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.
Regulars will know that I don’t much like to post street art on Natural Adventures when I don’t know who the artist is, but just occasionally I do it because the artwork is too good to ignore and maybe I’ll get to find out who it is as a result of writing about it.
Unknown (Rezwonk?), Moon Street, Bristol, June 2019
This wonderful and certainly rather original piece appeared in Moon Street about three weeks ago on a gateway that has been favboured in the past by Rezwonk, which is why I have tentatively attributed it to him. However, although he is capable of something like this, it is not commensurate with most of the writing work he has been doing recently.
Whoever the artist is, it is a striking painting and brings a touch of class to the street, which is well known for its tagging and high turnover. I love the anatomical diagram, and particularly the numbering. Something like this would certainly liven up a waiting room in a doctor’s surgery or hospital.
Wahey! Another sensational Soap piece, and it seems like there is absolutely no stopping him at the moment… he’s on a roll. This is a crazy and eclectic piece that draws on a whole bunch of styles, patterns and colours to spell out SOAP.
Soap, M32 roundabout, Bristol, June 2019
I just get the feeling every time I see his work that there is a lot of joy going on at the moment and it really comes across in his work. With some artists you can spot angst or pain or sadness or perfectionism and so on, but Soap’s work simply screams out happiness.
Great to see Soap and Tasha Bee teaming up to paint this collaboration in Dean Lane skate park. What is interesting about this piece is that both artists are doing something a little different from what we normally see.
Soap, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2019
I’m not too sure why, but Soap has been doing a few chickens recently. I think it might be a bit of a legacy from a mini paint jam he took part in at St Werburghs City Farm. I think I have some pictures somewhere. I rather like the way that he has done a speech bubble with his tag in it. A fun piece.
Tasha Bee, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2019
Tasha Bee has been doing a bit of writing recently to accompany her beautiful styalized portraits and her choice of letters is LUNA. I think that she rather likes the symbolism of the moon and skies, of nature and love. Luna is a really great word and will lend itself to all sorts of writing variations. I totally adore her colour selections here and I have been using similar colours in my ‘teach yourself spray painting’ activities. Note to self, ‘get hold of some of that gold’. Very nice collaboration.
Haka has been incredibly prolific this year, something that has been a little under-represented in Natural Adventures and that I intend to address starting here and now. This fun piece is in Mina Road and features Macaulay Culkin from the Home Alone series of films.
Haka, Mina Road, Bristol, May 2019
Haka has a style that is all his own. He creates what I would call representative art, rather than the other end of the spectrum which is photorealism. His lines are not sharp and clean like some of the writers in Bristol, but there is a warmth and comfort there. He often paints political or humorous pieces, like this one entitled ‘Chrome Alone’.
Haka, Mina Road, Bristol, May 2019
Haka is well established on the Bristol street art scene painting both characters and graffiti writing. I have several other pieces by him in my archive and will try to dig them out.
Doors 75 – A walk along the River Avon cycle path.
Last Sunday was Father’s Day, and I took the opportunity to be a little self-indulgent and go off on a street art hunt to parts of Bristol city I haven’t been to before. I think that wandering around aimlessly, whether in an urban or rural setting is one of my favourite things. No plan, no map, no directions, just looking around and exploring keeping my eyes open and spotting things that might interest me.
This type of exploring is best done alone, because it involves a lot of side tracks and doubling back which could prove tiresome for any companions.
I decided to drop down onto a cycle path which runs alongside the River Avon (literally river river… Avon is derived from a word abon which means river or Afon in Welsh). The cycle path is sandwiched between the river and the backs of buildings on an industrial estate. On the opposite bank is the Paintworks, which is a reconstructed industrial estate full of rather fancy industrial/business units. The cycle path side is definitely the less salubrious of the banks.
I found a fair amount of graffiti, most of it just tagging, and an awful lot of industrial unit fire escape doors, none of which looked like they had been used in years. I share those doors with you now. I don’t expect a lot of love for these doors, but they are doors, I saw them and feel it is only fair to post them.
Rather bright yellow door, River Avon cycle path, Bristol, June 2019Warehouse rear door, River Avon cycle path, Bristol, June 2019Charmingly decorated fire exit door to a warehouse, River Avon cycle path, Bristol, June 2019Door painted by Sirens, River Avon cycle path, Bristol, June 2019Overgrown fire exit door, River Avon cycle path, Bristol, June 2019
there was a bit of a contrast with the opposite bank, which had rather a wide margin of brackish plants spreading down onto the mud (the tide was out), and hosted a fair amount of wildlife including these Canada geese.
On the other side of the River Canada Geese graze in the thick estuarine mud, River Avon cycle path, Bristol, June 2019
So that is another week of doors gone by, maybe soon I’ll find some rather more attractive doors to post, but don’t bank on it.
If you’d like to see more doors take a good 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.
A view of St Werburghs tunnel that I haven’t shared before, seen from the city farm end. The entrance to the tunnel is guarded by a pair of ‘monolithic’ gurning faces by Atchue, one on either side.
Atchue, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2019
I haven’t seen much from Atchue lately, so to be presented with these two-for-the-price-of-one faces is definitely a bit of a bonus. On the left is one of his more familiar pink pieces, but the one on the right is in magnificent chrome.
Atchue, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2019
The chrome face appears to be in mid gurn and you can almost hear him making a groaning noise. A lovely idea executed brilliantly by Atchue.
It would seem that artists from Cardiff like to swing by Bristol every now and again, and when they do come they tend to paint together, I suppose a bit of a paint jam on tour really. This is a really lovely piece by Unity, a graffiti writer I met at Upfest last year whose work I don’t get to see too often so it was nice to find this one down at the M32 roundabout.
Unity, M32 roundabout, Bristol, June 2019
Her work is quite organic in appearance, and this piece looks almost edible, like icing on a cake or something. Unity blends her colours very nicely and this piece drops from yellow to brown to pink without any harsh lines. Great work. It is a pity we have to wait so long between visits.
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