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.
I simply haven’t posted enough of Stiv’s work, but I guess the same could be said for a majority of Bristol artists. With publishing only two posts each day on Natural Adventures I am never going to be able to cover everything. At the end of each month I would guess that I only post about a third to a half of the pieces I record. Something for me to do in retirement perhaps?
Stivs, St Werburghs, Bristol, October 2020
I think that thhis tribute piece must be in some way connected to the tribute collaboration with Frank Riot at the other end of the tunnel, because both are dedicated to a friend who died two years ago and was connected to the music industry. The letters are utterly awesome and the movement and vibe dancing off the piece give off a sense of sound and dance. A fine piece with meaning.
An artist that I feel I don’t see nearly enough of is Logoe. I first encountered his work in April 2017 while he was collaborating with Silent Hobo, and it was on that occasion that I was told that Logoe was returning to painting on the streets after a long lay-off, and that he had been a bit of a legend in the past – Silent Hobo’s words.
Logoe, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, October 2020
This piece is typical of his thin hand-written style letters. The letters are beautifully picked out spelling Logoe, but it is the additional decorations that bring the writing to life. The dots through the middle and horizontal thin lines that at first I thought were drips add real interest. It is always really good to stumble across one of these.
Varo has really hit on something that totally chimes with me – painting the same basic mega-tag of a bull in a variety of forms in different places. A simple idea that lends itself to the conditions of the spot chosen to paint and the amount of time available. To take this approach one step higher would be to paint them in the style of different artists, for example David Hockney, Matisse or Dali. That could be a lot of fun.
Varo, Leonard Lane, Bristol, September 2020
This particular bull, tucked away in a doorway in Leonard Lane is the full beast, including a tail rather than just the head, which we are more used to seeing. This is quite a raw piece, but is of interest because one knows that the artist is capable of doing much tighter work when the environment permits. A decent throw up.
It is becoming more and more difficult to seek out new doors. The combined forces of coronavirus, the worsening weather and shortening days makes doorscursions particularly difficult at the moment, so I head straight for my comfort blanket and present you with some more archived doors this week, these ones mostly from last year.
Enjoy.
DNT, Grosvenor Road, Bristol, July 2019
Cheo, Elton Road, Bristol, July 2019
Dale Grimshaw, North Street, Bristol, July 2019
Nevergiveup, North Street Green, Bristol, July 2019
Andy Council, North Street, Bristol, June 2019
DNT, Moon Street, Bristol, March 2019
3Dom, Wilder Street, Bristol, July 2019
And that’s it I’m afraid this week, I am having to ration these out a bit because before you know it I will have run out of archive material and will be resorting to photographs of my kitchen cabinets and cupboard doors.
Have a great weekend.
If you have made it this far, you probably like doors and you really ought to take a look at the Norm 2.0 blog – the originator of Thursday Doors where there are links to yet more doors in the comments section at the end.
And so on to the ninth archway in the John Street open-air gallery and this magnificent portrait piece by Hazard. My understanding is that this was her second attempt after she had had to buff over her first one for being controversial. This disappoints me a little because art is an expression and reflection of our lives and times and we shouldn’t hide away from difficult issues, otherwise where would we be? China? North Korea? On the upside however, Hazard has rewarded us with this outstanding portrait of Jeff Knight, a Big Issue vendor and big character in Stokes Croft.
Hazard, John Street, Bristol, September 2020
I love Jeff. He is one of the brilliant things about living in Bristol. He greets everyone in the street with a big smile and kind words irrespective of who they are or what they look like. This piece is not the first piece of street art to feature Jeff, John D’oh sprayed a fabulous stencil of him a few years ago. Hazard’s portrait is an honest representation and skillfully painted. In this one archway we have two legends of Bristol street culture.
Immediately after lockdown, Laic217 was on fire. I am guessing that he was not working and so was able to paint the streets without restraint. In recent weeks he has slowed down considerably, so it was great to see this quick one on one of the ramps in the skate park.
Laic217, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2020
This stop-start nature of activity from street artists is common and probably reflects the employment model they adopt. Self-employed artists seem to have a bit more flexibility around when they can paint where as those with 9-5 jobs probably find it all a little more challenging. Of course coronavirus and Furlough have played havoc with these regimes.
The piece itself is straightforward, a skull with a woolly hat bearing the letters PAD, a crew name. Even in these quick pieces, Laic217 still manages to achieve a high standard of artwork. I hope he gets some leave soon, I am suffering from withdrawal symptoms.
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