Holiday haircut
“number two please”; my daughter
calls it tiger fur.
by Scooj
371. Upfest 2016 (22)
There was so much street art on offer at Upfest, that if you blinked you could miss something. I am so glad I had my camera with me, although on the day I took this photograph, my camera ran out of battery (aaaaargh what an idiot!) so I had to use my phone camera, and the results don’t really do the art justice. This was one of those pieces that was better ‘in the flesh’ but still looks pretty good in this photograph.
The artist is Mutiny (Jane Laurie), a British, London-based, wildlife illustrator, fine art painter and street artist. Clearly very talented and driven with a desire to raise awareness about endangered wildlife; she uses the hashtag #lovewildlife and signature anatomical heart on all her street art work. Oh! so much great stuff at Upfest.
Never work from home!
Bloody damnation!
household power cut ; PCs
down and no WiFi.
by grumpy Scooj
370. Upfest 2016 (21)
A lovely cheerful piece by Beep Monkey at Ashton Gate School. Saturday was obviously the day to be at this site, as there was only one artist on the Sunday when I came down, and most of the works were complete.
I must confess that I didn’t spend too long looking at this when I photographed it, but have had some time to look at it and find out more about the artist. Beep Monkey is new to street art, but has a rich background in illustrative and digital work; you can see the shading under the rabbit’s foot looks like a pen and paper sketch. I look forward to seeing more of his street pieces.
369. Whitby Street, Shoreditch, London (1)
There are few things more satisfying than wandering aimlessly around streets you have never walked down before and revelling in the architecture, bustle, characters and of course the street art. On one such recent walk I found this beauty. A stunning portrait by James Cochran or aka Jimmy C.
Aka Jimmy C grew up in Australia and studied visual arts at the University of South Australia before moving to London where he lives now. His very distinctive aerosol pointillist style reminds me of the post-impressionists like Van Gogh or Seurat.
There is always something very special that happens when fine art and graffiti fuse. Another example might be Bristol’s Tom Miller. This particular piece was painted back in 2011 but still looks so very fresh. A great work.
Hat-trick
Three times a score; a
sixtieth birthday perhaps
or just merriment.
by Scooj
Ground rush
Stress levels rising
exacerbated now by
holiday ground rush.
by Scooj
368. Tropicana, Weston-super-Mare (2)
The last thing I was expecting to see on a day out in W-s-M was a large Dan Kitchener piece.I don’t know how this can have passed me by. It would appear that he was creating this piece a week or two before Upfest 2016 at the Hazy Days Music & Arts Festival.
The following quote from Kitchener’s Instagram feed gives some background to the fabulous mural:
“‘Metropolis’ – Here’s my finished mural from Hazy Days Music & Arts Festival in Weston Super Mare, an amazing event, amazing organisation and a lovely place by the sea! I love being able to paint my more fantasy style illustrations on walls, and this future geisha assassin, looking out over the future Tokyo metropolis was an image I have had for a while and was waiting for the right wall and time to paint it! The geisha is based on my shoots with Ayumi LaNoire. The wall was all freehand spray paint, as usual! No projections or tracing, or stencils, just pure freehand”
Yet another wonderful surprise for me, and a glimpse at the extraordinary talents of Dan Kitchener. The images he creates are so full of atmosphere and narrative. I am always reminded of ‘Blade Runner’ when I see his works.
The English way
I daren’t look at the
person next to me…to look
as if I’m looking.
by Scooj
367. Tropicana, Weston-super-Mare (1)
On my recent day-trip to Weston-super-Mare, I felt compelled to visit the Tropicana, site of Banksy’s very successful Dismaland. I never made it to the exhibition, which I deeply regret, but read a great many posts and blogs about it and felt quite well acquainted with many of the exhibits. The site now plays host to a temporary fairground, with open entry, so I decided to take a look around. Ironically it all felt rather more dismal than it might have been during the exhibition.
Going in through the entrance lobby, there are several stencils by JPS, Fawn and Pzy, which I will get round to posting soon. Once into the main area, there were several larger murals on the left hand side walls. Unfortunately these were rather obscured by heavy fairground wagons and equipment. Undeterred, I found a way round the back and snapped away. This is a beautiful piece by the excellent My Dog Sighs, and so utterly unmistakable.
The photographs were tricky to take, because I couldn’t get any real distance from the piece. It didn’t matter though. This was another great extra surprise, because I didn’t know there was going to be anything here at all. It all comes down to wandering around, being curious and looking. I got my rewards.
Natural adventures 