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Fishing stint disturbed
eye on approaching danger
little egret flies
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by Scooj
Spooked
Month: July 2024
6179. Coach and Horses.
This production collaboration from the PWA crew was photographed in April this year, and nearly got left behind, had I not carried out one of my occasional archive ‘sweep ups’. Soap, Zake, Face 1st and Chill have combined to create this zany and energetic piece.
Starting off with Soap, who has been a little quiet of late, and this writing/character combination. I have spent way too long trying to find out who the character and cat are and what cartoon series they belong to (possibly Adventure Time?). Some beautiful blue letters here spelling SOAP set on a green and pleasant background that Chill has enhanced with his silhouetted plants along the ground.
Next up is a very curious character piece by Zake, which unusually has the whole character and not just the head. The character’s body is brilliantly drafted, with some lovely detail around the knuckles, stitching on the trousers and shoes, but then you get to the head… What has happened here. Expressive it might be, but I find it slightly grotesque, but that is the joy of cartoon characters, you can make them do unreal things.
Face 1st gives us a classic laughing girl piece with the letters FACE staked up in her hair. The letters follow the recent interest that Face 1st has shown in creating 3D blocks, and works very well in this piece. It is so good to observe Face 1st pushing his boundaries and expanding his repertoire.
Chill, I feel, is an underrated and underrepresented artist on the Bristol scene. I rarely see his pieces shared on social media, and I feel he doesn’t get the recognition he deserves. His characters are always on point, full of fine detail and comic expressions, and he combines his urban ‘geezers’ so well with his beautiful and fragile nature silhouettes that accompany this entire production and others. This is a fine collaboration from the PWA boys.
6178. Dean Lane skate park (730)
Another quick rifle through my archive turned up this beautiful chrome piece by Elvs in Dean Lane from March this year. There was a time not so long ago that Elvs was a regular visitor to Bristol from his native Wales, but his appearances have dwindled lately, and I guess he has other things on his plate that makes travel and painting more challenging.
I like to think that this wonderfully elaborate graffiti writing is archetypal Elvs, a complex and beautifully picked out design simply delivered. Everything here is on point, a fine chrome fill, superb fine line detail, great black 3D drop shadow, tidy light blue border, white starbursts, a bubble background set on a blue buffed wall and a little yellow halo to finish with. Certainly worth waiting for.
6177. St Werburghs tunnel (433)
There are many pieces I see every day, and I look at them and I am left wondering who painted them. These tend to remain in my archive folders and get left behind… until some time later, it may be months or sometimes years, after I have established the identity of the artist, I will take a quick scan of an old folder and drag out the piece for posting. This is one of those pieces by 3GV from March this year.
The combination piece features a flat combination piece of the letters 3GV bookended by a couple of street characters. 3GV has an unusual style, that suggests he is a self-taught artist, but I have no evidence for that, just my intuition. There is not a lot of depth to the piece, but it is nicely filled and bordered with a thin yellow line. I think I may have several more 3GV pieces lurking in my archive somewhere.
6176. M32 roundabout J3 (595)
At the end of each month I tend to dig out a few pieces that have managed to get trapped in my vast archive, which is organised into monthly files, and this is a piece by Grimes that I photographed back in March, but never quite got round to posting.
I think it is fair to say that Grimes has now fully bedded down as a Bristol graffiti writer, and his lively style is appearing reasonably frequently in most of the main graffiti spots in town. This yellow piece is full of energy, which is created by the shapes of his letters, highlights, and in this instance a dynamic background of cartoon pink flames. Two or three starbursts also create a sense of movement and dazzle. It won’t be too long before I have enough Grimes pieces to create a gallery.
6175. M32 Cycle path (272)
This year, we haven’t really had to wait too long before being treated to a Laic217 piece on a reasonably regular basis, and this is one of his most recent works on the M32 cycle path. What Laic217 has presented us with here is a rather trippy, and slightly menacing (those black fingernails like talons) piece that plays into his penchant for face distortion.
Although the piece is nicely executed, I personally find it a little unsettling, which I am sure is the point. Laic217 will push the boundaries in a way that his art can. His solid, tight, block letters contrast really well with the unconventional character portrait. Not my favourite piece by Laic217, but a great example of the way he challenges us to see things.
6174. M32 roundabout J3 (594)
Although it didn’t last a very long time, this is a nice collaboration from PWA’s Face 1st and Zake. I think that I would be the first to say that it is an unusual collaboration, but in the same breath a really interesting one too.
Face 1st has been experimenting a lot lately, especially with his 3D block writing, and this piece demonstrated perfectly the kind of writing he is producing at the moment. The writing appears to be cut in to a long block of machinery or a device, indicated by the numerous red filament bulbs along the length. The letters spell out FACE, of course, and although a little rough at the edges, the concept is a great one. I love the light bulbs.
Zake has painted one of his cartoon character faces, full of depth and relief. I don’t feel that the two pieces work terribly well together, but they don’t need to, because each stands alone perfectly well. I do enjoy the constant creativity and unrelenting effort from the PWA crew – and ever-present heart-beat of the Bristol scene.
Thursday doors – 11 July 2024, Assisi, Umbria, Italy
Doors 270 – Assisi doors, Umbria, Italy, July 2023 (Part II)
This week I bring you a few more doors from a trip to Umbria last July – can it really be a year ago? This is the second selection from the beautiful and world renowned town of Assisi, home of the patron saint of animals, merchants and ecology, St Francis. Once again there is no theme to this selection of doors apart from the fact that they are all Assisi doors.
Can you guess which is my favourite?
Here we go:
Naturally, the gelateria was my favourite, and although not strictly a door, the surround must have been a doorway at some point in time.
One more set of doors from Assisi next time, until then have a great weekend, and who knows…England could be European champions by then, or forlorn bridesmaids.
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
Crunch time for Engerland
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Semi-final clash
potential to fluke a win
likely bore us all
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by Scooj
6173. Sparke Evans Park (100)
What a fine way to mark a century of posts from Sparke Evans Park, with this immaculate piece of graffiti writing from Raid. Since his arrival in Bristol, about 18 months ago, Raid has consistently turned out great pieces, with an emphasis on the intricate and colourful letter fills, and he has produced another cracker here.
In addition to the writing, which is set on a purple, diamond-shaped background and some flames, Raid has included a ‘Screw’ character from Vaughn Bode’s imagined universe. I am wondering if the character is an artefact of a piece that was there before (I should know this), and Raid has incorporated it into his work. The edges and sharpness are not consistent with his tight style. Another fine piece from Raid – I’ll have to update his gallery, as they just keep rolling in.
Natural adventures 