.
Got to Cheltenham
dropped and broke my camera
within ten minutes
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by Scooj
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- On a day trip to the Cheltenham Paint Festival
- Well, at least England beat Germany to become European champions – well done Lionesses, bravo.
Month: July 2022
4600. Cumberland Basin
Sometimes, when a piece has been tagged, you have to look beyond the tag and see the piece for what it is underneath the disrespectful scrawl. Inca (the mole) is an artist whose work I simply don’t seem to come across all that often, so when I do, I like to publish it, even if tagged.
Inca on this occasion has painted his mole character, although sometimes he writes INCA, so it helps to know what to look out for. Inca’s mole character is most endearing, and the simplicity of the piece supports the maxim that sometimes less is more. The mole outline seems to have been superimposed on a sunrise landscape, with some lovely horizontal colour transitions, and of course, there is always the subliminal Ukraine flag when blue sits above yellow. A nice piece tucked away.
4599. Peel Street Green
I am rather excited this morning, because I am off to Cheltenham later on, to enjoy the delights of the Paint Festival, conceived and organised by the brilliant and tireless Dice 67 (Andy Davies). In the meanwhile, I will share this lovely piece from Smut on the long wall at Peel Street Green.
Smut has moved on from his thin script writing, which he has retained in his signature, but what has not changed is his incredible sharpness and accuracy in his work. The letters have been superbly filled, with the ‘watery’ patterning flowing from letter to letter in a coherent way, rather than discrete fills for each one. A black 3D shadow and perfect red border finish the piece off nicely. Smut’s high standards go from strength to strength.
Hello boys
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Always here, waiting
occasional second glances
balcony voyeur
.
by Scooj
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Who is looking at who?
4598. Dean Lane skate park (512)
I have encountered a small dilemma, it happens quite a lot in the world of documenting street art. Flava136 is making a deliberate move towards refreshing his moniker to Saor. Part of me feels that I should follow his lead, but the other part of me feels like it will simply muck up all my tagging and labelling which is a nightmare for archiving, searching etc. So as you will see I have decided to stick with Flava136, even though it is now Saor.
The name is somewhat irrelevant when it comes to his artwork, which is always presented to the highest possible standards. The piece is horizontally bisected with different colour transitions either side of the line. We also see a return of the toothy monster character, which is becoming a less central part of his work these days. This is yet another sharp, on-point piece from an outstanding artist.
4597. Cumberland Basin
All I can think of when I see this creature is that it looks like a Mote version of Big Bird. I am pretty certain that it was not his intention, but like an earworm, I just can’t shake it off, so I’ll just have to settle for that.
There is no stopping Mote at the moment, and I seem to be meeting him on a fairly regular basis these days – our clocks appear to be in sync. I like the way that Mote really seems to take care with his work, and likes to buff the wall first, before carefully putting down the layers of his piece. Always finished nicely, his work is tight – no blurred lines, no sloppiness, tight.
4596. M32 roundabout J3 (418)
Although from these pictures, it might look like I photographed this while the artist was finishing off, it is an illusion – the paint paraphernalia belongs to Corupt who was painting a piece along the top of the wall. This is of course yet another outstanding work from 3Dom during a bit of an ASK paint jam celebrating Mr Jago’s birthday.
There are a number of motifs in the piece that we see a lot from 3Dom, such as eyeballs, stripy trousers, bleak landscape etc. I wonder if he has been watching the latest series of Stranger Things, as there is a gateway to the upside down maybe, or perhaps this is the upside down, the clouds might suggest it. All in all, this is just yet another outstanding surreal piece from one of the very best street artists around.
Midas
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Cementing friendships
mixing in higher circles
humble beginnings
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by Scooj
4595. Upfest 2022 (35)
I am a huge admirer of Johnman’s incredible pieces, and although I have only seen a handful of them, each one is an absolute cracker. I particularly like this piece, because accidentally or deliberately, the scene blends into the real blue sky behind it, giving a slightly surreal feel to the whole thing.
Johnman has a gift for producing intrigue and drama in his work, and here we have a girl in a wheat field under a deep blue sky with a dove of peace. The colours suggest that this is a representation of the Ukranian flag and that it is a piece depicting the war with the Dictator Putin’s Russia. A stunning, mysterious and compassionate piece from this outstanding artist.
4594. Upfest 2022 (34)
I guess it is a host’s prerogative, in this case Upfest, to be able to include lots of local artists to join in the fun of the festival, and it felt like, this year more than any other, that Bristol-based artists made up a significant proportion of all the artists in attendance. This is a brilliant thing, because it introduces all the visitors to the festival to the vast pool of talent we have in the city.
Any regular reader of Natural Adventures will be no stranger to the work of Zake, and here we see him at work painting the body of one of his characteristic cartoon-style faces. I like work in progress (WIP) photographs, because they give you a real sense of how the finished article was created, and how the finishing touches can transform a piece.
As always, it is the mastery of light and shade that makes Zake’s work so special, and he has managed to apply these principles not only to the character’s face but also to his clothes. A fine festival piece from Zake.
Natural adventures 