Month: August 2023

5427. M32 Spot (169)

Creamylines, M32 Spot, Bristol, July 2023
Creamylines, M32 Spot, Bristol, July 2023


I thought that Creamylines might have been a bit of a flash in the pan when his pieces tailed off last year, so it was hugely exciting to find this piece recently under the M32. His work lends itself particularly well to columns, although it would probably work equally well in a landscape format.

Creamylines, M32 Spot, Bristol, July 2023
Creamylines, M32 Spot, Bristol, July 2023

I like to think of his work as being similar to stained glass, with each element being surrounded by a solid line, like lead around glass. The way the colours work together would also not look out of place in a window with light shining through. As with much of his work, the sun is prominent with rays emanating out across a scene strewn with little characters and eyes. Great stuff from Creamylines.

5426. Dean Lane skate park (630)

Awkward, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2023
Awkward, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2023

Awkward is an artist who makes occasional appearances in Dean Lane, although I’m not sure I have seen his work anywhere else in Bristol. He specialises in his mega-tag character faces that are usually accompanied by a speech bubble.

Awkward, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2023
Awkward, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2023

In this piece, the unnerving character painted in red has huge yellow comedy eyes. The nose is represented only with two nostrils, resembling a skull. The speech bubble has the letters AWK sitting above WARD. The whole piece is set within a blue cloudy background with a few bubbles. These rare appearances, I feel, don’t fully do justice to an artist who has clear and obvious talent, but who may be constrained by time to put into his artwork. His pieces are always worth looking out for though.

5425. Sparke Evans Park (78)

Solar, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, July 2023
Solar, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, July 2023

Solar is definitely an artist I would like to know more about, as he is something of an enigma to me, and I have never had the fortune to meet him, or indeed most of his elusive PLB friends. His work is quite unique and touches on the anti-style, but not in a way that is similar to others who paint that way. Although he changes his fonts from piece to piece, there is a consistency about his letters within a piece.

Solar, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, July 2023
Solar, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, July 2023

The most striking thing about this work is the colour combination and contrast between the blue and black letters and the red and orange surround, set on a blue buffed background. I can’t really describe the letter forms, but can say that somehow they are typically Solar, and the gentle way he has of almost disguising his name. I will soon be able to pull together a gallery of his work which will be a great showcase of his individual style.

5424. Brunel Way (222)

Kool Hand, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2023
Kool Hand, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2023

Only a few days ago I was talking about the frequency of epic paint jam walls, and this is another example from a Bristol group of artists, including the ever improving Kool Hand. The artist returns to one of his favoured animal characters, a crocodile, for this fun animated piece, which perhaps takes a little inspiration from the Terminator movies.

Kool Hand, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2023
Kool Hand, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2023

The crocodile, with a peeled back face, revealing a robotic skeleton, is holding a ‘boogie box’ or ghetto blaster on his left shoulder and clutching a spray can in his right hand. The piece is nicely finished, and is a bit of a ‘stretch’ piece for Kool Hand whose work is becoming more diverse and creating narratives. The full collaborative wall is below:

Kool Hand, Conrico, Werm, Korbe and Daz Cat, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2023
Kool Hand, Conrico, Werm, Korbe and Daz Cat, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2023

Boat people

.

Hateful policy

creating floating ghettos

whipping up racists

.

by Scooj

* I am too worn out to describe by feelings about our shameful fascist government, but therein lies a problem. Their relentless far right policies grind people down and through new laws repress protest and opposition.

How can it have come to this? Growing up, I felt huge progress was made towards a fairer and more tolerant society, but it has taken only 13 years to return us to 1970s Britain, which was in my view a hateful, horrible place.

I despair.

Fairy ring


.

Fairy ring, Purdown, Bristol, August 2023
Fairy ring, Purdown, Bristol, August 2023

Curiosity

circular radiation

with fruiting bodies

.

by Scooj

5423. Greenbank (86)

Haka, Greenbank, Bristol, July 2023
Haka, Greenbank, Bristol, July 2023

Haka rarely disappoints, and although he seems to have slowed down a little this summer, his work just seems to be always out there. This is a fun piece on the not-so-long hoarding on the Bristol to Bath cycle path, a hoarding that will before too long be entirely absent, as the new housing development nears completion.

Haka, Greenbank, Bristol, July 2023
Haka, Greenbank, Bristol, July 2023

Haka has an unrestrained vibe in his work and doesn’t seem to get hung up on convention, which affords him a freedom that comes across as very happy pieces. Here he has written his name alongside a ghost character from Ghostbusters (a movie that I can only think of as the original, as the glimpses I have had of the add-on films have left me cold). Always a great pleasure to see Hakka’s work.

5422. Dean Lane skate park (629)

Enn Kay, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2023
Enn Kay, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2023

There is such a vast spectrum of types, methods and styles of street and graffiti art in Bristol, and there is room for everyone, which makes it one of the most exciting venues in the world for urban art. All artists are welcome and nobody is overlooked. Enn Kay (NAK) burst onto the scene from nowhere about two to three years ago and has been improving along the way with each piece.

Enn Kay, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2023
Enn Kay, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2023

This is a lovely character/letters piece featuring Squidward from SpongeBob SquarePants, beautifully recreated by Enn Kay, alongside the letters NAK. The whole thing is beautifully clean and tight – a top quality artwork from an artist on the up.

5421. Brunel Way (221)

Bean, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2023
Bean, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2023

It was an enormous pleasure to meet Bean for the first time recently in this exact spot. He was painting a third piece alongside this and another one. The young artist hasn’t been in Bristol very long, but his character pieces have already made an impression, and he is fast building a reputation. It is funny that some artists don’t seem to know too much about the other artists around them, but it would seem that Bean is aware and admires the work of many artists in the city, and much of our conversation focussed on the art scene here.

Bean, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2023
Bean, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2023

This piece depicts, in a fabulous cartoon style, a young man complete with spray can in hand, setting about spraying some graffiti. There is something almost old-school about this piece that makes it the work of more than just a character piece, there is a sense of heritage blended with the contemporary. The piece is great fun and really nicely finished. If he carries on like this, Bean has a fantastic street art future ahead of him.

5420. M32 Spot (168)

Slakarts, M32 Spot, Bristol, July 2023
Slakarts, M32 Spot, Bristol, July 2023

It would seem that Slakarts has been busy with real life lately, and his pieces are few and far between and tend to be ‘quick ones’ in contrast to the more sophisticated and designed pieces he was painting throughout 2021, 2022 and at the start of this year.

Slakarts, M32 Spot, Bristol, July 2023
Slakarts, M32 Spot, Bristol, July 2023

In this piece, Slakarts returns to his base character, cunningly fitted onto the column, with a slight stretch. Great fills and superb cutting-in of the black outlines throughout the piece. The selfish part of me wants to see more Slakarts pieces on the street for me to enjoy, but I am also happy that he might be busy with work/family or other distractions keeping him off the streets.