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 think that this piece by DNT was specially comissioned for this year’s St Paul’s carnival, and it is a gentle reminder to us all that knife crime in the UK is on the rise, and is not welcome at the carnival. In years gone by, there has been trouble at the carnival, and St Paul’s, when I first arrived in Bristol 28 years ago was a bit of a ‘no-go’ area. Things are much improved these days, but there is still a bit of edge to the place.
DNT, Grosvenor Road, Bristol, July 2019
The piece itself demonstrates that DNT can turn his talents to pretty much anything, and stylistically, this piece is quite different from the kinds of things we are more used to sdeeing in the Stokes Croft area. Nice one, great message.
I first featured Morny (or Merny – the name seems interchangable) on Natural Adventures last week, and actually this piece was painted before that orange car in pretty much the same place on the south wall of the M32 roundabout.
Morny, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2019
Morny’s love of vehicles is once again demonstrated with this articulated lorry painted in this characteristic naive style. It looks likem a child’s felt-tip drawing, especially the way the fills have been scribbled in. The overall effect is rather pleasurable, even if some of the perspective is a little wonky.
As someone who loves the work of Face 1st, I can honestly say that I don’t think that this is one of his best pieces. Admittedly it has been a bit tagged over the face which detracts from it a bit, but overall it doesn’t have the heart of some of his recent pieces.
Face 1st, Moon Street, Bristol, July 2019
What it does have though is hair, and the hair in this one is in a slightly different style from his usual work and much more obviously spells out FACE. Everyone has good and not so good days, and I know Face 1st can do better, but I am always charmed by his work, and even his ‘could do better’ stuff is great in my book.
Being in the right place at the right time is a tenet that chimes for street art hunters, and finding this Cheo piece on a yellow van as I hopped off my bus on the way home from work, is a great example of that.
Cheo, Elton Road, Bristol, July 2019
I have never seen this van before, although I expect I’ll keep on seeing it now (that is the way of things) and the bee motif used by Cheo works so very well here. It is a subtle piece of van art, not too showy and only on this one wing of the van. Mobile street art at its best.
Well this is a bit of a departure for Diced Mango whose work I would normally associate with writing the word mango. It is great to see this magnificent political piece appear at a time where it is so important to question the authority of those in power, in fact I don’t think that there has ever been a more important time in my life to protest and challenge.
Diced Mango, Moon Street, Bristol, July 2019
The timing of this piece coincides with the emergence of Boris Johnson as leader of the Conservative Party and by default, unfortunately, the Prime Minister. As expected, he has surrounded himself with some of the most divisive and toxic politicians of our time to serve on his Cabinet, politicians who represent an extreme version of capitalism which is at odds with any kind of social justice, climate awareness or living within our (planetary) means.
This fine piece by Diced Mango shows a complacent Boris in his button-back throne consuming the earth. The heading ‘Planet before Profit’ is probably a fairly well supported message in a city like Bristol, but one that simply hasn’t penetrated ‘comfortable’ middle England. I love what Diced Mango has done here and am pleased to see him switching it up a bit in terms of his style. Great work.
Decay is one of the most featured artists in Natural Adventures at the moment on account of his incredible productivity and I dread to think what his monthly paint bill must be. I mentioned in a recent post that his work is getting better with each new piece and that trend is continuing. I think that he is reaching a new level and although my expectations are raised, he is largely exceeding them with each new work.
Decay, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2019
This beautiful piece is part of a collaboration with Rezwonk (to follow) on one of the long walls of the M32 roundabout. There is so much movement and animation with the explosions and decorations that the whole thing is a feast for the eyes. It is not that long ago that Decay confined his work largely to a palette of red, greys, black and white, what a contrast with the hugely colourful work he is producing now. This is another gem from the man.
Getting lucky is all part and parcel of photographing and recording street art. I remember when I first started out I never thought I’d actually meet an artist (I naively thought it was all done under cover of darkness) let alone watch them at work. Over the last five years I have met countless artists and would consider myself friends with several of them. One who I met for the first time a week or two back was Subtle, and what an astonishingly nice bloke he is.
Subtle, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2019
Subtle, whose work first entered my consciousness in about 2016, is an artist who has eluded me until now and whose work just seems to be getting better and better with each piece. While I watched him doing this piece (distract I ought to say) he let me into a whole load of tips on technique, the most memorable of which is that he uses a roller and emulsion for the bulk of his work (most of what you can see above) and saves the spray paint for the details. The reason for this approach is driven by cost – a wall as large as this one would cost quite a lot if it was all done with just spray paint.
Subtle, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2019
I really enjoyed my twenty minutes in the company of Subtle and am pleased that I managed to get a reasonably clean completed picture (in spite of Soak and Young’s intervention) a few days later. For sure, this is one artist I’d love to catch up with again, and now that he has moved more centrally in Bristol I think the chances of that happening are greater than before.
Rezwonk and Subtle, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2018
Natural adventures 