Everyone seems to be slightly addicted to Instagram these days, so why not give these awesome Bristol Instagram accounts a follow! Colin Moody – Incredible photojournalist capturing real people in the city. @moodycolin319 Bristol Arts Monster – Street art, exhibitions and creative things to see and do with the family. @bristolartsmonster Natalie Brereton […]
via Amazing Bristol Instagram Accounts That You Should Be Following. — Love For Bristol
I bee W is an artist I admire very much. I first met him at Upfest 2016, and knew of his work before that, but this is the first time I have written about him, which surely can’t be right. His intricate stencils are often set on reasonably plain backgrounds, which brings out the central subject.
This ‘pigs might fly’ piece was created during the Spring paint jam in The Bearpit and I think carries a message, but I am not entirely sure whether it is connected to the clampdown on graffiti in The Bearpit or not.
It is a nice composition and contrasts well with the surrounding graffiti, helping it to stand out. It is like a gallery piece, and I like that.
Hot on the heels of my last post which featured a piece by Oreo, I found this one about half an hour later on another legal wall not far from Jardins de les Tres Xemeneies. At this spot, most of the work is by graffiti writers, occasionally punctuated by street art pieces like this one.
I love this. Mickey mouse with a badass bear head and a spray can at the ready and of course a halo to cap off the character. The piece keys in nicely with the writing to the right of it, and I wonder if they were sprayed at the same time. If not, then the two pieces have been cleverly integrated. More from this spot to come in due course.
Just about everything I know about this wonderful artist, Oreo, I have found out from the excellent No Grey Walls blog, written by Lewis Duncan, who was pivotal in directing me to some great legal walls in Barcelona for my trip there just before Easter.
The artist of this bear character is French artist Oreo (also painting under the names of Zack aka the scientist and Badassbearz). His works, which are instantly recognisble, appear all over Barcelona, and I managed to bag a few during my stay of which this was the first. In this piece Oreo presents us with the good and the bad bear and cleverly uses the box in the middle of the wall to separate out the two sides. Nice crisp work.
I have featured a lot of new artists on this blog recently, and this is the latest of them. Daz Cat is a Bristol-based illustrator and graffiti artist who I think is reasonably recent of the street art scene, although I would happily be corrected as there is not an awful lot of information in the Internet to go by.
His works tend to feature the heads of cats or dogs and often a little message – the one here ‘in fine style’ is used in other pieces too. He has had a recent burst of activity with some pieces, of which this is one, that were painted during the Spring Paint Jam in The Bearpit. More of his work, and perhaps more insight to follow soon.
Painted in The Bearpit for the Spring Paint Jam, this unusual piece is the work of the versatile Bristol artist Georgie. Georgie is a leading light in bringing street art to the people of Bristol through paint jams and her determination to preserve the notion of legal walls for the many street/graffiti artists in the city.
This piece itself is a stunning and intricate stencil work, which has been skilfully layered to create rich visual textures as you run your eye across it. Furthermore it is the kind of work that you don’t see enough of in The Bearpit.
When you take a close look, you can really see all the detailed work that has gone into creating this piece. Hats off to Georgie.
It’s that man Touc again, this time he has brought his little ray of sunsuine toucan to Dean Lane, a perfect roost for such a bird. There is something very endearing about this elaborate tag, and I am looking forward to finding and snapping up as many as possible.
Of course, the first two I have posted are in the two most obvious locations, The Bearpit and Dean Lane. I have found one or two others which I will share in due course. Happy Toucan.
I have only seen Pelmo’s work a couple of times, but I know that I really love his work. The soft tone and style of his cartoon characters carries with it a light-hearted humour, and his pieces tell complex stories. His work reminds me a little of Gary Larson’s Far Side cartoons, but there is a little more tenderness to Pelmo’s work.
I think that this wall was part of Upfest 2016, but I never made it here before as it is really quite a long way from the Upfest main area. This is a highly accomplished piece and in it is a deftness and confidence in the scene that Pelmo has created. It is so easy on the eye, it almost feels that it is just part of the street scenery. It is easy to drift into the world he has created.
I love his attention to detail, things like the hand rail that the character on the right is holding and the shadows cast by the bicycle and the street bins. Of course for the cat lovers there is a splendid moggie sprawled out on the wall. I also rather like the way that the rubble sacks in front of the piece almost feel like they are incorporated into the whole experience. I love this and really look forward to seeing his work at Upfest 2018.
A week or two ago I went in search of an Upfest piece from last year that I still hadn’t yet found. I found it, which is good, and I will post it very soon…worth the waiting for I can assure you. On the way, I stumbled into this rather lovely small piece from Andy Council neatly tucked into the corner of a building. It is as if the space was always meant to have a piece of art there.
This piece goes back to 2014, but it is still looking fresh. It appears to be a Bristol fox, and how fitting to have an urban fox composed of houses and buildings. Unusually Andy Council has not incorporated the Clifton suspension bridge, but has managed to include one of the large tobacco warehouses, I think it might be the Create Centre. On a sunny day, this was a real bonus find in an area I rarely visit.
Sometimes in life things come together to create a story. Some stories are good and others not so good. This wonderful piece by Kid Crayon provides the perfect backdrop to a good story.
Some of you who read this blog regularly will know that I recently lost my father and although we were not especially close, he was my father and that means something. Going back to work was a struggle so I made sure I kept up my lunchtime walks as a kind of mindfulness opportunity. On this day, 20 April, I decided to visit Dean Lane to see if there was any new work there, which is pretty much a certainty if I am honest. As it turned out, the place was really busy, with several artists at work.
Some of the artists, including Kid Crayon, were there to mark 420, the long standing campaign to legalise cannabis (now perhaps you see what his artwork is all about). I spent a long while photographing all the works in progress and having a great natter with the artists. Realising I couldn’t spend all day there, although it would have been fun, I set off back to work.
Then I had one of those moments where an inner mini me took over and marched me back to Kid Crayon. As I approached him I apologised for my cheekiness and asked him if he could do something really special for me…I asked if he would spray a little tribute for my dad on this piece. Kindly he said he would…if he remembered. I thanked him and went on my way.
The next time I saw the piece was on Instagram, posted the next day (but pictured on the evening of completion) by Street Art Bristol (see above). And there in the bottom left corner is the tribute. I welled up when I saw this, lots of emotions going on. However there are a couple more twists to the tale. I also saw several other Instagram posts taken which showed the piece had been dogged (some people have no respect) probably only hours after the picture above was taken. I asked Street Art Bristol if he could send me a clean copy of the piece and explained why it was important to me – he did so without hesitation for which I am hugely grateful.
I managed to make it down to Dean Lane later on the Saturday (the day after it was completed) and to my surprise, somebody had restored the piece – I don’t know who, It might have been KC or somebody else, but it is great to know there are some good guys out there. If you look at the featured image at the very top of this post, you can make out some of the white markings of graffiti under the green background.
I have always liked Kid Crayon’s work, indeed it was largely down to him and JPS that I started blogging about street art in the first place. Through the kindness of Kid Crayon, this was my little way of marking the passing of my father. RIP Gledders.
Natural adventures 