Fesa, Redpoint Climbing Centre, Upfest 24, Bristol, May 2024
In the interests of keeping as up to date as I can with Upfest posts on Natural Adventures, I am posting a rare fourth piece in one day. This outstanding mural by Fesa is painted on a board outside the Redpoint Climbing Wall, which has been a well known Upfest spot over the last few years, and although a little off the beaten track, is well worth hunting down.
Fesa, Redpoint Climbing Centre, Upfest 24, Bristol, May 2024
Fesa is a self-taught fine artist from Munich, and this rendition of a Dalmatian dog set in a rural landscape is breathtakingly good. Although the whole piece is fairly simple and sparse, it is filled with the atmosphere of a warm day, and the toppled mug is a wonderful observation. The buildings in the background remind me of Paul Cézanne’s style of work, leaving quite a lot to the imagination. I love seeing fine art pieces upscaled in this way for street art, and Fesa has done an amazing job with this one. Lots of animals represented at Upfest this year.
I realise that it is a first world problem, but one of the things I am agonising over at the moment is how on earth I post as many pieces from Upfest as I possibly can, alongside posting the regular everyday graffiti and street art that appears on Bristols walls every day. I guess it is a good problem to have, but it vexes me nonetheless.
This lovely piece from Bristol artist Cheba has been painted over one of my all-time favourite pieces in Bedminster by Willl Cross, which makes me a little sad, but that is the nature of street art.
Cheba, Lime Road, Upfest 24, Bristol, May 2024
Cheba is known for his atmospheric cosmic pieces, many of which can still be found around the city if you know where to look. In this one he has created a nebulous composition dotted with bright stars, looking like some of those photographs taken in space of vast ‘cloudy’ areas by exploration probes. There is a sense of both scale and calm in this attractive small piece.
The Hass, North Street Green, Upfest 24, Bristol, May 2024
The Hass is an exceptional street artist whose talents never cease to amaze me, and he has knocked it out of the park with this extraordinary piece for Upfest this year. The long wall is at the back of the brick building on North Street Green, and I believe that this is the first year it has been ‘commandeered’ for the festival.
The Hass, North Street Green, Upfest 24, Bristol, May 2024
I think I got lucky with the gorgeous weather on the day I photographed this piece, because the colours of the grass and sky are reflected in the artwork. The whole piece is a mash-up of stunning portraits and a peacock and peacock feathers.
The Hass, North Street Green, Upfest 24, Bristol, May 2024
The Hass has made a clever play with the eye patterns on the feathers and the eyes in the portraits, quite deliberately I’m sure. Not only does the piece blend perfectly with some abstract shapes and patterns, but there is also some incredible detail throughout the work. It is unbelievable that the whole thing is painted using spray cans. Outstanding work.
The Hass, North Street Green, Upfest 24, Bristol, May 2024
Faye Rai, North Street, Upfest 24, Bristol, May 2024
There has been a concerted focus at this year’s Upfest to create permanent or long-life pieces on existing and new walls, at the expense of the rather more ephemeral boards and festival atmosphere of previous events. I suspect that the festival element is more expensive and difficult to organise, and has been dropped this year, which is a pity. However, we are left with a plethora of outstanding pieces across South Bristol to enjoy, such as this beauty from Faye Rai.
Faye Rai, North Street, Upfest 24, Bristol, May 2024
I believe that Faye Rai is reasonably local, being based in Gloucester, and is an artist with a background in illustration. She has not been painting on the streets for very long, but appears to have made the transition very successfully, if this piece is anything to go by. She favours natural history in her work, and this portrayal of a purple heron is outstanding.
Faye Rai, North Street, Upfest 24, Bristol, May 2024
Now that she has a taste for street art, it would be wonderful to see more of her work about the place, and I am left wondering whether she might be painting at the Cheltenham paint festival later on this year. I have just checked her Instagram feed and note that she was at Cheltenham last year, and I have some pictures of her work, which alas I haven’t yet uploaded on to Natural Adventures, such is my backlog. These are surely the halcyon days of street art.
I am always excited when I find street art by Bloem. She is, as far as I can see, a very friendly and talented artist who has a quirky and distinct style that draws you in. Her use of bright primary colours creates a striking contrast in her work that is rather compelling.
Bloem, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2024
Bloem’s work is often peppered with recurring themes that drift in and out of her creative designs and in this piece we have the familiar hand with sharp, pointy nails and a pair of devil cherries, one of which is melting in the hand. These motifs almost fall into the category of a brand, but I suppose in street art terms we would call it a style. Anyhoo, her work is fantastic and always a pleasure when found.
This is another striking piece from Katie Fishlock which I had meant to post back in March, but it simply didn’t happen. Fortunately my regular trawls through my archives allow me to unearth special pieces like this one.
Fishlock, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2024
Fishlock’s punchy pieces tend to be quite modest in size, but usually make up for it in both attitude and message. These big red lips contain the words ‘self-sabotage is misguided self-love’, which I think I get. Katie Fishlock’s art punches above its weight because of its arresting combination of design and message, and I am a fan.
You might be able to tell that I have been doing a little digging through my archive, which I do from time to time, to pull out some pieces that deserve to be posted, but were squeezed out because of the sheer volume of new work appearing on the streets of Bristol every day. This beauty from Misery is a good example of what I mean.
Misery, Greenbank, Bristol, February 2024
I am more used to seeing tags from Misery, and because of that, this is the first piece I have featured on Natural Adventures, not because I don’t like tags, but because they have to compete with all the other street and graffiti art. This piece looks like an aggregation of tags on a simple white background, along with the word misery repeated, and it appears that there is a bit of a story board going on, but I am not too sure what it is telling us. I hope that this will free me up to start posting aggregations of his tags at some point, We’ll have to wait and see. A nice debut on this blog.
Doors 266 – Doors from Cheltenham, July 2023 (Part I)
Last July, I made my annual pilgrimage to Cheltenham for the Cheltenham Paint Festival, which thanks to the tireless efforts of the organiser Andy Davies (Dice 67) is going from strength to strength. Of course, I took the opportunity (not for the first time) to photograph some doors while I was there. Cheltenham is a funny place in that it has some expensive and exclusive properties cheek by jowl with what we call these days ‘affordable housing’ (none of which is particularly affordable, but that discussion is for another day). The result is an eclectic mix of doors and periods – here is a taster for my first of three collections from last year’s visit:
Yellow door with an oval window, Cheltenham, July 2023Door with a flat-roofed awning, Cheltenham, July 2023Former Beatrice von Tresckow design shop font, Cheltenham, July 2023Door to Former Beatrice von Tresckow design shop font, Cheltenham, July 2023Blue door, Ionic columns and an ornate veranda, Cheltenham, July 2023Black door and ornate veranda, Cheltenham, July 2023Black door and steps, Cheltenham, July 2023Double doors with one sealed up, Cheltenham, July 2023
I recall that I posted this last door once before in September 2019, although it looked quite different then. It is interesting how a lick of paint can completely transform the look of a building, and the impression it gives.
Pity about the scaffolding! Cheltenham, September 2019
That just about wraps it up for this week, and I hope it serves as a taster for the next two Thursday Doors I’ll be posting. May I wish you a pleasant weekend.
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.
I have been aware of 3GV’s work for a little while now, but this is the first piece I have posted on Natural Adventures, which I photographed back in January this year. It has taken me a little while to post because I wasn’t too sure who the artist was, and whether this was a one-off or not. I have since seen several more pieces which I will try to feature in future posts.
3GV, M32 roundabout, Bristol, January 2024
3GV has an interesting combination style, which incorporates characters and his letters 3GV. While his work is quite undeveloped and raw, he has something about him, and with plenty of practice, I fully expect to see his work in some of the more prominent spots before long. The Fred Flintstone character is recognisable, and the rest of his artwork comes together to create something quite eye-catching. Practice on his technique and finishing #will lift his work from ‘good effort’ to outstanding – let’s see where this goes.
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