Author: scooj

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.

Thursday doors – 26 October 2023, Todi, Italy

Doors 240 – Todi doors, Umbria, Italy (Part II)

This week I am sharing some more doors from our summer trip to Umbria. I fear that I am becoming a bit of a compulsive door collector and bore. The family have stopped waiting for me when we walk through towns together, instead I have to take pictures and then do that funny middle-aged jog kind of thing that is actually no faster than walking, to catch up with them. On the odd occasion, one of them will say – ‘hey that is a great door, why don’t you photograph it?’… but it is rare.

Todi is door heaven – like so many Italian towns and cities, and one or two of the doors in this selection rank in my top ten all-time Italian doors. I hope you enjoy these now as much as I enjoyed them back in July.

Ghostly ghost door, Todi, Umbria, Italy, July 2023
Ghostly ghost door, Todi, Umbria, Italy, July 2023
Three front doors of Chiesa di San Fortunato, Todi, Umbria, Italy, July 2023
Three front doors of Chiesa di San Fortunato, Todi, Umbria, Italy, July 2023
Impressive central door and stonework of Chiesa di San Fortunato, Todi, Umbria, Italy, July 2023
Impressive central door and stonework of Chiesa di San Fortunato, Todi, Umbria, Italy, July 2023
Five doors of the Teatro Comunale, Todi, Umbria, Italy, July 2023
Five doors of the Teatro Comunale, Todi, Umbria, Italy, July 2023
Door to the Teatro Comunale, Todi, Umbria, Italy, July 2023
Door to the Teatro Comunale, Todi, Umbria, Italy, July 2023
Wooden panelled door between two ghost doors, Todi, Umbria, Italy, July 2023
Wooden panelled door between two ghost doors, Todi, Umbria, Italy, July 2023
Old door within a large ghost door, Todi, Umbria, Italy, July 2023
Old door within a large ghost door, Todi, Umbria, Italy, July 2023
Arched door and impressive stone steps, Todi, Umbria, Italy, July 2023
Arched door and impressive stone steps, Todi, Umbria, Italy, July 2023

Another week has passed – this year is unfolding at an alarming speed – and I wish you a happy weekend.

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

Door logo, Thursday doors

5588. Dean Lane skate park (652)

Jevoissoul, Dean Lane, Bristol, October 2023
Jevoissoul, Dean Lane, Bristol, October 2023

Jevoissoul has hit the ground running and here he has painted a classic portrait piece complete with joint and stylised smoke, all painted in his Picassoesque cartoon style. He is brave too, there are no many new artists who would paint this wall so early on in their development, and to be fair, Jevoissoul has carried it off well.

Jevoissoul, Dean Lane, Bristol, October 2023
Jevoissoul, Dean Lane, Bristol, October 2023

When I met him a little while back, Jevoissoul told me that he has been drafting and sketching his characters for years and is very familiar with his material. The challenge for him has been to scale up his work and to adapt to using spray cans, both of which he has done admirably. I have a feeling we will be seeing a lot more of Jevoissoul over the coming months/years.

5587. M32 Cycle path (232)

Evey, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, October 2023
Evey, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, October 2023

It is through sheer hard work and application that some artists improve week on week and month on month, and as I have said many times before, one of the most improved artists in Bristol recently is Evey, who is quite simply knocking it out of the park with each piece she paints.

Evey, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, October 2023
Evey, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, October 2023

Painted during another RBF paint jam, This piece from Evey is notable for at least three things; She is having a lot of fun with the letter shapes and pushing the boundaries, The colour selection is bold and effective and her fills and details are full of life and vibrancy. Looking forward to more and more from Evey.

Head above water

.

The world in free fall

bad news seems to trump the good

keep breathing keep faith

.

by Scooj

5586. St Werburghs tunnel (390)

Kid Krishna, St Werburghs, Bristol, October 2023
Kid Krishna, St Werburghs, Bristol, October 2023

After his short absence, Kid Krishna is well and truly back in the groove, although his recent pieces, a handful of them, appear to be reasonably simple in their construction, and perhaps he is returning to first principles before building up into another crescendo.

Kid Krishna, St Werburghs, Bristol, October 2023
Kid Krishna, St Werburghs, Bristol, October 2023

At the entrance to St Werburghs tunnel, this piece is about as basic as you can get from Kid Krishna. You’ll have to take it from me that it most likely spells CRIE, and the writing was probably painted with small rollers. There is a contemporary message ‘no more wars’ which I expect will chime for most of us. What is happening to our world?

5585. M32 roundabout J3 (520)

Smak, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2023
Smak, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2023

I don’t know if I am imagining it or whether it is a thing, but it feels like Smak isn’t painting as frequently as he used to and that when I find a piece by him these days it is a rather nice surprise. This is a stylish piece of graffiti writing from a couple of weeks ago, painting alongside some of the RBF crew.

Smak, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2023
Smak, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2023

The writing is painted in a stylised font, which is not what I am used to seeing from Smak who tends to prefer a more wildstyle approach. Just by looking at the writing, you can see that it is of the highest quality, with sensational letter fills and a beautifully subtle 3D drop shadow. I love the design of the ‘S’ in particular. Sheer class from Smak

5584. Guildhall Shopping Centre, Exeter

Joe Webster Art, Guildhall Shopping Centre, Exeter, October 2023
Joe Webster Art, Guildhall Shopping Centre, Exeter, October 2023

One of the primary reasons I started posting graffiti and street art on Natural Adventures was to provide a little bit of background information and opinion about the pieces I found, because there was very little documented (it is the nature of the beast) anywhere. I have really only scratched the surface of this gargantuan task as a recent visit to Exeter highlighted. I found several pieces in the City, but searching the Interweb to try and find out more was incredibly difficult, and I had to work very hard to find out anything about this amazing piece by Joe Webster Art. There is a tiny signature hidden at the bottom of the piece, but that was pretty much all I had to go on, and I couldn’t find out anything about the display of three pieces in the Guildhall Shopping Centre.

Joe Webster Art, Guildhall Shopping Centre, Exeter, October 2023
Joe Webster Art, Guildhall Shopping Centre, Exeter, October 2023

Joe Webster is a ‘landscape graffiti artist’ and has found himself a bit of a niche combining the outdoor natural experience with graffiti. In this powerful piece, Joe Webster has created a kind of word cloud superimposed or rather integrated into a landscape with a tree. The red/orange colours have words like Fire, Smoke, House fire, Ignite, Ember, Hot, Blaze and so on, and the sky carries the word Hope. There is a lot of texture in the piece too. There is a story, probably of climate catastrophe, being told in this intriguing piece.

5583. John Street, Exeter

Fark, John Street, Exeter, October 2023
Fark, John Street, Exeter, October 2023

One of the great pleasures of going to a city or town, even for the briefest of visits, is to explore a place that is unfamiliar. My three-hour stay in Exeter recently, yielded a plethora of fabulous doors for Thursday Doors, and some great pieces of street art, let alone an eye-opening blend of ancient and modern architecture.

Fark, John Street, Exeter, October 2023
Fark, John Street, Exeter, October 2023

In one of Exeter’s narrow streets I stumbled across this beauty by Fark, alongside a couple of My Dog Sigh’s pieces. Finding these gave me a wonderful sense of wellbeing, satisfaction and contentment. This is a beautifully crisp and clean piece by Fark featuring his trademark bird. Although the design looks simple, do not be fooled, to create such clean art with clearly defined boundaries and solid fills takes years of experience and an enormous amount of skill. That this is achieved with spray cans and not brushes is a triumph in itself. A great piece from a brilliant artist.

5582. Cumberland Basin

Maes, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, October 2023
Maes, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, October 2023

Maes is a writer who I have featured a couple of times on Natural Adventures, and whose work peppers my archive. He is rather underrepresented in this blog, and I will need to find a way to feature his work more often. He is on the early stages of a steep learning curve, and is out there a lot, seeking to try new things out and improve. I fully expect to be writing about his improvement in a year’s time and, given his productivity, a gallery of his work.

Maes, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, October 2023
Maes, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, October 2023

Maes’ work is getting tidier and his fills more imaginative, although his can control is perhaps still developing, and that will come with practice and confidence. The letter design is interesting and colour selection eye-catching. He is working on his details and has created an interesting piece. Could we be witnessing a diamond in the rough? Time will tell.

5581. M32 Cycle path (231)

Lupa, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, October 2023
Lupa, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, October 2023

The Resting Bitch Face crew is an all female crew largely, but not exclusively, centred around Bristol. There are quite a few members of the crew, and it is always a joyous occasion when they congregate for a paint jam. This piece, by Lupa, was painted at one of two paint jams over the last month.

Lupa, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, October 2023
Lupa, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, October 2023

Lupa has a very distinctive style in which she usually makes a feature of the letter ‘U’, which she has done to good effect here. Her letters are large and bold, and everything about her work is quite raw. While there is definitely room for improvement, I am not so sure if that is what Lupa is all about. I get the sense that her work is mostly about joy and happiness and decorating a wall, and that enthusiasm comes across in bucket-loads. A fun and uplifting piece by Lupa.