I am Stephen. I live in Bristol, UK. I decided to shorten my profile...to this: Wildlife, haiku, travel, streetart, psychogeography and my family. Not necessarily in that order.
Trafficity is an artist who paints just often enough to keep him in mind. His winning formula of letters with variations in horizontal colour bands is consistent and unwavering. I wonder if he could produce a chrome version of his writing, and if so, would it work?
Trafficity, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2024
The colours selected for this one on the roundabout, are broadly speaking his favoured colours, he likes greens purples and light blues, only occasionally turning to the ‘warmer’ colours of the spectrum. The letters spell ZIOM, and I can still see the word MUMM in the top lime green section. Tick tock.
I took a slightly longer walk away from Brunel Way a few weeks back on a very warm summer’s afternoon. Ashton Avenue (I think that is what it is called) is part of the Metrobus route that joins north and south Bristol without getting clogged up on the main thoroughfares, and is a sleepy track, except for the occasional bus trundling past. The route is peppered with utility boxes, some of which have been decorated by the unstoppable duo, Mote and Mr Crawls. Here are some of them.
Mote, Ashton Avenue, Bristol, July 2024
I really need to update Mote’s gallery, and I still haven’t actually created one for Mr Crawls yet, which would seem to be something of an oversight. (Note to self – post a Mr Crawls gallery soon). Both artists have been using chrome backgrounds, which I think is a really effective way of framing their character pieces.
Mr Crawls, Ashton Avenue, Bristol, July 2024
These examples really highlight the differences between the artists’ styles, but also the similarities, where a certain amount of cross-influencing has been at work. Mr Crawls has produced several versions of this character wearing some kind of hat, and indeed, hats seem to be quite an important feature in his work.
Mr Crawls, Ashton Avenue, Bristol, July 2024
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get to a couple of these pieces before the taggers got to them, but the other two are nice and clean. Here again, Mr Crawls’ character is wearing a hat. His work, in particular, has transitioned quite a lot from when he broke onto the Bristol scene with his gulls, parrots and other birds.
Unknown artist, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2024
It is rare for me to post pieces by unknown artists, although it is something I should do more often, because there are many unattributed beauties in my archives that are waiting to be shared. I guess that sometimes artists are experimenting with painting walls and perhaps a little wary or lacking in confidence to leave a signature behind.
Unknown artist, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2024
I love this portrait piece and have felt compelled to post it. All the elements are there and the proportions pretty good. The lines for the neck and collar bones, look very studied to me and I would guess that the artist is probably studying or has studied art. The hair curl is reminiscent of Inkie’s work, which is a compliment of high order. I would love to see more from this anonymous artist and will be keeping an eye out.
After a little teaser in Bristol last year at the M32 Spot and on the cycle path with Rusk, The Art of Sok has had something of a bonanza in the city this summer, and even better than that, I have managed to catch up with the artist twice in the space of a month, and what a lovely fellow he is too.
The Art of Sok, Purdown, Bristol, July 2024
This beautifully framed piece, on one of the concrete slabs in the old anti-aircraft gun emplacement, breathes new life into this historic monument, and reflects the freedoms that the nation fought the second world war for. The Art of Sok manages to paint flawless pieces, and takes great care to ensure every detail is exactly how he planned it. I believe this could be described as a Manga-style portrait, and is one that definitely ticks all my boxes.
An important part of becoming established in whatever field you operate in is presence and consistency, without either of which it is all too easy to fall off the radar. Grimes, since his arrival in Bristol, has been both present and consistent and has been noticed for it. A third element is quality, because you can be both present and consistent, but also rubbish, like a lot of taggers for example, but Grimes’ work is fabulous and lifts him above the norm.
Grimes, St Werburghs, Bristol, July 2024
This is a really fabulous purple and orange piece which, like all of his work I have seen, is full of energy and movement. It is interesting to note the impact the texture of the wall has on a piece, for example the right-hand quarter of this piece sits on a more bumpy surface, whereas the left-hand side is painted on a smoother rendered section, and you can see the difference. Everything about this piece is god, and I continue to enjoy this journey.
Minto has been painting a string of fabulous pieces recently, most of which are following this style of what I would describe as deconstruction. The architecture of the piece is there, with the scaffolding still left up (metaphorically speaking) and lots of parts are exposed. We are more used to seeing conventional graffiti writing with solid fills and continuity – Minto has blown this convention apart with his fragmentation approach. The overall effect is not unlike Benjimagnetic’s work.
Minto, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2023
The letters MINTO can be reasonably clearly seen, with some hint at symmetry (with the exception of the ‘T’ which breaks things up in space and colour). A couple of faces make an appearance, and there is a rather nice little shout out to Soker there too. Really great and different stuff from Minto.
Just when I think that Haka has gone all quiet, he pops up with another piece, and so it was with this one on the long hoarding at Greenbank. The piece is a rather nice writing character combination, where the letters HAKA occupy most of the body space, behind which is a rather cheerful-looking stegosaurus.
Haka, Greenbank, Bristol, July 2024
I have tried to find out who the dinosaur is, as most of Haka’s characters tend to be from children’s picture books, but there are an awful lot of them and my Google search was fruitless. The whole thing is a really nicely composed conflation of graffiti writing and children’s illustration. Charming really.
One of this summer’s pleasures has been the reasonably regular appearances by Kid Crayon and his painting pal, I am Ian. This wacky piece features a large cartoon-style character, with tears flowing from his exaggerated eyes, and the caption ‘Ain’t easy being macho’, which is really funny.
I am Ian, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2024
Although it isn’t necessarily intended to be topical or political, this piece and the caption speaks to me about a growing and disturbing phenomenon of disenfranchised white males, often poorly educated and with limited prospects, turning to the far right of politics, encouraged by the untruths and promises of divisive and disingenuous politicians and activists. The perfect example of this was the man in a grey tracksuit at the race riot in Southport this week, who was posturing and puffing out his chest in front of a line of police with their riot gear, only to be hit on the head with a brick and another large item, thrown by other rioters at the police, and then on retreating back to the fold, got struck in the bo**ocks by another missile. ‘Ain’t easy being macho’.
Natural adventures 