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.
This is the second recent piece from Tasha Bee that appeared at the other end of St Werburghs tunnel to her collaboration with Antikki. It is such a pleasure to see her painting again. Although she is really busy with her Pot Heads business, I hope that she finds time to splash a little paint at walls more often.
Tasha Bee, St Werburghs, Bristol, July 2021
This is classic Tasha Bee. A stylised portrait with eyes shut, this time wearing a rather colourful and fetching cap. The criss-cross patterning on the cap I think is a technique she picked up from Soap a while back. Let’s hope this is not a one-off return to painting.
This is such a wonderful piece on one of the most tricky walls to photograph in Bedminster (and there are a great many of them), but SkyHigh has worked with it rather than against it, and told me all about it when I met him while painting it.
SkyHigh, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2021, Upfest 21
The wall is in front of a little green which has been planted with trees, so photographing the full wall can only be achieved from the sides or through the trees. Taking this into account, SkyHigh has introduced a woodland scene as a backdrop and added a beautiful Bristol fox.
SkyHigh, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2021, Upfest 21
The block letters spell out SKYHIGH and are painted in a vibrant blue colour that contrasts brilliantly with the woodland greens and browns.
SkyHigh, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2021, Upfest 21
The whole scene might be a little more visible in the winter when the young trees have shed their leaves. I don’t think it really matters though because of the way the artist has approached the piece and incorporated the trees as part of the overall effect.
SkyHigh, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2021, Upfest 21
SkyHigh is a highly skilled artist and demonstrates this with the stunning fox portrait to the right hand side of the piece, one of the best street art foxes I have seen. SkyHigh is always, always welcome in Bristol.
Here we have another fine piece of graffiti writing from Rezwonk in St Werburghs tunnel with a multicolour splash. I think it was painted at roughly the same time as the Sunday Funday paint jam a few weeks back.
Rezwonk, St Werburghs, Bristol, July 2021
I am a little short on time to write too much about this piece as I am heading off for another fishing trip this morning and have to sort myself out and write another post before I go. Suffice it to say that Rezwonk has used his metal panelling and rivet style again which is great to see.
It was really great to catch up with DFC1848 when he was painting this piece during a paint jam for Eman’s birthday at the beginning of August. The sun was out, there was a fabulous turnout of artists and all was good with the world.
DFC1848, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2021
DFC1848 has painted a few of these ‘double’ characters and in this one continues to add in title flashes and decorations, always looking to add complexity to his designs. One of the things I really like about this is how he has ‘stitched’ the two halves together with a bit of cord, rather like Andy Councils recent pieces.
DFC1848, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, August 2021
A nice clean piece and a fun character, DFC1848 is going from strength to strength. During our chat he kept on telling me to get out and paint. I really do need to do something about this state of affairs having talked about it for the last couple of years.
One of the street artists I admire the most is Zabou. Her portraits are legendary and I am constantly left in awe and admiration every time I see one of her pieces. This huge wall on the Redpoint Climbing Centre is her contribution to Upfest 75×75 and is jaw-droppingly brilliant.
Zabou, Redpoint Climbing Centre, Bristol, July 2021, Upfest21
The portrait is of a fellow artist called Slim Safont, who is a bit of a global superstar, and whose works are not too dissimilar in size and style to this one. Zabou is a French artist who, I think, lives in London, and there are plenty of examples of her incredible work in the capital.
Zabou, Redpoint Climbing Centre, Bristol, July 2021, Upfest21
I like the way she has combined the grey-scale portrait with lots of colour around it, something that our own Kosc has been playing with lately. I guess that this would be classed as a photorealistic piece set on an abstract background. Whatever it is called, it is a truly magnificent piece and painted on such a grand scale. She will have worked her way through several cans of paint on this one.
Zabou, Redpoint Climbing Centre, Bristol, July 2021, Upfest21
It is so good that Zabou comes to Bristol from time to time, and she has also painted in Cheltenham for the festival there. Zabou is without one of my all time favourite street artists.
At the time I took these pictures, I didn’t know who the artist was, so I left them lurking in my archive. Every once in a while I like to go back and see if I can unlock these hidden gems with any new information or insights that I might have, and fortunately I have been able to do so with this one. It is a very unusual early piece by Maesyhook.
Maesyhook, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2021
When I say an early piece, I mean that it was one of the first Maesyhook pieces that I photographed. I am a fan off protest pieces because they document the political landscape of the time, and this pink feline creature has joined the Kill the Bill protest. The protests are about the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, and this article in ‘the Big Issue’ explains a little bit more and demonstrates why this is vexing people who wish to voice their right to protest, and also protect the rights of travellers and the homeless.
I’m not sure what this pink creature has to do with the Bill, but I love it nonetheless.
From time to time unusual pieces appear in the regular spots in Bristol, unusual not only for the content or subject matter but also for the rarity of the artist’s work. This is a piece from a street artist called Stif or Stiff, who I know absolutely nothing about, but who has hit this Dean Lane wall a couple of times over recent months.
Stiff, Dean Lane, Bristol, January 2021
This piece from January this year features a kind of of robot wasp creature in grey and lime green. Definitely an unusual piece but set out nicely on the black background. I have another more recent piece from the artist which I will try to post soon.
Natural adventures 