Aah, another fabulous piece by Nether410. As a tourist in these parts, I know little of the piece other than what is on Nether410’s Instagram feed. He says the portrait is of Carol Burns of Bacon Street and that this is the site of her and her father’s business.
This is an amazing portrait, unsentimental in its portrayal of the subject. There is a story being told here as well, with the key and the keyhole, but I don’t know what it is about. A fine piece.
Quickly skipping back to November last year, the next few posts will feature pieces I saw on a mini excursion to Shoreditch in London, kicking off with this incredible piece by Mr Cenz. I have seen a lot of his work over the last year or two, but only a few in the flesh, and the pictures rarely do them justice. His style pretty much always incorporates a female portrait composed of swirling vibrant shades of colour, which when you think about it, shouldn’t really work, but oh my goodness, work they do!
A piece like this is just so magnificent and elevates the building it is painted on from being ordinary to being extraordinary. I would surely love to see him visit Bristol.
It is obvious from this collaboration combined with Instagram posts from each of these artists that they not only paint well together, but they are really good friends too. Jointly, Hazard and Tasha Bee are at the vanguard of female street art in Bristol, although if I am honest an artist’s gender to me is not as relevant as the quality of their work, both score highly on the latter measure.
The Hazard piece on the left is a copy of the one she painted in Stokes Croft a couple of weeks earlier and has that amazing blue and red shadow thing going on.
It is so good to have her in Bristol for a while because we get to see her work first hand, rather than via social media – I need to photograph her most recent piece this lunchtime (by the time you read this it was a couple of days ago).
The Tasha Bee piece on the right is in such a different style – flat rather than 3D and highly designed, fitting the ‘Tasha Bee brand’ if that makes any sense at all. I love the work of both of these artists, and although I have met Tasha Bee several times, I would love to meet Hazard too and see her at work. Wonderful collaboration.
I don’t think I can ever recall being disappointed with a Sepr piece in the few years that I have been enjoying street art. His distinctive cartoon style and sense of fun ooze from his works which usually raise a smile.
In this piece, marking the end of 2018, we see a sunbather being mildly abused by some birds (gulls?). One is stealing his ring, another emptying cream on his tummy, another drinking his cocktail and the last using a magnifying glass to burn his toes. Now when I first saw this, I thought someone had drawn a cock and balls on the man’s stomach, but the more I have looked at it, the more I think it is a sketch drawn by the bird with the tube of sun cream. A brilliant piece – comedy on a hoarding. Nice to see that Sepr and Epok have decorated the nearby wheely bin too.
The thing I love about Soker is that he is his own man. Quietly and without fanfare, he’ll just saunter down to Dean Lane and create something like this. No fuss, no bother, but just how good is it? If you ask me it is a brilliant , and he must be one of the best writers in the UK right now.
The salmon pink background is quite an unusual colour, and one I haven’t seen much of before. If nothing else, it helps the writing and black outline to it stand out. The three shades to the lettering fill are quite understated, but just to give the whole thing a bit of a spark, Soker has included five orange accents within the lettering. An outstanding piece and one I certainly wasn’t expecting to find.
The pieces that I post on Natural Adventures probably represent only a small proportion of what is out there at any one moment. Of course I tend to write about the stuff that I like and I might have an unconscious or even conscious quality filter to make sure that what appears on these pages makes the grade. At any one time there are dozens of artists and graffiti writers that are just bubbling under and who I am aware of, but their throw ups and bombing are not really anything special. There comes a point when work by these artists starts to get too good to ignore and this is such an example by DUSK.
Recently there has been more and more great work appearing from this writer and to date this is finest piece I have seen. This is a work that is bright and vibrant and smacks you in the face saying ‘look at me’. I hope that this will be the first of many pieces by Dusk on this blog and that we can see how the artist develops. I also hope to find out a little bit about Dusk by way of background and context.
Mr Draws is definitely not a one trick pony, and although he enjoys writing his name a lot (well who doesn’t?), he also comes up with some other creative ideas, such as this pair of doughnuts dressed up in his ‘house’ style.
I have always liked his work, which has featured numerous times in Natural Adventures, but these special pieces really stand out, rather like the trainer he did in The Bearpit last year. Great fun stuff.
Every once in a while, this spot gets some TLC which it surely deserves especially as much of the stuff that appears here is not great or gets tagged within an instant. This is one half of a collaborative session from Sepr (to follow) and Epok.
The piece was sprayed as an end of year celebration to see out 2018 (good riddance) and welcome in 2019. A sensational colour selection and all the hallmarks of a classic Epok piece – I love it to pieces.
One of my favourite pieces of 2018 was this lovely collaboration by Soap and Face 1st. It is one of those collaborations that is more of a proximity of work, rather than a true collaborative merger.
I must have driven past it hundreds of times thinking that I really must stop and take a picture, but it is close to a road junction and there are very limited parking opportunities. The left hand side is by Soap and is one of his most regularly used designs in a nice metallic silver. The tongues are particularly nice with the purple tinge.
It is the Face 1st piece though that is in my view outstanding. I do so much like his full figurine, and every time I see her, she seems just that bit more special. In this piece it is her hair that is so captivating, and the blue spotted bow. Her eye lashes too are extraordinary. When I spoke with Face 1st not long after he had painted this lady, he told me it was one of his favourites too.
A beautiful lady.
When an artist augments another’s work and it is done well it is both skilful and diplomatic. In this instance, 3Dom has added a fantasy abstract seascape to a remarkable turtle originally painted by Louis Masai a couple of years back.
3Dom seems to have undergone something of an epiphany recently and is creating some really interesting abstract work at the moment, fantasy scenes that feel familiar but that are utterly imaginary, like the sea bed here. I believe that 3Dom’s work has in some way added to Louis Masai’s work in a sensitive and dignified way. Definitely a case of the sum of the parts being greater than the individual components. Brilliant new work, giving a new lease of life to the wall.
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