7.2. Upfest 2017 – Page 11 – Natural adventures

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This stunning work was the official piece from Oze Arv this year, although he left behind several other pieces in Bristol before he departed. I had not seen his work before Upfest, but everything I have seen I like a lot.

There is something about black and white check in street art that I really like, and here it blends beautifully with the softer abstract shapes. There is a story being told here, and the two orange circles contain elements central to this story. I like pretty much everything about this piece, and look forward to posting more from this Portuguese artist before too long.

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More mischief from Jake the Dog and his master costume designer Losthills at Upfest this year. In the first picture we see Jake as a late 1970s punk, complete with colourful mohican haircut, chain and earring, holding an anarchy badge.

In the second picture, which was taken in the back yard of The Steamcrane pub, Jake is dressed as some kind of robot with a heart. This is probably influenced by a film or something, but I am not too sure. All good fun though. Plenty more to come.

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Spot the Badger has an interesting story to tell about how badgers became the ‘thing’, and the Upfest programme biography reads:

Why Badgers? I’ve always been drawing and making things but lacked direction in my output. I needed a focus, and ‘Spot The Badger’ is where I found it. A weekly competition in my local paper to ‘spot’ a tic-tac sized Badger hidden in one of the paid-for ads, I created a stencil of this little Badger and began to draw him in different styles, leading me to where I am today.

For a self-taught artist, there are some really nice design features in this piece, but of course the badger is king.

Spot The Badger, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017

Spot the Badger is a Bristol-based artist and this piece for Upfest contains that most iconic of Bristol landmarks, the Clifton suspension bridge. I do love these reference points that Bristol artists add to their works. (Yet another note to self…post a special suspension bridge collection).

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There is a lot of fun in this piece by Mas972, and I enjoyed watching it progress over the Upfest weekend. I managed to grab a little time chatting with the artist and told him I remembered his piece from last year. What I didn’t say to him though was that I thought this piece was much better, but that is just a personal opinion.

I was interested to see how Mas972 went about this piece and by the time I first visited he had already completed the background and begun work on the characters.

I have huge admiration for these artists and the way the approach their work. They have vision, talent and experience which they apply adeptly to create these marvels.

The characters in this piece are beautifully crafted and so full of mischief. I like the way the yellow eyes and teeth really stand out, bringing them alive.

A nice touch is that these cheerleading characters are wearing bibs which carry the letters M A S. I do very much hope Mas972 returns next year.

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The light rays cascading across this piece catch me out every time I look at it…they feel real. This is a lovely small piece by Emily Donald, an artist based in Newquay, Cornwall – the coolest county in England. She works with inks and creates wonderful layered pictures, usually incorporating birds and flowers. You can see more of her artwork on this website.

Emily Donald, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017

In this piece two hummingbirds are busy collecting nectar from beautiful flowers. The whole work has a feeling of tranquility and peace, but it is the light rays that set the whole thing off for me. A wonderful work. I hope we get to see her again next year.

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It is unfortunate that sometimes the photographs I take of great works simply don’t do them justice, this is one such example. This is a brilliant portrait by the London-based artist Ant Carver, who has used amazing colour shadings to create a rich and textured appearance on the skin of the subject. It is a really clever technique that adds real depth to the piece

By the time I got to photograph this great work, the sun was in completely the wrong place and it looks cold and a bit drab, which it most cerrtainly wasn’t. Ant Carver is an artist whose work chimes for me and I would have liked to have spent a moment or two to chat with him, but he looked a bit busy with finishing off, so I left him to it. Maybe next time.

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One of the more sober and less ‘brash’ pieces at Ashton Gate was this beautiful work by Joan Aguiló. There is a fine story going on in this piece, which was laid out in two distinct halves, the right hand side of which is shown in the image below.

It looks like the story being told is one of travel, farewells, insecurity. It feels sad to me. The only thing that reads across the two halves are the flowers being cast by the lady on the left. Is it a story of childhood? Is it a story of immigration? – it is all a bit of a mystery really. It has a really serene feel to it and is quite different to many of the pieces that surounded it.

Joan Aguiló lives in Mallorca and uses public space to create his work predominantly in the city of Palma. This is a really interesting piece that might have been overlooked by some. Thoughtful.

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RTC is a stencil artist who is based in Cheltenham, so not a million miles away from Bristol…in street art terms, he is pretty much a local. This is a fine multi-layered stencil featuring Guardians of the Galaxy characters Groot and Rocket Raccoon. It is a clever technical piece from this self-taught artist…there is hope for uas all.

This piece has a photorealistic appearance which is amll the more remarkable for being a stencil. I have not seen any of RTC’s wortk before, but will be looking out for him in the future.

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I never got to see this remarkable portrait in its final form, which was the case with several pieces sited at Ashton Gate this year. Having said that, I don’t think it changed a great deal from the featured image above, judging from pictures I have seen of it. It is by the excellent Naskool who produced another amazing piece at Upfest 2016.

It may be my general ignorance, but I am not sure who the portrait is of…it might not be of anyone in particular. Any ideas?

Naskool has an extraordinary touch for photorealistic work and it is interesting to see how he completes the subject first and then backfills the surround afterwards. All part of the fun of watching these pieces unfold over a few days. This was really one of the great pieces of the festival this year.

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Pahnl were the selected festival artists for Upfest 2017, which meant that they had to work twice as hard as any of the other artists. They provided the visuals for the programme, map and other publicity material and they produced two stencils to advertise the upcoming event, previously covered in this blog.

Their work consists of beautifully designed stylized figures, looking a bit like they have marched off a corporate logo portfolio, set in various, often witty scenes. The work is very time consuming, as each element is stencilled onto the overall scene.

The effect is a world of colourful small designs interacting with each other and the viewer. Something about the figures reminds me a bit of Play Mobil figures.

This wall, alongside the ‘Hen and Chicken’ was the first of two ambitious pieces by Pahnl which at various times saw them valiantly spraying under plastic sheeting cowering from the rain. There are loads of individual pirate stories going on here involving these little people.

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