Month: June 2023

5255. M32 Spot (164)

Skor85, M32 Spot, Bristol, May 2023
Skor85, M32 Spot, Bristol, May 2023

How truly wonderful to see a Skor85 piece for two big reasons; the first is that I haven’t seen any of her work in an absolute age, and secondly, she is one of the nicest, kindest and most bubbly artists in Bristol. Even better is that this is one of two pieces she painted during this paint jam organised in the M32 Spot by Conrico.

Skor85, M32 Spot, Bristol, May 2023
Skor85, M32 Spot, Bristol, May 2023

The column piece looks like a mash-up of a portrait with a design idea, and kind of comes in a top and bottom half. The portrait below seems to portray happiness, but is somewhat at odds with the deer design above, which is more stylised and looks ready to go onto the front of a Christmas card. I am puzzled by the rune on the deer’s forehead… is it an expression or is it a tag? I think the former. The whole thing is a welcome return from Skor85.

5254. Greenbank (82)

Pekoe, Greenbank, Bristol, May 2023
Pekoe, Greenbank, Bristol, May 2023

This post gives you a sense of how far behind I am with my posts and how difficult it is to keep up with the sheer volume of street art and graffiti writing being painted in Bristol right now. The wonderful piece by Pekoe is from an Easter paint jam with her RBF crew friends.

Pekoe, Greenbank, Bristol, May 2023
Pekoe, Greenbank, Bristol, May 2023

Pekoe has spent this spring concentrating on her letters, and it is always great to see artists pushing and challenging themselves. I think that Pekoe may struggle a little with straight lines and that she might benefit from writing a more curvy word – there are a lot of straight lines in PEKOE. The fills are lovely and typical of her style, and the eggs a nice festive touch. More writing from Pekoe in the pipeline.

5253. M32 Spot (163)

Zake, M32 Spot, Bristol, April 2023
Zake, M32 Spot, Bristol, April 2023

I think that the Bristol artist who has stretched the most so far this year is Zake. He has consistently been expanding his repertoire pretty much with each new piece and is becoming more original with his designs and ideas. This recent wizard piece at the M32 Spot is a great example of how varied his work is becoming.

Zake, M32 Spot, Bristol, April 2023
Zake, M32 Spot, Bristol, April 2023

Although it is easy to see, in this column piece, the traits for which Zake is best known, namely the use of light and dark shading to create depth, it does not scream out Zake on the surface, and had it not been signed, it would have taken me a little while to work it out. An unusual and fun piece from the Spanish face specialist.

5252. Lighthouse Community Garden, London (10)

Vane MG, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
Vane MG, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023

Here we have another wonderful portrait piece from the Lighthouse Community Garden in London, this time from an artist called Vane MG. She is an artist and designer originally from Colombia, but is now living and working in London. The following is from her excellent website:

She worked in the Design world from 2009 & in 2015 she started working on projects which focussed on highlighting the importance of Latin American women. Her objective is to attempt to reclaim elements of the cultural past, integrating it with the present and creating new images that help to define a lost identity.

Vane MG, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
Vane MG, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023

The portrait of a young girl is exquisitely painted in lilac and turquoise tones, creating depth with clever light and shadowing. A child’s windmill is in front of the girl, whose expression is slightly haunting, with the glimmer of a smile hiding a sadness – at least that is how I see it. A truly lovely piece for another artist who needs to be snapped up for the next Upfest festival in Bristol.

5251. Lighthouse Community Garden, London (9)

Elno, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
Elno, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023

One of the things about finding street art in a place that isn’t your home, is that you will come across artists that you are unfamiliar with, and that is certainly the case here with this fabulous portrait piece by Elno at the Lighthouse Community Garden in Stratford.

Elno, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
Elno, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023

Elena Gonzalez Nieto also known as ELNO, is a Spanish visual artist based in London since 2014 (taken from her fabulous website) who it would seem specialises in stunning portrait pieces elaborated with bright colourful backgrounds. Although painted last year, the piece looks fresh and vibrant – definitely a candidate for Upfest I would have thought.

Thursday doors – 1 June 2023

Doors 223 – Doors of Weston-super-Mare (1)

Last weekend, Paul H and I took a trip to Weston-super-Mare to photograph some of the street art there, not least the impressive recent additions from the last three years thanks to Upfest’s involvement with the Weston Wallz initiative. We hadn’t even left the station when I spotted a surfeit of doors on a Network Rail maintenance wagon – this was going to be a good day.

Plenty of doors on this Network Rail rail grinder, Weston-super-Mare, May 2023
Plenty of doors on this Network Rail rail grinder, Weston-super-Mare, May 2023

Being a seaside town, many of the doors are in fairly poor condition, from all that salt spray in the winter months, so, plenty of characterful doors, but not many ancient ones. The doors were a bit of a bonus on what was actually a street/graffiti art mission, but Paul was very patient with me as I snapped up a few interesting doors. I hope you enjoy them:

Blue doors of a certain period, Weston-super-Mare, May 2023
Blue doors of a certain period, Weston-super-Mare, May 2023

Green doors of a certain period in need of some TLC, Weston-super-Mare, May 2023
Green doors of a certain period in need of some TLC, Weston-super-Mare, May 2023

Dirty plain door and a little bit of graffiti, Weston-super-Mare, May 2023
Dirty plain door and a little bit of graffiti, Weston-super-Mare, May 2023

Steel doors, Weston-super-Mare, May 2023
Steel doors, Weston-super-Mare, May 2023

More to come from this trip in due course. My I wish you a happy end of week.

If you have made it this far, you probably like doors, and you really ought to take a look at the No Facilities blog by Dan Anton who has taken over the hosting of Thursday Doors from Norm 2.0 blog. Links to more doorscursions can be found in the comments section of Dan Anton’s Thursday Doors post.

by Scooj

Door logo, Thursday doors