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.
Yet another wonderful, happy piece from Soap which I have uncovered from my January archive… it must have been a busy month to overlook this piece. Without question these are happy mouths, and in recent times have softened.
Soap, M32 roundabout, Bristol, January 2019
The colours are magnificent and I think the way that Soap has laid them down is rather clever and beautifully done. In my mind I am trying to work out the layering and sequence that the colours were laid down in. What I can say is this is an accomplished piece, and another belter from Soap.
It is not often that you see a nicely painted van in Bristol, even though there are a great many vans with spray paint on them… sadly most of these are fairly rubbish throw ups or tags that frankly are untidy.
Rusk, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2019
This is a lovely piece of 3D writing from Rusk which appeared near the entrance of St Werburghs tunnel recently. Since I took this picture, the other side has been sprayed by Soker, so this is one classy van. I have not seen writing like this from Rusk before, nor have I seen any kind of scenery work like this, so this is a bit of a collector’s item. Nice to witness the versatility of this great Bristol writer.
Doors 71 – Some Bristol doors from Hotwells – 16 May 2019
These are a series of door pictures that I took back in March on a slightly chilly, dull day as I recall. Hotwells is an area that lies on the hillside sandwiched between the floating harbour and River Avon to the south and Clifton to the North. In years gone by it was a very fashionable area reknowned for its hot springs. At the height of its popularity there was even a funicular railway that transported the well-heeled Bristolians from Clifton Village down to Hotwells and back (it is one hell of a hill).
The Clifton railway is a whole other story and maybe I should keep my powder dry to do a Thursday Doors just on that… watch this space.
So, no more guff from me… here are the doors.
313 or 16? Door, Hotwells, Bristol, March 2019313 or 16? Door, Hotwells, Bristol, March 2019A rather tired green door, Hotwells, Bristol, March 2019Red and white door (the colours of Bristol City football club), Hotwells, Bristol, March 2019This fancy window/door establishment has seen better days, Hotwells, Bristol, March 2019It’s all in the detail on this door, Hotwells, Bristol, March 2019A bit of a lean?, Hotwells, Bristol, March 2019
So there we have it for another week. For more door (not Mordor) mayhem take a jolly good look at the Norm 2.0 blog – the brains behind Thursday Doors where there are links to yet more doors in the comments section at the end.
A couple of weeks back there was a large paint jam in St Werburghs tunnel, and it would seem that it was something of a RAW (Read and Weep) get together. This collaborative piece included the T-Rex burner that I featured a few days ago, which was just to the right. These two are Ryder and Jaksta.
Ryder, St Werburghs, Bristol, May 2019
I don’t need to repeat myself, although I constantly find myself doing so, by telling you that Ryder is an incredibly accomplished writer, and here he has created something rather special in shades of gray with blue highlights. Having started trying to paint a little in the garden I realise how much I have to study what these guys do to understand tricks and techniques. Paint big was an important piece of advice I was given – smaller pieces are more difficult.
Jaksta, St Werburghs, Bristol, May 2019
When I have been in the tunnel, it seems everyone notices the pig – he really stands out and the kids that walk past love him. Jaksta is a master of the character piece and his work often joins up pieces of writing like it does here. It is the details I love in this piece, the black shading and white highlights that give a 3D feel to the whole thing, and the two shades of pink that make it look like the light is coming from the right (which in this part of the tunnel it actually does). Great work.
I have only met Ugar once and I remember him being a quiet and affable fellow. His work seems to crop up in all the main spots around Bristol, but this is the first piece I have seen along the M32 cycle path. Until recently, this spot became a bit of a ‘dead’ area because a tract of the path had been fenced off for development work. Since it re-opened about a month ago, turnover here has increased dramatically.
Ugar, M32 cycle path, Bristol, May 2019
Ugar, in my view, has an extraordinary talent for filling his letters. His writing tends to be fairly organic and un-uniform, which makes it identifiable, but it is his unique variety of fills that scream out a Ugar piece. Always good and always interesting.
Painting collectively as Reseau, this is a magnificent and wonderfully colourful collaboration between Stupid Stupid Meathole, Panskaribas and Rory MacRaild, on a wall that has seen so much action over the years in Dean Lane but rarely three artists at one time.
On the left and right of the piece, Stupid Stupid Meathole gives us some writing which deviates a little from his customary all pink to include blue and green letters. On the right he has squeezed in some of his grotesque teeth… because he can.
Stupid Stupid Meathole, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2019
Then in the top left and across to the right, Panskaribas delights us with his cartoonesque style. The character on the left appears to be using a record deck and I have noticed that music seems to feature a great deal in his work.
Panskaribas, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2019
Finally, in the centre of the collaboration I am realy pleased to intoduce Rory MacRaild whose work I have not knowingly seen before. I think he has absolutely smashed it with this Picassoesque portrait. It really ticks all my bokes, it is interesting bright and colourful and beautifully executed.
Rory MacRaild, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2019
The whole collaboration is like being in a gallery. It is a meeting of styles that kind of works, and It seems that SSM and Panskaribas enjoy working together as I have seen a few collaborative pieces by them now. Great piece that has lasted a little while. Respect.
How fortunate we are in Bristol to have had the unbelievable collaboration by My Dog Sighs and Curtis Hylton on Windmill Hill. As if that wasn’t enough, My Dog Sighs also left a couple of smaller pieces on a wall around the corner of the main piece and this is one of them.
My Dog Sighs, Windmill Hill, Bristol, April 2019
There is something absolutely magical about this piece and the face has similarities in style to the tin can faces that are one of his trademarks. I yearn to own one of his tin cans, but I guess I just have to be in the right place at the right time. Serene, even beautiful the character on the left is simply drawn and has four eyes, all of which contain a silhouette scene. To the right is harlequin clown, dare I say it with a feel of Picasso there somewhere. I don’t use the word adorable, but if I did, I might use it to describe this piece.
My Dog Sighs, Windmill Hill, Bristol, April 2019
The blue crown is rather special and casts a thin glow of light on the character’s head and antlers. I cannot tell you how much I love this work. It is so unusual and so very classy. As I said at the beginning, we are very lucky in Bristol.
Natural adventures 