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Amazon return
new camera is faulty
not having much luck
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by Scooj
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Amazon return
new camera is faulty
not having much luck
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by Scooj

It looks like Aspire made great use of his time in Bristol for Upfest, and left behind this little extra piece in Devon Road, a spot he has painted in before when he lived in the city. I will never tire of Aspire’s beautiful birds and pixelated aberrations, and still feel sad that he left Bristol for London a few years ago.

Although he has painted dozens of different species of bird, he seems to return blue tits most frequently. The bird is stunning, and the incorporation of the street sign inspirational. I don’t have the writing skills to express how much I like Aspire’s work, suffice it to say I think it is awesome.
Many of you will know that Moon Street is one of my absolute favourite street art spots, although that accolade has possibly moved on a little in recent years due to the gentrification of the area. But even now, Face 1st continues to brighten the place up with his inimitable and irrepressible style, making me feel very much at home with this lovely piece.

Face 1st was one of the very first street artists I became familiar with, but it was a few years before I got to meet him in person. His work is at the heart of what I care about, and this piece is just so joyful and typical of the atmosphere he creates around his work. The girl with green hair in red dungarees is full of cheek and movement. My eye keeps getting drawn to the underside of her left shoe… it is completely absorbing. A nice piece to start the weekend with.
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The season begins
Palace against Arsenal
emotions unleashed
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by Scooj
I am not the biggest fan of this bit of wall. There is no easy way of photographing it without a wide-angle lens or similar capability, so you are getting it fence and all, to see what it really looks like, rather than a sanitised version, although I have tried that too.

There is little need for me to say much about Laic217, the artist, as I have said pretty much everything I can in the past. This is another skeletal offering, which although not to everyone’s taste, has artistry that can still be admired. He is doing a lot of greyscale work these days which is not easy, but he manages to generate great depth in his pieces with light and shade and folds etc. This is yet another fine piece in a long series of outstanding work from this excellent artist.
From time to time, the street art community is rocked by the death of one of their fold. It might be felt by everyone or by just a few close friends. When it happens, it is common to produce tribute pieces for the departed friend, and some artists keep the tribute alive for days, weeks, months or even years, for example Haka keeping the memory of his friend CKone in our minds in most of his pieces even now.

This is one of several tribute pieces for Sear by Stivs, and there are several other tributes about the place. I haven’t ever really encountered Sear before, but he was a graffiti writer and close friend of Stivs’. This piece is a fine tribute, beautifully structured and proportioned and the colour combinations perfect. A work of love.
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An audio book
for multitasking ‘reading’
I feel like a cheat
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by Scooj
Collaborative walls don’t often get more prestigious than this one, with Soker and Dibz combining in a green buffed wall. There was a time when Soker was painting all the time and Dibz occasionally, over the last couple of years their roles have reversed slightly. It seems I post a couple of Dibz pieces every month, but Soker rather rarely.

To the left is an absolute belter from Soker, spelling out SOKEM, a variant of his name, simply to give him some variation in lettering. Every element of the piece is technically superb, but I am drawn to the rather special fill, and colour selections from bottom to top. Classy stuff from Soker.

On the right is a piece from Dibz. Nothing too fussy or big, just some nice black (purple tinged) letters with a cream 3D shadow set on some bursts of orange and red splashes. A nice Example of Dibz’ work and expertise. And great to see these two coupling up.
It is so obvious that most street artists do what they do because they love doing it. It is as simple as that. This is perfectly demonstrated by a scattering of small pieces by Andy Council recently in the Dean Lane and Brunel Way spots.

Andy Council has had a long fascination with prehistoric creatures, he even incorporates an ammonite into his signature. His dinosaurs and other creatures can be found all over the city, but these are small, fleeting, fun pieces painted for the sheer hell of it.

I think that the creatures are trilobites or at least related to them and seem to blend in so well in all of the locations selected, it is as if they were always meant to be there in this urban ecosystem.

Beautifully observed and nicely painted, these four pieces (there may have been some others that I missed) add colour and interest to our great city. Thank you Andy Council.
Doors 192 – Porto doors (Part 6)
My life is no less busy this week and I am covering for two of my colleagues (in a team of four) who are on their holidays, so I’m afraid this will probably be a bit rushed, before I start a long day at work.
Porto is a gift that just keeps on giving. There is so much to see and do and marvel at, not least the churches of the city. Although the idea of tiling the façade of buildings was imported from Seville, it is definitely one of the USPs of Porto, and this can be evidenced through the stunning tile decorations in blue and white on many of the churches.
So this week we have a small selection of doors from Porto churches, but if I am honest it is the tiles that are the star of the show. I hope you enjoy them.










These churches are just another reason to visit this wonderful, vibrant city. That’s it for another week. I might be taking a bit of a break from Thursday doors over the next two or three weeks, but will have plenty more to share with you after that. May I wish you a happy weekend ahead.
If you have made it this far, you probably like doors, and you really ought to take a look at the No Facilities blog by Dan Anton who has taken over the hosting of Thursday Doors from Norm 2.0 blog. Links to more doorscursions can be found in the comments section of Dan Anton’s Thursday Doors post.
by Scooj