A gallery of absolutely stunning work from Bristol artist Jody
All photographs taken by Scooj
Jody
2578. Cheltenham 2019 (23)
Kedals is an artist whose work I have come across a couple of times in Bristol but only in the format of wheatpastes, so it was something of a surprise and indeed a great pleasure to see this painted wall in the Honeybourne Line tunnel at this year’s Cheltenham Paint Festival.
What is amazing is that the style he has adopted here is exactly the same as the one he presents on his wheatpastes. Pulling together elements from the great cartoon/comic genre Kedals has kind of stuck to the brief for the Festival theme which was to incorporate books in some way – Kedals has written ‘comics are books too’ by way of explanation.
I’m not sure what story the piece is trying to tell, but Kedals has cleverly incorporated the word ‘Knowledge’ across the top of the piece. I don’t know either, who the two faces belong to (they look like the Krays to me), but typical of his style, he has painted them twice as freehand duplicates, which is what he does with his wheatpastes. All in all I was really pleased to see this fine piece.
2577. Cheltenham 2019 (22)
Nol is a big personality who paints big personalities. His cartoon characters are always beautifully sprayed with crisp and clean lines and so full of charm (even the monsters). His fills are so solid, never anything coming through underneath, no cheating on the paint from Nol.
I have met Nol on a couple of occasions and he is a hunter with Street Art Cities, like me. I think he is a bit of a festival-goer, because I have only ever seen his work at festivals and don’t recall seeing anything randomly placed in Bristol, although he is from Holland, so I guess festivals are his way of putting himself about a bit. I like the message on this one ‘Be excellent to each other’. Always cool cartoon pieces perfectly turned-out.
Vote
Polling card arrived
I’m pretty much decided
time for a big change
by Scooj
2576. Cheltenham 2019 (21)
Anyone who made their way into Cheltenham for the Paint Festival from the station along the Honeybourne Line would have seen this utterly striking piece by Fink. Three stylised faces in bright and beautiful colours on a brick wall between the two tunnels. If you look carefully you will see that within each of the faces, there is a background of countless more faces. Fink creates these faces in one single spray movement.
I don’t know too much about Fink other than that at one time he used to spray little characters in Bristol and I assume he used to live here. I have seen on his Instagram account that he is currently working in Dubai, so I guess his visit to Cheltenham was combined with a trip home. A great opener for the festival.
2575. Cheltenham 2019 (20)
I have come across RTC a couple of times at Upfest in Bristol and really like his stencil work. This piece featuring Stephen Hawking reinforces my admiration. Many regular readers will know that I consider multi-layered stencils to be a highly skilled art form, and one that is probably misunderstood in terms of the hard work that goes into a piece like this one.
I believe RTC is a local Cheltenham artist, so it must be especially pleasing for him to be able to do a piece at the festival. I am guessing that RTC is referencing one of several books by Stephen Hawking in this piece, and most likely ‘a Brief History of Time. This is a truly excellent stencil piece.
2574. M32 Cycle path (39)
When I first started posting street art on Natural Adventures about five years ago I thought that it might be dominated with 45RPM and RichT pieces, because at that time I would come across them all over the city. I don’t know if, as my interest has increased their activity has waned, or whether there is some other explanation, but I just don’t get to see enough from these artists.
I was watching RichT as he was prepping the brown letters for this piece, but because I didn’t know him, I thought I’d let him just carry on without disturbing him. I think the letters say LUIS, but I can’t be certain, but the star of the piece is the schoolboy cartoon face, done in the great style of Beano, Dandy or Beezer comics – I just love it.
I regret not introducing myself to RichT and 45RPM while they were painting this wall together, but I’m sure there will be another time.
2573. M32 Cycle path (38)
Down on the M32 cycle path is thisrather nice quick one from Hypo that rather cleverly brings about some symmetry to his letters HYPO. I suggest that this is a quick one because although creative and imaginative, it is not perhaps as clean and crisp as it might be. This might sound like harsh criticism, but it is not, it is an observation only. Added to that, even pieces with a few ragged edges are hugely difficult to do and I always doff my cap in the direction of these artists.
Hypo, although not a regular on Natural Adventures does appear once in a while and as far as I can make out is one of the more established Bristol artists. I’m reasonably pleased with these pictures because with the overhang, the top half of pieces painted here are often in shade and I seem to have overcome that on this occasion. More nice work from Hypo.
Dog walk cafe
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White chocolate-topped
salted caramel cake slice
my elevenses
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by Scooj
Viscount heron
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Aristocratic
surveyor of his domain
goldfish pond in view
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by Scooj
Natural adventures 