Category: 5. Street Art

510. Upfest 2016 (67)

I first ‘discovered’ Stephen Quick in January this year, when I found one of his pieces in the Tobacco Factory car park. I was immediately drawn to it because of both its wonderful stencil technique and its subject matter – Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher kissing. Brilliant.

Stephen Quick, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Stephen Quick, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

I then found another of his pieces, again in the Tobacco Factory car park (a fine venue for street art), which features Alan Rickman as a ‘Severus Sane’ commemorating the sad passing of Rickman and David Bowie in one superb piece.

 

Stephen Quick, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Stephen Quick, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

Imagine then my excitement then at not only finding another piece at Upfest 2016, but also at meeting Stephen and having a long chat about his work and compositions. He is a really, really nice guy.

 

Stephen Quick, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Stephen Quick, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

This is a remarkable piece, presenting the unlikely couple of the Iron Man and Judy Garland’s Dorothy in a close and intimate pose. There is tenderness and a passion from her and a cold, metallic heartlessness from him. It works so well. This is a magnificent stencil, and one of the best pieces from Upfest this year. I look forward to meeting Stephen again, and if I am lucky enough interviewing him. Great work.

Stephen Quick, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Stephen Quick, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

509. Upfest 2016 (66)

Time to post a few more pieces from Upfest 2016. This wonderful fish, in the playground of Ashton Gate School, is by Angerami, an artist from Sao Paolo but who now travels the world for his art. He has a Wikipedia page, but sadly it is in Portuguese (I think), and I don’t know what it says.

Angerami, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Angerami, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

The biography for Angerami in the Upfest Programme is as follows:

‘Angerami uses travel as an immersive process in the nature, revealed through art in many different medias. Travelling is a passion, which allows connection with his perception of time, space, spiritual awareness and human presence on earth.’

Go figure that out…translated I guess from another source. He paints fish on walls, and that is good enough for me.

508. Wolseley Road

I have held back from writing about this piece for quite a while because I am not too sure who the artist is. I have a feeling it might be DNT, but it is not signed, and I am not getting a whole lot of insight from the Interweb.

DNT? Wolseley Road, Bristol, February 2016
DNT? Wolseley Road, Bristol, February 2016

It is a rather fun shutter piece on the Wolseley Road garage, and not something you’d necessarily expect to see this far up the Gloucester Road. Street and graffiti art in this part are pretty much on the extreme edge of the more frequented areas. Good to see though.

DNT? Wolseley Road, Bristol, February 2016
DNT? Wolseley Road, Bristol, February 2016

This is what I would consider to be classic shutter street art – a commission with some edge and relevance to the business. Unfortunately one sees quite a lot of dismal shutter art that is created by fine artists, who just don’t quite have the outdoor urban touch. This however is good.

If the artist is not DNT, I would love to know who it is.

507. M32 cycle path (2)

This is an old one by 3Dom that still remains rather majestic despite some weathering. It can be found on the cycle path that runs alongside the M32 between the two roundabouts and is fairly inconspicuous.

3Dom, M32 cycle path, Bristol, May 2016
3Dom, M32 cycle path, Bristol, May 2016

Although an old piece, it has many of the dream-like oddities that are common to 3Dom’s work. I am really rather fond of this one.

506. M32 roundabout J3 (23)

This is a happy piece by The Addicted Doodler and was part of a bigger ASK crew jam back in sunny June of this year. It was one of the most memorable collaborations of the year and In my view utterly brilliant. Other artists included Aspire, Kid Crayon and SPZero76.

The Addicted Doodler, M32 roundabout, Bristol, June 2016
The Addicted Doodler, M32 roundabout, Bristol, June 2016
The Addicted Doodler always makes me smile with his strong colours and shapes. And just looking at this piece, I think he is responsible for a whole load of unattributed pieces in my archive of pictures. Probably time to do some more digging.

505. Raleigh Road, Tobacco Factory (5)

This is a beautiful piece of art that I think had been painted for Upfest 2015, although I am not certain. I took the photographs a little while ago, and the wall has since been painted over.

Andrew Burns Colwill, Raleigh Road, Bristol, April 2016
Andrew Burns Colwill, Raleigh Road, Bristol, April 2016
The work is by Andrew Burns Colwill, a Bristol fine artist whose watery paintings have an incredible serenity and dream-like quality about them. I didn’t know much of the artist until I read his extraordinary bio on his website, and it really is worth a quick click and read.

Andrew Burns Colwill, Raleigh Road, Bristol, April 2016
Andrew Burns Colwill, Raleigh Road, Bristol, April 2016
Of course, I particularly like this piece because it has fish in it and I am very fond of fish. (Note to self – do a street art fish special some time). Andrew’s touch is delicate and detailed, and beautifully captures the movement in the piece. One of my favourites of the year.

504. Armada Place (4)

Some more writing today, this time from one of the less prominent graffiti artists in Bristol, ‘Subtle’. On first appearance this looks like quite a raw piece of work and could easily be missed, but on closer inspection, it is a fine sophisticated piece of writing.

Subtle, Armada Place, Bristol, January 2016
Subtle, Armada Place, Bristol, January 2016
Nothing much lasts very long on these hoardings, and I would guess that I only ever capture about 20% of what appears here, which gives you some idea of the volume of spraying that happens every week across Bristol…certainly way too much to write about it all. I am pleased to have photographed this when I did though.

503. City Road (4)

I have known about this piece for a while, but just never knew where it was. To my huge excitement and fulfilment I found it recently, while looking for another piece nearby. This is by one of my favourite street artists, Aspire, who is better known for his amazing birds.

Aspire, City Road, Bristol, October 2016
Aspire, City Road, Bristol, October 2016

I don’t know who the subject of the piece is, but I would guess a prominent local musician or blues artist perhaps. It seems slightly peculiar seeing work by Aspire that is not a bird, but I consider it to be equally good, and I would like to see more of it.

Aspire, City Road, Bristol, October 2016
Aspire, City Road, Bristol, October 2016

The piece has been here for a while and is slightly worse for wear, but it has persisted and survived untagged…often the mark of a respected artist.

502. Armada Place (7)

This is a stunning, collaboration between Sled One and Epok, two of the best wildstyle writers about. It is easy to see the Sled One element…if you look carefully you can make out the letters SLED. I had to look hard though for Epok – I knew it was a collaboration because he had signed the piece. I think his lettering is in the grey-green underlayer – certainly this part is more in his style.

Sled One and Epok, Armada Place, Bristol, June 2016
Sled One and Epok, Armada Place, Bristol, June 2016

What I love most abut this piece is that it is on a modest hoarding with low footfall. This piece was done for the love of it. The colour palettes are brilliant and the whole thing quite beautiful. These things are so easily overlooked or dismissed…it is a pity.

501. M32 Roundabout J3 (22)

This is a beautiful bit of wildstyle writing from 3Dom. His wildstyle form tends to be quite organic and ethereal, more in the style of Ments, rather than the hard, clean, sharp geometric writing associated with his Bristol peers Deamze, Sokem, Epok and Voyder, to name just a few.

3Dom, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2016
3Dom, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2016

This piece was from a little while ago and has been painted over several times since. It is nice to have a record of it though. It was part of an ASK crew paint jam in March, and his piece here is sandwiched between Voyder on the left and Sled One on the right. Nice work.