June 2024 – Page 3 – Natural adventures

6130. Upfest 2024 (27)

Shane O'Malley, Upfest 24, Bedminster Down Road, Bristol, May 2024 — Shane O’Malley, Upfest 24, Bedminster Down Road, Bristol, May 2024

There are some murals painted at this year’s Upfest that you simply just have to stand back and admire, and this extraordinary piece by Shane O’Malley is one of them. The double house wall is a new one for Upfest this year, and although a little way off the beaten track and without anywhere to park, is well worth the trip.

Shane O’Malley is an artist from Galway in Ireland who works on designs based around circles, geometry and colour in both the studio and on walls – you can see more of his murals on his website. This piece conveys joy and excitement and is complemented by the blue skies on the day I photographed it. A wonderful Upfest piece.

6129. Upfest 2024 (26)

Paul Monsters, Upfest 24, North Street, Bristol, May 2024

I have a feeling that this was one of the first walls to be completed for this year’s Upfest, and there is likely a very good reason for this. Paul Monsters, whose colourful geometric murals are well known in Bristol, also works with Upfest, so I imagine he needed to complete his piece early so that he could help with his festival responsibilities.

The wonderful mural is painted on the side of the Bristol Beer Factory, and Paul Monsters has carefully incorporated the pint glass logo into his design. The use of various tones of colours to create depth in these geometric pieces is a trademark of Paul Monsters’ work and although at first glance his work might look simple and straightforward, it is in fact complex and sophisticated. This post reminds me that it is high time I produced a gallery of his outstanding work.

Lesser stitchwort – 30 Days Wild (25/30)

Lesser stitchwort, Stellaria graminea, Ley, Cornwall, June 2024 — Lesser stitchwort, *Stellaria graminea*, Ley, Cornwall, June 2024

Weaving through grasses

stellar determination

flowers to be seen

by Scooj

30 Days Wild is an initiative organised by the Wildlife Trusts. It is an annual challenge event, for those who choose to participate, to do one ‘wild’ thing a day throughout the month of June. I will try to write a nature haiku every day if I can, as my contribution to this celebration of wildlife and biodiversity. I did this back in 2015 and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge.

6128. Cumberland Basin

Marckinetic, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, May 2024

Marckinetic has been out a fair bit this year, painting alongside his mate Kid Krishna, and he hasn’t yet appeared to run out of inspiration for his FFS designs – this one being a cracking example. There is a real sense of clarity and purpose in this piece.

You have to have some insider knowledge or a great imagination to know that the letters spell FFS. There is a lovely symmetry and flow in this piece created by the curves of the letters, and the deep black shadow gives the whole thing a monolithic appearance. The fills are very nicely worked and I love the cracks in the blue fills. The piece has been nicely finished and is clean and crisp – an excellent and unusual piece of graffiti writing from Marckinetic.

6127. Peel Street Green (32)

Acesartworld, Peel Street Green, Bristol, May 2024

Acesartworld, who appears to have recently changed his moniker to Ace has recently taken a significant change in direction in his work towards painting Transformer-influenced masks. Having painted several of these in Bristol this year, I don’t think he needs to sign them any more as they are quite unique.

I think that this piece speaks of a tidy and regimented mind, paying attention to the symmetry and detail set on a buffed wall, creating clarity – there is no ambiguity or subtlety here – what you see is what you get. These mask pieces have created quite a nice ‘collectable’ series, and I fully expect to see more as the summer unfolds.

6126. Greville Smyth Park (3)

Stewy, Grevile Smyth Park, Bristol, May 2024

Stewy Stencils (to give him his full handle) is one of a handful of talented stencil artists in the Bristol area, and many of his iconic pieces can be found dotted around the city. His style is almost always black and white single layer stencil portraits of well known or influential people, or sometimes animals. In this piece, which is rather annoyingly behind a gate, Stewy depicts Tricky, a British record producer and rapper.

One of the features of many stencils by Stewy is that they can be a bit rough at the edges, and there is sometimes a bit of blurring, but in my view, that adds to the authenticity of these street pieces. I have a few Stewy pieces in my archive and need to do better to post them – something for a quiet moment perhaps (huh!).

Cellophane bee – 30 Days Wild (24/30)

Cellophane bee, Genus Colletes, Ley, Cornwall, June 2024 — Cellophane bee, *Genus Colletes*, Ley, Cornwall, June 2024

Wee cellophane bee

so tiny on a daisy

the ground is your home.

by Scooj

30 Days Wild is an initiative organised by the Wildlife Trusts. It is an annual challenge event, for those who choose to participate, to do one ‘wild’ thing a day throughout the month of June. I will try to write a nature haiku every day if I can, as my contribution to this celebration of wildlife and biodiversity. I did this back in 2015 and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge.

6125. Dean Lane skate park (724)

Werm and Noise, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2024

Werm and Noise are no strangers to collaborating with one another and in May, painted this wonderful collaboration in Dean Lane. Both artists have a distinctive style, and although they use different colour palettes in this collaboration, they are joined together with some connecting background characters.

The writing from Werm is busy and electrifying, with brilliant use of contrasting colours and some highly technical skills used to spell out WERM. There is a lot of depth in the piece, with layers sitting on layers. The bright star spots on some of the letters add a twinkle – classy work.

Noise, has been smashing it lately with a host of new pieces during the spring, and does it again with this piece and his characteristic fat letters spelling out NOISE. The two-colour fill transitions nicely using some symbols and patterns where the two colours meet . Both pieces are bookended with little grey characters painted in a cartoon style, but I am not too sure who painted them. All in all a fine collaborative wall from the pair.

6124. Cumberland Basin

Abbie Laura Smith, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, May 2024

Abbie Laura Smith has been doing herself proud with a new series of wheatpastes in the Cumberland Basin area. I have picked up a few, but still have some others to find. Unfortunately, this one has already been dogged, so I am pleased that I got to see it in pristine condition.

There is a common theme to Abbie Laura Smith’s work, which includes black and white portraits composed in part by lettering and words. The words in this paste-up are as follows (I think):

You will stumble, you may fall

Persevere through it all

And where do I go from here, despair

But you will get there some day

I am not sure whether the words are original or a quote from a song or poem, or whether they are autobiographical, but they carry some emotional power. The piece is one of her larger ones and is truly a beautiful combination of words and illustration. Watch this space for more from Bristol’s best wheatpaster.

6123. Cumberland Basin

Mote and Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2024

Some more jolly capers from Mr Crawls and Mote, who have been smashing it for months now, and continue to turn out some great and fun character pieces dotted all over the place. This pair of characters were painted on the warehouse wall in Cumberland Basin, and command a majestic view over the river.

To the left is a friendly, toothy monster by Mote whose eyes (in common with the adjacent Mr Crawls character) are simply holes in the head, creating a mask-like effect. There are some nice squiggles and doodles in the fill, something of a trademark of Mote’s work. On the right Mr Crawls has recreated one of his hatted birds, although in a stylised cartoon form that is more angular than some of his earlier work. The pair look magnificent on the white background, and are unusually large, due to the big wall they have chosen to paint.

	skat on Winter afternoon
	Cethru Cellophane on 7400. St Werburghs tunnel…
	paulh121 on Sands
	M. on 7398. Peel Street Green (…
	I. J. Khanewala on Thursday doors – 8 Janua…

	skat on Winter afternoon
	Cethru Cellophane on 7400. St Werburghs tunnel…
	paulh121 on Sands
	M. on 7398. Peel Street Green (…
	I. J. Khanewala on Thursday doors – 8 Janua…

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: