Month: December 2025

I have made a few trips into the office recently, which has both benefits and disbenefits. It is great to have some face to face meetings with ‘real people’ and good to catch up with old friends, which is always nice. The walk in, however, takes 40 minutes, effectively adding 1 hour 20 minutes of unproductive time to my day. On the upside, it is not entirely unproductive, as I get to see if there is any new art along the way. On one such walk, I found this stunning shutter and shopfront piece by Vane in Stokes Croft. It took me a little bit of detective work and luck to find out that it was Vane (Vandalist) who had created this wonder.

I was looking for an explanation of the portrait piece and found it on Vane’s Instagram feed. His words are as follows:

I was asked to paint this memorial portrait on Stokes Croft, Bristol – of the late, great Gerald Valentine Phillips.
Gerry was a pillar in the local community. Despite his history as an addict he spent 25 years clean, helping people through their own recoveries and founded a number of care based charities in Bristol including Emerge and Cherry Orchard Care

The backstory to this piece makes it all the more poignant. Painting portraits on shutters cannot be easy, and this is a technical feat as well as a visual joy. It is lovely to see how community figures can be remembered in this public way. Well done Vane.