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.
More archive stuff, this one from Deamze in 2016. You can be certain that it isn’t recent, because Deamze is currently in Hobart, Tasmania turning out some utterly awesome work. I am not sure if he has moved out there for good or if this is a temporary arrangement, but either way our loss is their gain.
Deamze, M32 roundabout, Bristol, August 2016
I have seen this particular design and colour scheme a couple of times before from Deamze, but that doesn’t detract from it in any way. In fact it might be that the other works were from roughly the same time, which would make sense.I wonder if ‘Quick’ refers to this being a quick one.
Something a little different this week. I have had trouble with door inspiration, call it door writer’s block if you like, and didn’t even manage a post last week, so made a big effort this week to go out and damn well find some doors.
Salvation came in the unexpected form of Bristol Harbour Railway rolling-stock doors (I guess they all count). BHR is a heritage railway which runs for about a mile alongside the floating harbour from the M Shed to the Create Centre (a renovated former tobacco warehouse) passing by the SS Great Britain en route.
The railway operates two steam engines, Portbury (1917) and Henbury (1937) that carry people along the Harbourside during the summer for that nostalgic smut, smoke and steam experience – a must for young families.
On the sidings just beyond the M Shed (a Bristol science/heritage museum) there are several of these wagons in varying stares of repair. Most have doors:
Thursday Doors, Bristol Harbour Railway, January 2019
This red wagon is no longer operational and has been converted into a little cafe.
Thursday Doors, Bristol Harbour Railway, January 2019Thursday Doors, Bristol Harbour Railway, January 2019
Two sets of doors for the price of one
Thursday Doors, Sulphuric Acid Only, Bristol Harbour Railway, January 2019
OK, so no doors on this one but it is a stunning sulphuric acid tanker and its very recent renovation was completed on my birthday a couple of weeks back.
Thursday Doors, Bristol Harbour Railway, January 2019
You can tell this one is from the archives, not just from the date on the caption, but because it is on the wall of the Carriageworks, which for the last several months has been behind fences and screens while the building is being demolished and reconstructed for ‘affordable’ housing.
Nevla, Stokes Croft, Bristol, April 2018
It is a quick one by Nevla, I think the last of his that I have from a while ago. It is a nice simple cartoon character, and from the look of it he was running low on paint. Nevla’s work always has a light-hearted touch, which is refreshing really against a landscape of bile and hatred that exists in the UK at the moment.
If you walk around Bristol enough, you can’t have failed to notice this tag decorating a great many wheelie bins in the City. This set of three is no more than a two minute walk from my office. The bins are by Sickboy, a Bristol artist who lives in London, and who first took up the spray can in the mid 1990s.
Sickboy, Lower Lamb Street, Bristol, April 2018
He was thought to be the first street artist to spray his large tag in this way, and the temple logo seen here is a famous one for those in the know. According to Wikipedia (and I don’t believe it for one minute) such wheelie bins have been known to fetch up to £55,000. Really? Then how come these ones are still on the street? Great to see his work about town.
I guess this piece by Pelmo is something of an exclusive, as it was painted on the practice wall at the back of the Upfest shop, and is therefore not on public display.
I took the picture a week or two after I had sprayed my own very first effort on this exact wall, and went back to the shop to see if it was still there. Sadly (but not unsurprisingly) my amateurish effort had been buffed over, but I was honoured that it should have been replaced by such a fine artist as Pelmo.
Pelmo, Upfest shop yard, Bristol, July 2018
I don’t really know what the protocols are around publishing pictures from this wall, but on this occasion I think I’ll take the risk, mainly because I am a big fan of this artist’s work. His work often contains these, oversize and overweight people with a love and sensitivity that can be difficult to gauge without offending. Pelmo does this brilliantly. A wonderful forgotten piece.
Following my post of a fabulous Xenz piece in Shoreditch a few days ago, I was reminded about this old one on a garage door in Devon Road, Bristol. I had to trawl through my archives and was thrilled to find it… a task that might sound simpler than it is.
Xenz, Devon Road, Bristol, July 2018
This is a simple piece, perfect for the garage, lifting it out of the bland and ordinary to become a thing of beauty as well as practicality. If only more of the carbuncles and eyesores of our city could be similarly transformed. There is a strong sense of calm in this painting and a connection with nature that I find uplifting. The bee eaters are beautiful too.
Natural adventures 