A sickening thud
but the penny didn’t drop
a dead long tailed tit.
by Scooj
2846. Brook Hill (1)
At last I have found it and better late than never. Thanks to the lock down restrictions, my driving to street art spots has been replaced by my walking the dog/exercise walks and when you are on foot so many more possibilities are open to you. It is easy to nip down this lane or trundle over to that place without worrying about parking, one way streets etc etc.
I have been aware of this piece by 3Dom for a couple of years now, and without realising it have been agonisingly close to it without ever finding it, that is until last week. I could scarcely hold back my exclamation of joy and sense of relief that it is still in great condition.
The work itself has an aesthetically pleasing symmetry to it and although there is nothing specifically 3Domish about it, it is instantly recognisable as one of his pieces. My life is now complete (well that might be a bit of an exaggeration but I do feel a tremendous sense of relief).
The strangest thing about walking in Bristol at the moment is the curious juxtaposition of avoiding other people, by walking out into the road or crossing it altogether, and yet saying hello to them by way of an apology for having to avoid them in the first place. These are indeed curious times.
2845. Camden Town, London
Digging deeper into the archives. I took this picture in November 2017 in Camden Town, a full year and five months after it was painted by JXC. Frankly it is probably as good a photorealistic piece you are going to find anywhere, anytime. Why didn’t I post it before? I baffle even myself.
The picture may feel familiar and that is because it Chunk from the film The Goonies although with the addition of a tattoo on his stomach of JXC. I met the artist at the Cheltenham Paint festival last year, and he is such an incredibly nice guy and so modest with it.
It can be difficult to process that this piece has been painted with spray paint, and the sharpness of the patterns on the shirt are simply extraordinary. Similarly the out of focus background adds to the apparent authenticity of the piece. A small miracle.
Compulsive
My red-raw knuckles
legacy of hand washing
and chilly dry air.
by Scooj
2844. M32 Spot (63)
Utterly inexplicable! how on earth did I fail to post this brilliant column piece by Kid Crayon back in June 2017? And how have I not retrieved it from my archives before now? I think this illustrates just how many pictures I have in my archives that get left behind and that what you see here on Natural adventures is just a fraction of what is out there on the streets every day.
What is quite unusual about this column piece is that it spans three sides of the column and so is impossible to enjoy from standing in one position.
On the first face (or is it the third?) is a purple-faced girl and monster, apparently unrelated. Purple or blue-faced characters is a bit of a trademark for Kid Crayon, as is the turquoise colour that he uses a lot in his work.
On the second face are some more rather weird animate and inanimate objects along with another face, this time I am pretty sure it is a self-portrait of the artist, and if it isn’t, it ought to be because it looks a lot like him.
On the third and final face of the column are a couple more characters one of whom is singing? a rainbow. Let’s embrace and own this as a Coronavirus rainbow of hope. This is unfathomable and simply brilliant work by one of my favourite Bristol artists and incredibly nice guy.
2843. St Werburghs tunnel (161)
I don’t get to see too much work from Object… these days, but I seem to have a fair amount in my archives and this wonderful piece in St Werburghs tunnel was painted back in October 2018.
Object… specialises in these political commentary pieces in which contorted figures agonise and tentacles are often involved. I have a feeling that this might have been a collaboration with another artist contributing the colourful flower on the left hand side – it looks altogether too upbeat to be Object…’s work. I like his work a lot, Nd it feels good to release this one from the archive.
Those were the days
Needle in the groove
transports me to a time when
I was immortal
by Scooj
2842. Dean Lane skate park (299)
Going back to October 2018 and this wonderful spikey and menacing rabbit from Hire. I have included this one from the archive for two reasons. Firstly I am a big fan of Hire’s work and secondly to show hoe consistent his work is, having posted a more recent piece from a couple of weeks back.
Apart from a few early pieces in The Bearpit, I don’t think I have seen any Hire pieces too far away from Dean Lane – it would seem that the artist is happiest painting here. This particular rabbit looks especially menacing.
2841. Waterloo Street (1)
I cannot begin to explain why it has taken me so long to post this outstanding piece by Deamze, especially as I am a lifelong fan of Goscinny and Uderzo’s Asterix the Gaul books. I guess that part of the reason is that my words simply can’t do justice to the genius of this piece, and so I left it, always meaning to come back to it.
I rarely use the word genius, but I atcually think that Deamze is the absolute master of his craft and in this work, he has mashed up characters in the correct colour palette from Uderzo’s illustrations to draft out his name in his own style and it is all utterly commensurate with the ethos of the comic books. This is interpretive art at its very, very best.
Deamze leaving Bristol for Hobart is surely one of the greatest creative losses for the city, and I am full of jealousy when I see his work from the other side of the world on Instagram. Maybe sometime he’ll pay us all a visit and drop a few pieces while he’s at it. One of my all-time pieces of Bristol street art.
Highest high
.
Chilly wind, blue skies
witnessing the highest high
for a hundred years
.
by Scooj
Natural adventures 