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.
Not long ago, I said that Stivs was rather underrepresented on Natural Adventures. This post is a deliberate effort to address this imbalance, and there are more pieces in the pipeline. This piece was painted in Sparke Evans Park alongside Counterfits and Maesyhook.
Stivs, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, May 2021
The beautiful calligraffiti spells out ‘Dirty Soul’ and is composed of large red letters with some nice pink shading on the upper surfaces and a black surround, set on a background of tiny white grid work, which must have taken a while to paint. A high quality piece of writing.
I first posted about Eman on 20 December 2020 and since then I would think that he has been the most productive artist on the streets of Bristol, and although other artists such as Turoe and Hemper have had very productive pulses, Eman has been regular as clockwork and experimenting with characters and different writing styles. It is difficult to keep him off these pages, and I have dozens more of his works in my archives.
Eman, Greenbank, Bristol, August 2021
This is a lovely character piece featuring a young man contemplating a joint. In this piece, Eman uses an uncomplicated style of strong lines and solid fills to create a cartoon effect. There is not a lot in the way of shading, decoration or depth, but that is not important to pieces like this. I do know that Eman is constantly pushing the boundaries and striving to broaden his rage and improve his technique, and I am enjoying the ride. Great stuff.
I am so enjoying the work of Maesyhook. Ever since I first came across her work, I have been hypnotised by her refreshing and quirky pieces. I thought I had her taped until I saw this piece outside the Dare To club. I have no idea what this piece is or what it represents, but the colours are the ones she uses most in her work, those and her signature are what bring continuity.
Maesyhook, Alfred Street, Bristol, September 2021
I’ll attempt to describe the piece. The pink element is reasonably straightforward and is a snake or serpent. The green circles might be apples, so is there an Old Testament reference here? If there is, then the blue element could be Adam and Eve, but on closer inspection it looks like a hand. OK, I’ll quit while I am ahead and simply enjoy a piece from one of my ‘flavour of the month’ artists.
On a recent family holiday to Cornwall, I nipped into Liskeard, which was our nearest small town, to collect a Nepalese takeaway (which was absolutely delicious I might say). I had arrived a little early and so took the opportunity to have a quick wander and capture some doors.
Although none of these doors are particularly spectacular, they do give a flavour of the Cornish penchant for decorative porticos, which are much more common here than in some other parts of the country, or at least are features on less grand buildings. It would seem that the Cornish set great store by having a grand doorway, even if you can afford little else.
Enough hot air… here are the Liskeard doors:
Door with grand portico, Liskeard, Cornwall, August 2021Green door with portico, Liskeard, Cornwall, August 2021In case you were wondering, this is the door to number 4, Liskeard, Cornwall, August 2021Blue hillside door, Liskeard, Cornwall, August 2021Door with portico and plant pots, Liskeard, Cornwall, August 2021
More Cornish doors next week, until then, au revoir.
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.
Every year there is a special paint jam that takes place outside the Dare To club in St Philips. I haven’t yet managed to get to one of these paint jams, which is a pity, but it is hard to be everywhere always. This year’s session seems to have been largely confined to a couple of walls and fences in Alfred Street, rather than on the Dare To building itself.
Emotional Waterfall Art, Alfred Street, Bristol, September 2021
This post features a rather unlikely collaborative wall shared by Emotional Waterfall Art and T-Rex. I first encountered Emotional Waterfall Art’s work earlier in the year with her massive Upfest mural. What a contrast this is to that, a small and beautifully colourful ball or globe – the Earth maybe? The message – More Love.
T-Rex, Alfred Street, Bristol, September 2021
Next to the globe is a rather sweet looking Tyrannosaurus Rex surrounded by ‘butterfly’ hearts and the tag line ‘Nuff Love’. I imagine T-Rex must be able to paint these dinosaurs in her sleep, she has done so many of them, but they all have their own special personality. An interesting combination.
I’m not sure that Ments has painted for Upfest before, but it is wonderful to see him rewarded for his consistently excellent graffiti writing with this unusual bordered wall in Dean Street for the 75 walls in 75 days event. Looking at it, this spot has been crying out for street art work, and thanks to Upfest there are now two stunning new pieces opposite one another.
Ments, Dean Street, Bristol, September 2021, Upfest 21
Ments has been experimenting for about a year or so with his fluid/molten metal pieces, and it has been fun watching him develop his technique. This abstract piece is the culmination of a lot of work and is perfect for the wall – colours and tones Ments has used complement the red brick wall superbly well.
Ments, Dean Street, Bristol, September 2021, Upfest 21
Because the piece is set quite high up the wall, the closer you get to it, the more you are looking up and as a result there is more reflected light interfering with the piece. It is so good to see Ments moving into this abstract art arena, but I hope he keeps up his graffiti art work, which is so enjoyable for us to see.
Finding pieces like this one adds to the genuine fun of hunting out street art. I was on a bit of a wander in Bedminster and I took a look up a little alleyway I hadn’t noticed before, and my reward was this new graffiti piece by Pura Decadencia. I am guessing it is new, because the artist posted it on her Instagram account a day or two later.
Pura Decadencia, East Street, Bristol, September 2021
Pura Decadencia has been quite quiet lately, but that might be simply because she doesn’t paint walls all that often, which makes finding this one all the more satisfying. This is graffiti art at its very best – unexpected and sprayed directly onto an unprepared wall. The piece features a mouth with vampire teeth and long tongue, a theme that she returns to again and again. I love this raw piece.
