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.
Striking and definitely photogenic is this lovely recent portrait piece from Zake, who has been rather quiet of late. It is kind of comforting when artists who have been lying low, for whatever reason, come back and hit a wall with such gusto.
Zake, St Werburghs, Bristol, May 2021
Zake is an artist who pretty much specialises in portraits and gives them loads of depth with his trademark shading around the features. This face feels like it should belong to a comic book, perhaps it is a representation from one. He has labelled the piece with DLH 21. DLH in my book is Dean Lane Hardcore, but I am not too sure what it means in this context. A decent and long-awaited return.
This is a curious piece up at Purdown by an artist that doesn’t yet seemed to gained any traction with the community of followers of street art in Bristol – Skronius. This is only the second or third piece I have seen by the artist, and I haven’t seen anything beyond this particular spot.
Skronius, Purdown, Bristol, May 2021
I have to say that I rather like what I see, although it is on the unusual side. This particular piece reminds me a little of Conrico’s work in terms of the rather free style employed. The piece features some kind of wolf-like creature with a double mouth, which is pretty hard to work out. I can’t put my finger on it, but there is something I like about the piece and it certainly adds to the wonderful diversity of art we have in This magnificent city.
At the entrance to St Werburghs tunnel, Face 1st left this beautiful trademark piece a little while back. It would seem that Face 1st has been experimenting of late with some angular block lettering which I have seen two or three times now.
Face 1st, St Werburghs, Bristol, March 2021
As ever, there is an enormous amount of expression in the piece, something that Face 1st manages to achieve with the minimum of fuss, not dissimilar to the way Stik conveys emotion with his simple figures. I have lots of Face 1st pieces to catch up on… aargh, the backlog!
One of the notable things about Stewy is that he skulks around, a little bit like the fox depicted in this stencil, without fanfare or pomp and with great modesty leaves us with some beautiful and lasting art to enjoy. Stewy selects his spots very carefully and few if any get tagged or over-painted because of where they are.
Stewy, Greville Road, Bristol, March 2021
Stewy is a well known artist who gets a lot of commissions, and alongside his animal work, he is famous for his stencils of well-known people such as pop stars, politicians and other notable figures. In this gorgeous piece he has painted a fabulous Bristol fox in this three-layer stencil. This fox might have been there forever, or might be relatively recent, but that is the thing with Stewy, it is hard to know sometimes.
As a matter of pragmatic protocol I shall refer to Claro_que_sssnoh as Claro for the duration of this post, although very interesting, his name is without doubt the most difficult to type, especially on an iPad. Fortunately, his street art work is much easier to enjoy and assimilate.
Claro_que_sssnoh, M32 cycle path, Bristol, March 2021
This reasonably recent piece from the HMR man is so typical of his unique style. Interlocking letters spelling out HONS are formed with a combination of straight and curvy lines in equal measure and he decorates the piece with a plethora of graffiti arrows. Always good to see work from one of our talented Spanish writers.
Somehow I forgot to post this wonderful little gem by Pekoe from a little while back. I think that I thought I might have posted it already, such has been the productivity of Pekoe in recent months, it has been hard to keep up, and I am just about to head out to Dean Lane straight after writing this to photograph another new one.
Pekoe, St Werburghs, Bristol, March 2021
Smaller than many of her pieces, this one is nonetheless a bit of a gem. With the customary big hair being crafted into a bun (that’s what we used to call them when I was young) and a strong solid green face with pink lips, this piece screams out ‘Pekoe’… in a nice way. Great work.
Silent Hobo paints some of the very best large murals in Bristol and this one on the railway bridge in Stapleton Road is so large that I have split it into component posts to keep it manageable. This bit of the remarkable mural is on the side of the of the bridge and runs perpendicular to the M32 motorway. I was lucky enough to have a quick chat with Silent Hobo as he was just starting on this elevation.
Silent Hobo, Stapleton Road, Bristol, April 2021
I say this every time I write about Silent Hobo, and I am certainly not going to break with tradition now, that he has an incredible knack for capturing a mood and reflecting it back to us. The youth of Bristol and a contrast of urban clutter offset by nature and hope are themes he explores in so much of his work.
Silent Hobo, Stapleton Road, Bristol, April 2021
On this section of wall some Easton youths are interaction with nature and their environment, and key to this embrace is rail and bus services which are greener methods of transport than cars. I love the artwork and I love the themes.
I noticed a few days ago that the bottom of this wall had been tagged with white paint, but when I went there yesterday, the offending tags had been painted out. I love it that people care about this community mural. The rest of the mural will be in a new post soon.
