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.

2876. Upfest 2016 (171)

The Coronavirus pandemic and subsequent UK lock down has unsurprisingly seen a dramatic decrease in new street work. This, while disappointing especially given the spell of gorgeous weather we have been having, is not all bad news, as it is giving me the opportunity to unearth some not-seen-before on Natural Adventures pieces from the archives. Starting with this spray can bin stencil from John D’oh at Upfest 2016.

John D'oh, Upfest 2016, Bristol, July 2016
John D’oh, Upfest 2016, Bristol, July 2016

The organisers of Upfest had provided these drums for artists to dispose of their spray cans in an orderly fashion, and in true Upfest style, selected a few artists to decorate the bins, This one by John D’oh. I have to say I am not entirely sure who the people on the bin are, but I love the stencils in any case. In Bristolian he has written ‘John D’oh’s bin yer’, which tickled me. More Upfest 2016 work to come.

2875. Upper York Street (22)

This is one of the last pre-lock down pieces from March this year (photographed in April) that I have (not strictly true, as I do have more, but it is the last one I am posting for a while, before I start on a trip through the archives. Painted by Bnie, this beautiful piece of graffiti writing was sprayed at the same time as Hazard and Smak decorated this hoarding (see yesterday’s post).

Bnie, Upper York Street, Bristol, April 2020
Bnie, Upper York Street, Bristol, April 2020

This, I think, is the crispest, cleanest piece I have seen from Bnie to date and shows off her talents perfectly.The alternation of graded yellow and blue fills is really nicely done and the patterned 3D shading, a bit of a Bnie trademark, is superb. A classy piece.

Thursday doors – 16 April 2020

Doors 102 – Bristol doors past

Lock down due to the Covid-19 pandemic is in place in the UK, and looks set to continue for at least another three weeks. This means that doorscursions are limited to rifling through my archive or photographing doors within walking distance of my home. Today’s offering is a bit of a mix of the two.

I was going to do a theme of multiple-doored buildings, but gave up on that very quickly. Instead this is just a small random selection of Bristol doors.

Multiple workshop doors, Frogmore Street, Bristol, July 2019
Multiple workshop doors, Frogmore Street, Bristol, July 2019
Shop door, Anchor Road, Bristol, November 2019
Shop door, Anchor Road, Bristol, November 2019
Large metal doors, Baldwin Street, Bristol, December 2019
Large metal doors, Baldwin Street, Bristol, December 2019
Multiple doors, Gibson Road, Bristol, March 2020
Multiple doors, Gibson Road, Bristol, March 2020

 

Work is super-busy at the moment, so I’m afraid this post is a little light this week. Hope I have time to do a few next week.

If you have made it this far, you probably like doors and you 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.

by Scooj

Room at the inn

 

Front garden bushes

heavy with buzzing insects

pollinator’s inn

 

by Scooj

2874. Jamaica Street (18)

On the People’s Republic of Stokes Croft wall in Jamaica Street, this simple and kind collaboration celebrates our amazing (underfunded) NHS, in a gesture of love for all the hard work they are doing in this difficult time. The collaboration by 3Dom and Sepr is a collaboration in name only as the artists each painted their halves separately on different days, following social distancing guidelines.

3Dom, Jamaica Street, Bristol, April 2020
3Dom, Jamaica Street, Bristol, April 2020

On the left is an exquisite piece of script writing in NHS blue. 3Dom has managed to write these delicate letters with the tops and bottoms appearing to vaporize into a white mist. The subtle cream shading just to the right of the letters helps them to stand out a bit more. This is beautiful, technical writing.

Sepr, Jamaica Street, Bristol, April 2020
Sepr, Jamaica Street, Bristol, April 2020

Painted the following morning is this wonderful heart by Sepr. Simply done and conveying all the right emotions for the circumstances. I don’t know how he does it, but Sepr can even manage to get his retro style into a heart. Fantastic.

As I have said before, we must also celebrate all other key workers and public/civil services that are keeping us all safe and well.

2873. Upper York Street (21)

I have been to this hoarding three times and each time the light has been overpowering (whatever happened to those overcast days?). The sun reflects off the windows of buildings behind the camera which reflect dappled sunlight all over this wall, ruining any chance of a decent shot. To take these pictures I waited 20 minutes for the slowest-moving solitary cloud to pass over the sun (I guess I was lucky), and then had to act fast.

Hazard and Smak, Upper York Street, Bristol, April 2020
Hazard and Smak, Upper York Street, Bristol, April 2020

The beautiful collaboration is from Hazard and Smak and I think was one of the very last pre-lock down pieces in town. The hoarding surrounds a whole block that has been demolished, bar one single house, which you can see  in this photograph. It is like a scene from the Disney Pixar movie Up.

Hazard, Upper York Street, Bristol, April 2020
Hazard, Upper York Street, Bristol, April 2020

On the left is a stunning leopard by Hazard (Harriet Wood) which speaks for itself really. The whiskers are particularly good, and I like the way the whole thing bleeds into the Smak writing next to it.

Smak, Upper York Street, Bristol, April 2020
Smak, Upper York Street, Bristol, April 2020

Smak consistently produces graffiti writing of the highest order and this is another one to enjoy. Book-ended by leopard spots the mixture of angular and rounded letters is beautifully presented and filled thoughtfully with blues and yellows. Altogether a lovely collaboration.

At which we excel

.

Nation of queuers

our moment at last has come

static shopping line

.

by Scooj

2872. Montpelier bridge

On the footbridge over the railway that divides St Werburghs and Montpelier is this lovely panel piece by Lobe. I had no idea it was here and can’t tell you how old it is, but it looks pretty fresh to me, and if it is old, has weathered pretty well.

Lobe, Montpelier, Bristol, April 2020
Lobe, Montpelier, Bristol, April 2020

I think that finding pieces that you don’t know about is by far the most rewarding for a street art hunter (incidentally a phrase I dislike – it has the ring of ‘trainspotter’ about it), and when it is by an artist you admire that makes it a little more special. Lobe has managed to get the piece to fit the space perfectly, and some thought has gone into it. Great hair and hat. Love the piece… perhaps she should to more here.

2871. Turbo Island

On Turbo Island, one of the spots in Bristol that often exposes some of our greatest social problems in the city, is this wonderful message of thanks from Ryder to the National Health Service. Of course we must shout out to not only the NHS but also care home workers, all key workers, public servants and civil servants who are keeping this country ticking over during this difficult period. Notable by their absence in this list of heroes are bankers and hedge fund managers – I seem to remember the nation bailing them out about a decade ago. How quiet they are right now, speculating about how much money they can make when we come out of this crisis. Leopards never change their spots.

Ryder, Turbo Island, Bristol, April 2020
Ryder, Turbo Island, Bristol, April 2020

Ryder has managed to get out during lock down to create this piece, and I guess it could be interpreted as mental and physical exercise, and I guess he may have worn a mask when painting it. Just to emphasise the point about some of the social problems in this area, the plastic object directly in  front of the wall is a sleeping bag/tent for some poor homeless person.

Thank you Ryder for raising the spirits of Bristol citizens at this time.

Change

.

Cold northerly wind

reminds us it is still spring

a warm shirt and hat

by Scooj