.
On an ebbing tide
discarded or stolen things
revealed for a while
.
by Scooj
Ebb
Month: June 2023
Street sounds
.
Teenage boys yelling
with semi-broken voices
herald the weekend
.
by Scooj
5316. Upfest 2022 (74)
Another visiting artist to Upfest 22 was Wee Nuls from Belfast, although she has visited Bristol at least once before, and left a rather nice piece underneath the M32, if my memory serves me correctly. I’ll try to dig it out and add it to the end of this post.
This is a rather delightful, demonic piece from Wee Nuls, that comes across as a highly designed and polished work. It is the kind of thing you might expect to see in a gallery or as a framed contemporary picture, but here it is as a piece of street art, wonderful.
The piece is really nicely finished and sharp, using up the space on the square board really well, giving a polished and professional appearance. Great work from Wee Nuls.
5315. Upfest 2022 (73)
Jack Lack is an artist who is based in Stuttgart, and was one of the international artists who made the trip over to Bristol to paint at Upfest 22. This portrait piece is a beauty and requires a little bit of time to pause and take it all in.
The blurred background is a great technique that helps to bring focus to certain aspects of the piece, which also gives the viewer a bit of a challenge in ‘filling in the gaps’ that are not crystal clear. The bird on the subject’s shoulder looks like a bee eater of some kind to me, and once again the blurring, in a curious way, draws attention to the bird. Does the baseball cap belong to the bird, or is it blowing about in the distance?
This is a fine piece from Jack Lack, who I don’t recall seeing at Upfest before. I would be more than happy to see him return some time in the future though.
5314. Upfest 2022 (72)
Last Year’s Upfest had a fabulously inclusive blend of local, national and international artists painting at Europe’s largest street art festival. Gage Graphics is one of Bristol’s better known muralists, whose commissions can be found dotted all around the city.
This fun piece features a rather curious bulldog wearing sunglasses and an umbrella hat, and why not? The dog is painted in greyscale, and is surrounded by a colourful background to create contrast. It is a nicely crafted piece with plenty of drips to admire. (Note to self – gallery time?)
Conference
.
a staff gathering
alignment, inspiration
personal re-boot
.
by Scooj
5313. Upfest 2022 (71)
As part of my commitment to posting pieces from Upfest 2022, I am interrupting my normal flow of Bristol street pieces with a sequence of ten artworks from last year’s Upfest, starting with this beautiful design piece from Zoe Power, an artist and muralist from the host city.
I would normally expect Zoe Power to be painting a wall rather than a board, because her work is rather sought after locally, but she did a wonderful job with this square space. Her design is beautiful and really easy on the eye, and she has used blues and pinks that are a tried and tested combination that work well at scale. I believe that Zoe Power is a new mum, and I haven’t seen much of her work on the streets lately, so digging this one out of the archive is a pleasurable experience.
5312. Cumberland Basin
I have a feeling that this piece was painted some time ago by Andy Council, but I have only just recently had the opportunity to photograph it. If I am honest, I consider it to be a slightly odd piece, and although it has all the hallmarks of an Andy Council style, the subject matter is lost on me a little.
The ball of what appears to be connected air conditioning units is interspersed with toadstools. Something odd is going on and I don’t know what it is. I can’t find out much about it on Instagram, but Andy Council painted something similar on a Belfast utility box, so it must mean something to him. Something a little different.
5311. St Werburghs tunnel (369)
I have a moment on the train to draft up this post, but it is an arduous task, with zero space to type due to the chronic overcrowding and dreadful telephone signal, and I have just lost my first draft of this post going through a tunnel and had to start over.
I was only thinking recently that I hadn’t seen a new Chill piece in a while and then bang! I got slapped in the face with this beauty alongside Pirate Wall Art pall Face 1st. I have seen Chill cartoon triplets before, but this is the first one I have seen where each of the faces are replicas. I am guessing it is probably a difficult thing to do, but Chill has done a great job of it.
Next to Chill is a classic trademark piece from Face 1st in which a smiling girl is sporting a FACE haircut. The addition of green leaves by way of decoration I am guessing is influenced by Chill, who often adorns his work with flowers and leaves. this is a fine collaborative wall from the PWA duo.
Sardines
.
Railway trip to York
many more people than seats
thank goodness I booked
.
by Scooj
* a terrible haiku describing an uncomfortable scene.
Natural adventures 