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 love seeing Sophie Long’s work on the streets and simply don’t see enough of it out there, so finding this on North Street a little while back was genuinely a wonderful surprise. Her striking wildlife paintings/street art are truly beautiful and nearly always have this characteristic dripping which marks the piece as one of hers.
Sophie Long, North Street, Bristol, January 2020
This tiger is skilfully done, although if I were being ultra critical I’d say the the body proportions aren’t quite right. The head is a little exaggerated and the body too short, but it does comply with our mind’s eye of what a tiger looks like. I very much look forward to seeing more of her work if and when the lock down eases.
This one is not for the easily offended, and if graffiti cock ‘n’ balls are not your thing, I think you might need to move on pretty swiftly. This is a rather mischievous collaboration between The Cat Came Back and DNT on the Turbo Island wall.
The Cat Came Back, Turbo Island, Bristol, January 2020
On the left is the cock – one of graffiti’s most enduring images – that is part cock, part cat. I can’t quite make out the writing, but I think it says ‘I’m Cat’. You can make up your own minds about this one.
DNT, Turbo Island, Bristol, January 2020
On the right is another kind of robot sort of creation from DNT. The whole collaboration looks like it was painted in a bit of a hurry or under the influence of alcohol/other. A bit of fun for some.
Although I have seen a few pieces by Rapt recently, this is my first post featuring the artist from Newport across the Severn Estuary. He seems to favour St Werburghs tunnel and I think he probably lift-shares with Elvs, as they are often to be found painting side by side.
Rapt, St werburghs, Bristol, March 2020
Rapt has a strong and bold writing style and tends to stick to his basic font which includes an upside down ‘T’ at the end of it. In this example he has some nice cracks in the lettering, some great shading and bullet holes and blood for good measure. Look out for more from this artist.
What a week. This is my first Thursday doors post since the lock down was imposed in the UK, and it is a very unsettling and confusing time for us all. Under our rules we are allowed one outing a day for personal exercise, provided we follow all the social distancing rules.
I am alternating my exercise of choice between working on the allotment and walking the dog (in my wildest dreams I never thought that the dog would offer me the means of temporary escape from ‘house arrest’). Yesterday we took a walk down to Stokes Croft and Montpelier and, never one to pass up an opportunity, I photographed some doors.
Just in case you thought this might be irresponsible, I kept my distance from the few people that were out (mostly, like me, exercising in some way), and carried out all the necessary hand washes before leaving and on return home. One observation was that I saw more homeless people on the streets than I saw homed people… I worry about their fate, a group already likely to be more prone to sickness and with nowhere to go to keep clean.
So here are some doors from my exercise dog walk:
Green gates, Montpelier, Bristol, March 2020Pink door, Montpelier, Bristol, March 2020Two doors and a tiled entrance, Cheltenham Road, Bristol, March 2020Garden gate, Ashley Road, Bristol, March 2020Solicitor’s door, Stokes Croft, Bristol, March 2020
Well that’s it for this extraordinary week during an extraordinary period in all our lives.
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.
All over Bristol (and the UK) pictures of rainbows have been appearing in windows to show our amazing NHS workers that we appreciate everything they do for us and support them through this troubling time.
There is a whole shed-load of development going on at this eastern end of Lower Ashley Road, and in fact there are some protestors camping in the three remaining maple trees just behind this hoarding who are fighting to stop the developers from felling them – you can read more about this on the Bristol Tree Forum. For street art photographers, hoardings are usually good news, albeit temporary, but the developments rarely are.
Face 1st, Lower Ashley Road, Bristol, March 2020
This hoarding wasn’t up for long before the great and the good got to action and Face 1st was always going to make his mark on this inviting opportunity. This is a classsic Face 1st piece with the hair of the smiling girl spelling out FACE. I would think that he can probably paint these with his eyes closed. Always such a pleasure to see his work.
From the moment I saw this piece I have had a terrible earworm and as the Coronavirus pandemic has worsened so has the earworm. To avoid the perilous infection don’t read the small writing under the ‘U’ of Subtle.. oh oh, too late… you’ve done it now! This is a cracking and topical piece by Subtle under Brunel Way in one of his favourite spots.
Subtle, Brunel Way, Bristol, March 2020
I have seen several Coronavirus-related pieces lately and some are humorous and some less so. It is difficult to know where the lines are in making light of the pandemic – this is uncharted territory. In my view Subtle gets away with it in this piece, mainly because I now he is a great bloke and also it is a rather good piece.
Natural adventures 