I guess that Big Bird from Sesame Street is known to pretty much all of us who might have been watching TV since 1969, and here is a terrific tribute by Rezwonk to the Jim Henson creation on an end wall of one of the tunnels on the Lawrence Hill roundabout.
Rezwonk, Lawrence Hill, Bristol, February 2019
The backdrop to Big Bird is a spread of Rezwonk icons, these with smilie faces on them. It’s funny, but it doesn’t seem logical to put a yellow subject on a yellow background, but somehow in this piece Rezwonk carries it off perfectly. I love this piece in one of the newer spots to me. It’ll be interesting to see how long it lasts, as I don’t yet have a feel for the turnover of work here.
How is it possible that I can still keep finding Laic217 pieces in my archive? This one is from October last year on the M32 cycle path but probably didn’t get published immediately on account of the poor light quality. This particular wall is very hard to photograph without getting flaring from the sun or bright sky behind it. So much about photographing street art is dependent on light quality and time of day – I get it wrong too often, but with a full-time job I am rather constrained in the times I get to go out.
Laic217, M32 cycle path, Bristol, October 2018
I rarely say this about Laic217’s work, but in my view this is not his best. The shirt material is exceptional , but I am just not sure about the face. I think a partially decomposed face is probably very difficult to do and the teeth and nose don’t quite seem right. Having said that it’s all still pretty good and utterly likeable. Will I be able to dig out some more oldies from Laic217…?
A couple of days back I posted a great piece by the lovely artist Cros, and said that I had seen some of his work before – this is that work. Back in September Cros and his friend Lorris took over two-thirds of the long wall at Dean Lane to produce this wonderful collaboration.
Cros, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2018
The letters Cros creates tend to be quite angular, but have a soft touch to them. His fills are really neat too with all sorts of nice patterns and shapes in green, orange and black. Everything is neat and tidy and I like his rings and arrows, both classic writing motifs.
Lorris, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2018
This is the first piece (I hope of many) by Lorris that I have posted and it is a really charming piece. Now, I wonder if I would have said it has a feminine touch if I hadn’t known that Lorris was a woman. Difficult to know really – the lettering in soft and curvy, but the clincher is the hair bow on the ‘O’ of Lorris…I can’t imagine a male artist ever spraying a hair bow in anything other than a photorealistic portrait. All my unconscious bias being laid bare there. Anyhow I really like her style and can’t wait to see more.
I seem to be forever trying to play catch up with some of the artists in Bristol, such as Mr Draws, Face 1st, Deamze and in this example Tasha Bee. With only writing two posts each day and having to share as much as I can from Bristol streets and Upfest and occasionally London and further afield, inevitably some good works struggle to make it on to these pages. Often too good to leave out, I try to publish them, but often a long time after completion. Certainly I have enough material to last me for at least a year if I stopped taking pictures today.
Tasha Bee, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2018
This is a lovely example of Tasha Bee’s work from last year at the Dean Lane skate park with each of the two figures reversed out, so one green with lilac features and the other lilac with green features. All round a lovely calming work. See more in my Tasha Bee gallery.
I am going back a long way (December 2015) through my archive now to share this piece by DNT and another artist, possibly Mr Sleven, but I am not sure. I really don’t know why I have held on to this for so long, because it is a fine and rather unusual collaboration next to the Matchbox Gallery.
DNT, Stokes Croft, Bristol, December 2015
The ‘stone’ cherub is by DNT, and for a while there were a few of these dotted around the area. I have a feeling that the cherub sitting in a pile of spray cans is a stencil, which is a surprise as I’m not aware of any other stencils by DNT.
DNT, Stokes Croft, Bristol, December 2015
I love the way the whole thing is black and white apart from little flashes of colour on the spray cans. A memorable piece.
This piece goes back a little way, and kind of got lost because it was taken on my mobile phone and not on my camera – hence the rather poor quality. It is a piece by Hoax and Akarat above the Coop on Gloucester Road and didn’t last too long before it got dogged, which was a pity.
Hoax and Akarat, Gloucester Road, Bristol, August 2018
It has been a long time since I have seen anything by these two on the streets so I was rather excited by this collaboration. Unfortunately, by the time I returned some while later with a camera it was gone. Entitled Run run run, the piece includes a couple of galloping horses and what looks like an architectural feature, possibly a window and roof. I would have loved to get a closer look, but this was the best I could do.
Somehow this Deamze piece passed me by. Probably because this spot always seems to have one of his pieces in it…he owns the space. It is not a street with much other street art, so trips there are infrequent and therefore any refresh of this wall can be easily missed.
Deamze, King Square Avenue, Bristol, August 2018
The work is not unlike his previous one here (see below) in so much as it is in his sharp and jagged style and has a hog character. So crisp and clean, just another example of the brilliance of this artist. Although I took the picture in August last year, I have only just got round to posting it. Worth the wait.
I got lucky recently on a lunchtime walk to Dean Lane to find Cros painting this fine writing and character along with Cort and Laic217 who had unfortunately left before I arrived. Together with Cros was his friend Lorris, and together they had collaborated in Dean Lane some weeks before. I have pictures of that collaboration, but didn’t know who they were, so didn’t post them at the time…watch this space.
Cros, Dean Lane, Bristol, January 2019
Cros is a really nice guy, originally from Spain but now living in Bristol who said he plans to be much more active painting on the streets when the weather gets a bit better. I can’t wait. When I first saw this piece I was getting a bit confused, because the lettering is quite similar to Cort’s lettering, but Cort was working on another piece next to it, also the letters themselves are quite similar…CROS and CORT. The character is what separates them, as I don’t think I’ve ever seen one from Cort.
Cros, Dean Lane, Bristol, February 2019
Cros has a lovely touch and this is a nice clean piece. Unfortunately he hadn’t finished when I had to go, and indeed didn’t finish until the following day. I managed to get out a couple of days ago to take a picture of the finished piece, but the light was all wrong. This is also a difficult wall to photograph and these pictures really don’t do the piece justice. A great sign of respect that the piece is still there completely untagged.
Well another weird and wonderful creation from Stupid Stupid Meathole this time on the M32 roundabout. This piece is similar to one he sprayed in Dean Lane but somehow looks a little better in this environment…maybe it is the wall itself that helps it to stand out.
Stupid Stupid Meathole, M32 roundabout, Bristol, January 2019
I like his work very much, even if it is a little peculiar. There is some good humour underlying the grotesque nature, but most of all it is utterly unlike anything else on the Bristol scene at the moment. Original work.
Between Mr Draws and Object… The Bearpit is just about keeping alive, although I did notice some Panskaribas pieces on my way into work earlier this week (to follow). This is a quick one from Mr Draws and draws (no pun intended) on his staple decorated lettering.
Mr Draws, The Bearpit, Bristol, January 2019
The colours and patterns make this writing easy on the eye, but it is not to everyone’s taste, and sometimes those who like to sit in judgement on such things can be a bit rude about his work. I’ll have none of it. He brightens up our streets and has no pretensions at all. Perhaps some would prefer clinical fine art, commissioned and safe, but that does not pick up on the diversity and full spectrum of the discipline.
Natural adventures 