Category: 7.1. Upfest 2016

875. Upfest 2016 (142)

I love stencils and I love cats…this then is simply heaven. The work is from the self-taught Bizzy (Izolda Lautner) who turned he hand to artwork only some 5-6 years ago. Without any formal training, she gives great hope for street art wannabes (like me?).

Bizzy, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Bizzy, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

This was her first piece in front of a live audience, and I think it turned out fantastically well. I wish I had seen her in the process of spraying it. I will be keeping an eye out for her work, although it looks like she won’t be at Upfest 2017, which is a great shame. You can read more about her on her Stencil Art Prize website profile.

874. Upfest 2016 (141)

When blogging about street art, one increasingly becomes reliant on others for information about artists or new pieces and so on. I am grateful to ‘The Art Blogger 54’ for posting this piece recently. Until then, this photograph had been sitting in my pending file, waiting for the artist’s identity. I hadn’t seen the finished piece at Upfest, and so had no signature to go on. I cannot recommend highly enough The Art Blogger 54’s blog, especially if you are into wildlife art and sculpture.

Freshmess, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Freshmess, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

It is by FreshMess, a collaboration between two artists, one of whose style is clean and fresh and the other whose style is erratic and messy. These two have combined beautifully to produce one of the most striking pieces of Upfest 2016.

Freshmess, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Freshmess, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

Unfortunately, I don’t think they will be at Upfest 2017, but maybe they’ll visit again another time.

853. Upfest 2016 (140)

I don’t know an awful lot about Pad303, other than I guess he works out of London judging from the amount of work he does in Leake Street Tunnel.. I stopped to chat with him as he was finishing this piece, and what a fun and affable bloke he is.

Pad303, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Pad303, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

This is a fine piece, with a lovely bit of 3D wildstyle writing, and a hooded figure full of motion and energy kicking the lettering. I love it when artists combine styles like this, showing the breadth of their skills. A great Upfest piece.

Pad303, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Pad303, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

852. Upfest 2016 (139)

OG Hush is an artist based in Cambridge who specialises in 3D graff writing, but also works on photorealistic images and abstract work. You can get a feel for his work from his Facebook pages. This particular piece was sited near the North Street Green, and part of a long hoarding containing work from several artists.

OG Hush, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
OG Hush, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

His 3D writing is in the same general style as Zase and Loki, and really stands out from the crowd. The letters are reasonably clear to read, spelling HUSH, and in keeping with much of the rest of this wall has a Chinese feel about it. Great work.

OG Hush, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
OG Hush, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

OG Hush is not on the list of artists for the 2017 festival, so it might be some time before we see his work in Bristol again, which is a pity.

851. Upfest 2016 (138)

I was really pleased to find this delightful small piece by an artist I wrote about way back in February 2016 — Elaine Carr. Her previous piece was of a Bristol landscape painted on a front garden fence. This, as you can see is quite different.

Elaine Carr, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Elaine Carr, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

I am always going to favour any scene with a marine theme, and this fun piece ticks several boxes for me personally. It is the kind of work that I would love to have hanging up at home, although I’m not sure what Mrs Scooj would have to say about that. For the time-being it will hang in my virtual blog. I look forward to seeing her work at Upfest 2017 and hope to be able to say hello.

850. Upfest 2016 (137)

Losthills had a field day with his Jake the dog paste ups and this is a collection of three pieces by way of rounding off his Upfest contribution.

Losthills, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Losthills, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

With each of these wheatpastes, I would have to say ‘who doesn’t love a dog that dresses up?’

Losthills, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Losthills, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

I hope that Losthills will be returning in July because I do love a good paste up, and hunting around for these ‘gifts’.

Losthills, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Losthills, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

849. Upfest 2016 (136)

I don’t know very much about Johnman, the artist who created this wonderful greyscale stencil set on such a colourful background.  I have seen from his Instagram account that the stencil has been used in a piece called ‘Hitching to London’, where the background is a map of London.

Johnman, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
Johnman, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017

It is funny, but I don’t very well recall this piece from Upfest, but on inspecting it closely now, from the comfort of my desk, I think this is an outstanding work. I look forward to paying a bit more attention this year when he returns for Upfest 2017.

842. Upfest 2016 (135)

OK…I will say that this, for me, is one of the most fantastic small pieces, not only at Upfest but anywhere, that I have seen. The portrait of Einstein by Yassen Nenov (Yasko) is kind of crazy, but beautifully sprayed. There is something about it that just ticks all my boxes.

Yassen Nenov, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Yassen Nenov, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

I’m not sure if it is the use of the space, the colours, the subject or the execution, but it just works for me.

Yassen Nenov, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Yassen Nenov, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

Yassen Nenov, originally from Bulgaria (I think), is now based in Portsmouth. He specialises in bespoke pieces for cars and bonnets, helmets and walls and murals, and is making a name for himself for his custom work.

Yassen Nenov, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Yassen Nenov, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

I am less interested in his commissions (these things are always so ridiculously outside my price bracket) than I am in his public art, such as this piece. Great, great, great.

841. Upfest 2016 (134)

Let’s hear it for the local RAW (Read and Weep) artists…Ryder and T Rex. I think one of my favourite things about Upfest is that it combines high-end street art with local graffiti art, and bridges all the divides that may be out there in the world of street/graffiti art – at the very least for a few days.

Ryder and T Rex, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Ryder and T Rex, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

Ryder and T Rex often paint together, and their collaborations can be seen plastered all over Bristol. They have a particular penchant for spraying vans and caravans. I fear they are rather too under represented on this blog, something I will have to rectify.

Ryder and T Rex, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Ryder and T Rex, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

For now though , take time to appreciate the magnificent ‘fairground influenced’ writing of Ryder and the cheeky, possibly clumsy, dinosaur from T Rex. A popular combo from the Bristol

840. Upfest 2016 (133)

At Upfest 2016 there was one site where there were about thirty or so of these smaller (metre square) boards. I rather like seeing some of this smaller street art, which tends to have a bit of a crossover with fine art, perhaps exemplified by this portrait by Lauren Maria Hill.

Lauren Maria Hill, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
Lauren Maria Hill, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017

This young Bristol artist appears to focus on portrait work and seeks out commissions and freelance work on her website. Her images, including this one seem to concentrate on the face itself with great detail, leaving the surrounding hair as a complementary feature, but somehow separate from the face. I like her work, and hope to see more of it around Bristol.