Reward for housework
got to watch the football, wish
I hadn’t bothered.
by Scooj
Reward for housework
got to watch the football, wish
I hadn’t bothered.
by Scooj
Only a few days after I had taken the picture of the Decay piece in this exact spot (see previous post), Kid Crayon had overwritten it with one of his trademark faces. In recent times he has moved away from his wheatpastes (which I loved) and his faces, and tends to do more spray work, in particular in collaboration with SPZero76. So it was nice to see him revert, if only for a little while.

Although the piece looks like a wheatpaste, because of the creasing of the lining paper, it is in fact a spray piece. The blue face, great expression and peculiar proportions are what I would expect to see from this growing Bristol artist. More of his collaborative works to come soon.
In the South subway tunnel of The Bearpit there are framed areas which graffiti/street artists use to place their works. I think they were originally introduced to keep a little decorum and ‘usher’ artists to use the specified wall areas. To a certain extent it has worked, and they tend to use them to frame their works. Some of the other subway tunnels have the frames and some don’t.

In this example, Decay has taken up two of the frames to create ‘bookend’ pieces that work really well together. It is unfortunate that although I took this picture not long after it was sprayed, it had already been tagged.
On a Vangelis
binge with Chariots of Fire
and Ford’s Bladerunner.
by Scooj
This incredibly productive spot threw up some wonderful pieces recently and this magnificent portrait by Georgie was just one of them. Those that follow these posts might recall a piece by Georgie I posted here back in November 2016.

This is a really classy piece and instantly recognisable as Michael Cain. How she managed to produce this fine work in the dim light of The Bearpit subway is a real feat. Hats off to Georgie for this great addition to these walls. Her craft is amplified by the detailing of the background that helps the portrait stand out. I love this piece.

Such is the prolific nature of Laic217, I am having real difficulty keeping up with his work that just keeps popping up all over Bristol. It seems to be about one a week at the moment, which is kind of crazy.

This piece is in a quiet side road off Stokes Croft, a site frequented by Epok and Deamze, but this sits comfortably in their company. Laic217 gathers several of his regular themes into one with this piece, the acid house influence, the toking smilie, the bucket hat, the skull and the brick wall.

He posted his black book draft of this piece on his Instagram feed, and the only variation from the draft is the colour of the LCD display, which was lilac in the draft. Much better as green. More to come form the busy Laic217. I forgot to say how much I like this piece…there I’ve said it now.
Completely burned out
and abandoned with no one
left to care for you.
by Scooj
This is my 100th post about the amazing Upfest 2016 which happened during July in Bedminster, Bristol. At a guess I would say that I am only about half way through reporting on the pieces I photographed. Some of the remaining images probably won’t make the cut and anyway I only have a few months left to go before Upfest 2017 will be upon us.

This is a really interesting stencil piece by Eins92 who specialises in micro stencils and who has already appeared in this blog for another piece he did at the festival. In this work he has created five micro stencils of the same subject but with different densities of paint and different layers. It is an interesting piece, but one that needed studying a little.

The fine detail in these tiny pictures is remarkable. I would hate to guess how long each of the stencils takes to cut. He must have the patience of angels.
It seems that everywhere I looked during Upfest, I was being stalked by this brilliant little creature, called Jake the dog, created by LostHills. In each of the paste ups, Jake the dog is striking a different pose with something different happening. I love this kind of themed approach to street art.

Although I don’t believe that Losthills was an official artist at Upfest, his wheatpastes brightened up every corner of Bedminster, and several still remain six months on.

Together with C3, 23 Magpies, Phoebe New York, Face the Strange, What have I done Now and D7606, paste up artists were very well represented at Upfest 2016, and I rather hope there will be more this year.

Trees and hedges clipped
nowhere for the birds to perch
miss the joy they bring.
by Scooj