunch work tea work

cooking, washing up

.

by Scooj

3180. Cheltenham 2019 (34)

The thing about returning to an annual festival such as the one in Cheltenham is that a year later you get to see the pieces that weren’t completed on the visit a year ago. The next three pieces on Natural Adventures were all painted at Cheltenham Paint Festival in 2019, but photographed this year.

WD, Paint Festival 2019, Cheltenham, September 2020
WD, Paint Festival 2019, Cheltenham, September 2020

This astonishing anamorphic piece, or trompe l’oeil as I would prefer to describe it, is a tribute to Mobius (the mathematician) who invented the Möbius strip – remember that from O Level mathematics? It is painted by WD, an artist I know little about but who has a rather nice website that is worth a look at.

WD, Paint Festival 2019, Cheltenham, September 2020
WD, Paint Festival 2019, Cheltenham, September 2020

This really is a breathtaking piece and didn’t get painted until after last year’s festival had ended, so many visitors never got to see it which is a shame. One can only look at a piece like this and be filled with awe. It is not only clever, but it is also expertly painted. I love the incorporation of the chimney stack into the hat.

WD, Paint Festival 2019, Cheltenham, September 2020
WD, Paint Festival 2019, Cheltenham, September 2020

I parked down a little side street to get these pictures and the last one is from a little distance away, but gives you a feel for the local impact of something so grand. Worth a trip to Cheltenham on its own.

3179. Alfred Street (4)

As part of a recent paint jam, the walls of the Dare To nightclub were given something of a stupendous makeover and would be the envy of many a building in Bristol. This piece was one of four on this elevation and is by Inkie.

Inkie, Alfred Street, Bristol, September 2020
Inkie, Alfred Street, Bristol, September 2020

It would seem that Inkie is spending a lot of time in the Bristol area at the moment and is hitting a lot of walls. I can’t think of a time when I have seen so many new pieces from him in such a short space of time. We are being spoilt. This is a particularly nice one in pink, featuring the one and only Pink Panther. A real beauty and so typically Inkie if you know what I mean.

Shredding

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Gardening heaven

cutting back hard and shredding

clearing new spaces
.

by Scooj

3178. Temple Way (2)

There are few places further removed from the relaxing evening beach scene in this Silent Hobo piece than Temple Way – a busy dual carriageway running through the centre of Bristol. It is this juxtaposition that adds to the overall brilliance of this piece.

Silent Hobo, Temple Way, Bristol, September 2020
Silent Hobo, Temple Way, Bristol, September 2020

Silent Hobo has been unstoppable this year, and on top of that, I seem to be finding loads of his older pieces too, which means he is featuring a lot on Natural Adventures at the moment.

Silent Hobo, Temple Way, Bristol, September 2020
Silent Hobo, Temple Way, Bristol, September 2020

Four youths are getting away from it all chilling on a beach in the sunset, soaking in that connection with nature and our beautiful planet Earth. The piece captures a mood so perfectly and I can imagine myself as one of those youths (I have to think back a long way mind). I find the story in this work a bit depressing because I can’t help feeling that our planet and the ecosystem services it provides are being choked to death by negligent governments and societies worldwide. And on that happy note…

3177. M32 roundabout J3 (254)

Another stunner from Smak on the M32 roundabout and this time it is in beautiful gold and green colours with a slightly unexpected surprise pink and red highlighting the outer edges of the piece.

Smak, M32 roundabout, Bristol, September 2020
Smak, M32 roundabout, Bristol, September 2020

I found this without knowing it had been painted (always rewarding and it usually means that it is pretty fresh because it han’t appeared on Instagram). There is a kind of browny tinge all along the middle of the letters, giving the letters a bit of a 3D shiny feel to them. Belting statement piece.

Swallows swoop

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Death-defying flight

hugging the ground tight, then swoop

high into the sky

.

by Scooj

3176. Dean Lane skate park (352)

I don’t know very much at all about Dream Safari, the artist who painted this Einstein piece at Dean Lane. From his Instagram account I know that he specialises in characters and portrait murals, but beyond that I don’t know much more other than it took him six hours to get to Bristol to paint this, so obviously not local then.

Dream Safari, Dean Lane, Bristol, August 2020
Dream Safari, Dean Lane, Bristol, August 2020

Einstein is being a naughty chap with a tab of something on his tongue. At this point I have to confess my ignorance about recreational drugs, so am unable to say too much more about what is going on here. The portrait is nicely worked in grey scale, apart from the obvious splashes of colour. Great to see visiting artists as always.

3175. Dean Lane skate park (351)

This superb collaboration from Dibz and Shade One was a precursor to their Cheltenham Paint Festival collaboration in the Honeybourne Line tunnel  painted last weekend. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see the finished Cheltenham piece, but was privileged to watch the pair working together.

Dibz and Shade One, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2020
Dibz and Shade One, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2020

This Dean Lane Piece is truly outstanding, and the quality of design and execution is of the highest order. I particularly like the blue bubbles, the largest of which provides the background for Shade One’s character on the right. What you see here is a near-perfect work from two very talented artists.

Dibz and Shade One, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2020
Dibz and Shade One, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2020