Unfortunately the photographs of this fine stencil by Madderdoit simply don’t do the piece justice, which is a pity because this is the first piece I have knowingly seen from this Bristol artist. How did that happen?
Madderdoit, Brunel Way, Bristol, June 2020
The column piece features a woman wearing a blue face mask, which is I’m sure to become an iconic symbol for the year 2020. I see some similarities in technique to Stephen Quick’s work, which is of course a good thing. I love surprise pieces like this one, they keep me interested (not that that is difficult). I’d love to see more from Madderdoit.
So far, since the lock down restrictions were first eased, there seem to have been an extraordinary amount of collaborative sessions, I guess because artists have missed each other through the lengthy coronavirus isolation. In this case the artists combining their talents are Varo and Saik.
Varo, Brunel Way, Bristol, June 2020
Varo is an artist I met for the first time a couple of weeks back when he was painting alongside his Spanish compatriots during a paint jam on the M32 roundabout. I haven’t posted any of his work before, but that is all going to change from this moment forward. This is a nicely done piece spelling out VARO and has a natural, organic feel to it.
Saik, Brunel Way, Bristol, June 2020
Saik is no stranger to Natural Adventures, but it has been quite a long time since I posted anything by the artist. This piece of graffiti writing is really nicely done, nice and tidy with an interesting fill in shades of green. An unexpected and interesting collaboration under Brunel Way.
Doors 110 – even more graffiti/street art doors (groan…)
I promise that I will get back to some ordinary doors soon, but I am rather enjoying my archive graffiti doors at the moment so might persist just for a couple more weeks if that is ok with you.
In my last Thursday doors post I think I had broken into 2017, so I will kick off there. Enjoy…
Inke, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017Laic 217, Moon Street, Bristol, May 2017Andrew Burns Colwill, Gathorne Road, Bristol, May 2017Kin Dose, Stokes Croft, Bristol, September 2016Talmo and Miel, North Street, Bristol, June 2016Deamze, Kings Square Avenue, Bristol, April 2017Copyright, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017Decay, Wilder Street, Bristol, April 2017Boogie, Moon Street, Bristol, July 2017Louis Masai, North Street, Bristol, July 2017Oze Arv, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017D7606, Charles Street, Bristol, July 2017Bex Glover, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
So another Thursday doors draws to a close, I hope you enjoyed it. See you next week.
If you have made it this far, you probably like doors and you really ought to take a look at the Norm 2.0 blog – the originator of Thursday Doors where there are links to yet more doors in the comments section at the end.
I love making discoveries. Finding things that were meant to be found, but only by those who are looking. This drawing is one such discovery, in one of the tunnels of the M32 roundabout. There are a trio of other pieces by the same artist not far away. Regular readers will know that I am particularly fond of paste ups, and when they are by an artist unknown to me, they are that little bit more special.
Jarvis, M32 roundabout, Bristol, June 2020
I think the artist is called Jarvis, but that is as much as I know about them. The crown on the top of the signature indicates to me that this artist understands street art culture and is deliberately being a part of it. The piece itself, roughly A4 size, is vibrant and striking. The colours and elements are simple and bold. A red figure in profile, the sea, the sun, the moon and a possible reference to Bristol, a hot air balloon. The wheatpaste is set on a jaunty angle and seems to have been torn from a pad at the top edge. I like this paste up very much and it feels like we might be seeing the emergence of another Bristol street artist. I’ll post the other three pieces soon, and will be on the lookout for more.
It took me a second trip to this wall in Dean Lane to get some decent photographs. The first effort was marred by a large shadow cast across the left hand side of the piece, and that simply wouldn’t do. The stunning work is a collaboration between 3Dom and Sepr.
3Dom and Sepr, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2020
The easing of restrictions from lock down a couple of weeks back led to an upsurge in high quality pieces, and it has been difficult to keep on top of them, this though is one that is likely to stay for a while. The writing is by 3Dom and the elephant and mouse by Sepr.
3Dom and Sepr, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2020
I have seen similar writing from 3Dom before, there was something very similar on the side of a van I recall. It is easy to forget that he is as talented at graffiti writing as he is at free-form street art. The elephant and mouse is typically humorous and warm from Sepr, who has a talent for telling great stories with his art work. This collaboration is a real gem.
Clearly, this piece is more about the subject than it is about the artist, however as a chronicler of street art in Bristol I reserve the right to acknowledge and praise the artist Hazard for painting such a poignant and striking piece for #blacklivesmatter.
Hazard, Turbo Island, Bristol, June 2020
This is yet another wonderful and uniquely Bristolian piece from this brilliant artist. How lucky to have had two new pieces from her in recent weeks.
Hazard, Turbo Island, Bristol, June 2020
Of course, the Bristol BLM demonstration has hit the headlines at the weekend for the pulling down and throwing into the floating harbour of a statue commemorating Edward Colston, a Bristol slave trader. This lawless act has caused consternation at the highest levels of government, but I have to say it was completely understandable and rather predictable. The Bristol constabulary were amazing in the way they dealt with the demonstration and prevented anything flaring up by keeping a light touch approach to policing. One really has to ask what a statue commemorating Colston was doing in the centre of town in this day and age in the first place.
Without denying our history (a dangerous avenue) perhaps it is time to have a review of our commemorative monuments in today’s context and to mothball or place into historical museums statues that are inappropriate today.
This is the first in a series of Several posts from a big paint jam on 30 May 2020 which involved four Spanish artists and four Polish artists, all of which I think are resident in the Bristol area. I got very lucky indeed when walking the dog to see all the artists in action and stopped to chat with a few of them. I returned a few days later to photograph the completed pieces.
Hire, M32 roundabout, Bristol, May 2020
The first piece from this paint jam is by Hire, who has appeared on Natural Adventures countless times. I stopped with him for some time for a chat and asked him how he manages to get such fine detail on his work. He showed me the sketch he made for this piece and said that this style suits him and that if he were to try other styles or street art rather than writing that he would struggle.
Hire, M32 roundabout, Bristol, June 2020
I have been labelling his work as being Gothic in style, but he corrected me saying it wasn’t really gothic writing at all… oops. I guess it is perhaps reminiscent of medieval swords, spikes, halberds etc or at least it is to me. This is a lovely piece of graffiti writing, spelling HIRE, set on a cloudy purple background with some day glow green spots for decoration. A really nice piece from Hire.
The more I look at this piece from Cort (Padi) the more I like it. On first inspection it all looks a bit untidy, but I don’t know, there is something that really attracts me to it. Cort pretty much always has strong letters that aren’t particularly over-disguised but are designed differently from piece to piece. In this one he has changed the customary CORT for KOORT, which is a playful thing to do and gives him scope for messing about with different letter shapes.
Cort, M32 cycle path, Bristol, May 2020
Painted alongside the multiple skeleton piece by Laic217, Cort’s work acts as a perfect foil to Laic217’s because the style and content is so different. I think it is the red colour contrasting with the grey that works so well for me. A nice piece.
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