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Grand kitchen clear out
the builders start on Monday
‘best before’ shockers
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by Scooj
Category: 5. Street Art
3953. Upfest 2021 75×75 (64)
I think that the first thing I should say at the start of this post is that I know nothing about the artist of this curious piece for Upfest’s 75 walls in 75 days event. Certainly the piece is striking and unusual, and the artist, George J Harding, is more used to painting canvasses than walls, but it all comes together nicely in a rather unconventional way.
I have taken a quick look through George J Harding’s work and although there are a couple of street art pieces on his website, they don’t much look like this. I think he has gone for a creative freestyle approach, and by the look of it, did it quite quickly. It is great to see fine artists hitting our walls though and enjoyable to see the crossover in action.
3952. Felix Road (2)
I will begin this post with an apology – the photographs aren’t up to much because of the parked cars, and I don’t think that is ever going to change, so this is the best we can hope for. I found this extraordinary piece by 3Dom while I was hunting down Alex Lucas’ wonderful mural on the Easton Business Centre.
I had to do several double-takes with this mural, because of its rather interesting content. On first inspection it might look like some innocent patterns and flowers, but look more closely and you might recall some of your reproductive biology lessons from school. The whole piece is an homage to the creation of life, presented as a growing shoot.
The ‘flowers’ represent eggs in the process of being fertilised, although you have to look pretty hard to see evidence of this, but it is possible to make out little sperm cells doing their best.
I’m sure that most passers-by probably won’t appreciate what is going on in this mural and the location is an interesting one, being on the perimeter wall of a children’s adventure playground. Initially I raised my eyebrows, but then thought that celebrating the gift of life where children play is probably the best place to site a mural of this nature.
The root end of the shoot is rather more overtly phallic, with additional layers of symbolism. The planed earth is ejecting a stream of sperm which spells out freedom (3Dom) and the shoot of the plant is growing out as if from a seed. As I said, this is an extraordinary piece, and well worth a closer look if you find yourself in the area.
3951. River Avon (18)
Yep, even more from Eman, a Bristol graffiti artist who appears to be tireless in his pursuit of happiness. Eman has painted a lovely old-school flat-capped character on the long wall that runs alongside the River Avon, opposite the paintworks. There are several of his pieces along this stretch which he obviously favours.
Eman is developing, and at the moment his characters are reasonably simple in their composition. The cartoon design is bounded with a black outline and the fills are solid with a little shading around some of the leading edges to lift the piece. Over time, I expect to see him add more depth and detail to his work, because this is an artist who doesn’t like to stand still.
3950. Purdown HAA Battery (33)
In recent weeks, I have noticed a few of these Smut pieces appearing about the place, of which I think this might have been the first. Smut is obviously not a beginner, the letters are beautifully crafted and the lines crisp and clean, but perhaps is new to Bristol, I don’t know.
Although quite tricky to photograph, the writing is beautifully presented i9n red and gold, a fine combination. The white accents add a beautiful touch and provide a 3D effect. It looks like they might have been painted with a bit of a mask, because the curves are very neat and tidy. Nice work from an artist whose Instagram handle is @everybody.loves.smut.
3949. Brunel Way (121)
I have had these pictures lurking in my archive for a little while, and at last find a moment to bring them to you. The column piece (they can be a real pain in the backside to photograph) is by Mudra, and is characteristically rather fun.
Mudra has painted all the way around the column and on one half is a portrait of a white-haired gentleman compete with moustache (of course) and a little speech bubble with Mudra’s @ signature.
On the other half of the column is a hand holding what looks like a match or a candle, but it might be something altogether different. Mudra has a very strong, chunky style which hits you hard and is difficult to ignore. Head-turning stuff.
3948. Upfest 2021 75×75 (62)
This was perhaps one of the lower-key pieces to be painted for the Upfest 75×75 event, tucked away in the car park of the Tobacco Factory. I don’t think I have come across Kappa V Kappa Art before, but it appears that they are a Bristol-based outfit who describe themselves as chaotic, colourful art. I am not sure of the identity of the artist(s) so have used the ‘they’ pronoun to overcome embarrassment.
The piece itself, while certainly colourful, I wouldn’t describe as being chaotic, on the contrary, I think that there is a clear form to this delightful abstract piece, bursting with energy. Really rather nice, and I will be looking out for more work from Kappa v Kappa.
3947. M32 roundabout J3 (348)
What an absolutely fabulous classic from Face 1st. It is pieces like this that first led me to appreciate the work of this rather underrated graffiti artist. Face 1st has been relentless in his pursuit of bringing smiles to people’s faces, and with this blue face girl he succeeds perfectly.
The colours used are really attractive and easy on the eye, and the typical smiling girl with the letters FACE for hair is pure Face 1st at his very best. I love this piece to bits.
3946. Sparke Evans Park (9)
I really like Eman’s work, he has real depth to his range of characters and writing and appears to be striving to improve all the time. This complex piece of writing on the long wall at Sparke Evans Park documents well his continuous improvement.
Spelling out EMAN, this is a smorgasbord of colour lines and shading that is a feast for the eyes. He has been working on this style of writing for a little while, and when you see something like this, you can see that the practice is well worth it.
3945. M32 roundabout J3 (347)
What a pleasant surprise this little combination was a couple of weeks back on my routine scout around the M32 roundabout. Unannounced and unusual, this pairing of Ra and Vee is both welcome and refreshing. Neither artist has been on my radar before, but since seeing this, I note they have painted more pieces on Bristol and the West.
On the left hand utility box is a piece by Ra, whose name and artwork is obviously influenced by ancient Egyptian culture. The god Ra is normally depicted with the head of a falcon, and is male, so this piece is likely to be someone else. Stunning nonetheless.
The smaller utility box has been painted by Veee, and is a bright and cheerful face. The styles of the artists couldn’t be more different, and next to one another you’d never guess that this was a collaborative paint. It seems that these two routinely paint together. I wonder whether their styles ever meet.
Natural adventures 