2559. Upper York Street (17)

Sled One is hitting a bit of a purple patch just at the moment, and his Instagram feed is overflowing with recent pieces from all over the country. This is a reasonably recent collaboration with Ments and is located on a wall that both artists are familiar with.

Sled One, Upper York Street, Bristol, October 2019
Sled One, Upper York Street, Bristol, October 2019

Whether it is graffiti writing or character pieces, Sled One simply knocks it out of the park every time, and his writing in particular seems to embrace so many different styles and techniques. Although you can pretty much always identify the work as his, he has a very broad range of letter shapes and styles and no two pieces are remotely the same, unlike some artists who use the same essential building blocks for every piece. A master at the top of his game.

Half time

 

Taking a breather

TV football ironing

composing haiku.

 

by Scooj

 

2558. Millpond Street (7)

Roughly every six months or so this wall on the side of Domestic Drain Services gets a makeover. It is not a commission as such, more like permission and the cost of the paint thrown in, the payback is that the company get a beautifully sprayed landmark that can just about be seen from this busy motorway junction.

This piece is a collaboration between SPzero76, Squirl and Kid Crayon.

SPZero76, Millpond Street, Bristol, October 2019
SPZero76, Millpond Street, Bristol, October 2019

On the left is the highly detailed work of SPZero76 full of busy action and cartoon capers. The words ‘Lost Eats’ on the side of the rocket is a conflation of two crews, the Lost Souls, which SPZero76 and Squirl belong to and Eats which is the pairing of SPZero76 and Kid Crayon. A nice touch.

Squirl, Millpond Street, Bristol, October 2019
Squirl, Millpond Street, Bristol, October 2019

The central part of the collaboration is a much more tranquil almost abstract space idea going on from Squirl. I have seen a little bit of his work on his occasional visits to Bristol for Upfest so it was nice to see this contribution from him.

Kid Crayon, Millpond Street, Bristol, October 2019
Kid Crayon, Millpond Street, Bristol, October 2019

Finally, on the right is a rather splendid space woman alien kind of thing with the astronaut clad in terrestrial clothes holding the earth with a little space shuttle breaking through the atmosphere. Great, imaginative stuff.

This whole collaboration seems to have the brief of space, but beyond that each artist has absolutely done his own thing, so this is a three-way individual collaboration loosely based on a single idea.

2557. Wilder Street (37)

I can’t think of a time when Sled One hasn’t been on fire. His work is always of such an exceptionally high standard and not only is it technically brilliant, but he combines that excellence with a fertile imagination and interesting concepts.

Sled One, Wilder Street, Bristol, October 2019
Sled One, Wilder Street, Bristol, October 2019

This piece on the ‘Where the Wall’ curated area is a beautiful (belated) birthday work for his frequent painting buddy Smak. It gives me a warm feeling to know that these guys pay tribute to each other in this kind of way and reassures me that the street art community is built on friendship and decency. The piece itself is a creative spelling of SMAK and is painted with a fabulous colour palette underpinned by a deep red and a scarlet. What a nice birthday present to get.

P.S. it is my birthday in January… any chance…?

Drowsy

 

It is the weather

that makes me soporific

so I’d like to think

 

by Scooj

2556. Moon Street (77)

This is one of a great many rabbits by Nevergiveup that I have in my archive of Bristol street art, and I will be releasing them slowly as and when slots appear or the inclination takes me. This particular one in Moon Street goes back to May 2018.

Nevergiveup, Moon Street, Bristol, May 2018
Nevergiveup, Moon Street, Bristol, May 2018

As I recall this furry fellow stayed put for quite a while, but like so many of his colleagues eventually disappeared. I noticed that Bristol City Council have been on an anti-rabbit patrol lately and buffed out a whole bunch of them from utility boxes in the Cumberland Basin area (boo). Now that Nevergiveup has left town I expect the cull to gather pace.

2555. The Bearpit (184)

As a street art hunter (a rather geeky description that I am not very fond of – archivist might be better) it is always worth taking pictures of everything you see, even if you don’t know the artist – you never know, you might be able to find out more later. And so it is with what is probably the first piece I saw by Conrico back in April 2018.

Conrico, The Bearpit, Bristol, April 2018
Conrico, The Bearpit, Bristol, April 2018

You can tell this is an old piece, because it is from The Bearpit, which has been ‘hermetically sealed’ since the spring this year. The picture is of a coiled snake and a hat without a body – presumably the owner of the hat – has been consumed or crushed by the constrictor, with only his spray cans and hat surviving the ordeal. The patterns on the snake are brilliantly done and this piece was an early indication of the talent that has since been unleashed on the streets of Bristol this year.

Board games

 

Two wicker baskets

filled with childhood adventures

it’s hard to let go.

 

by Scooj

2554. Midland Road

Obvs this is a piece by Mr Penfold and what a grand piece it is too. This large design that presents five bold patterns separated by jaggedy white lines is typical of his his more recent work. I say more recent, but I should add that this picture was taken in x 2018.

Mr Penfold, Midland Road, Bristol, March 2018
Mr Penfold, Midland Road, Bristol, March 2018

When writing this post, I used StreetView to remind myself of the street name, and was surprised to find that this piece has grown considerably in size and now occupies the facade of the building to the right as well. Watch this space for an update… one day.

The blue plaque, on what is now the ‘To The Moon’ bar and cafe, is a memorial to John Wright or ‘John the Caff’ as he was known locally. His obituary in The Guardian from July 2009 can be found here.

Thursday doors – 7 November 2019

Doors 88 – Cheltenham doors (Part 1)

At the end of September I went to visit Cheltenham, not too far from Bristol, for the Cheltenham Paint Festival, something I have wanted to do for a year or two now.

Never one to waste a bit of a doorscursion, I managed to snap a few doors while wandering around the town looking for street art spots. I actually went twice and over the two days walked more than 30 kilometers, mainly because I am not at all familiar with the town and also because unlike at Upfest (Bristol’s street art festival) the art is really spread out in all corners of Cheltenham. This meant I got to see quite a wir=de selection of doors.

This first post is just a random selection and I’m not sure I could remember where any of these actually were, but you can forgive me I hope, my mind was on other things:

When is a door not a door...? Cheltenham, September 2019
When is a door not a door…? Cheltenham, September 2019
Manicured lawn and green door, Cheltenham, September 2019
Manicured lawn and green door, Cheltenham, September 2019
That is some red door, Cheltenham, September 2019
That is some red door, Cheltenham, September 2019
Looks like chores day for the occupants behind this black split door, Cheltenham, September 2019
Looks like chores day for the occupants behind this black split door, Cheltenham, September 2019
An all too common sight in towns and cities in the UK, abandoned/neglected, Cheltenham, September 2019
An all too common sight in towns and cities in the UK, abandoned/neglected, Cheltenham, September 2019
Pity about the scaffolding! Cheltenham, September 2019
Pity about the scaffolding! Cheltenham, September 2019

Well that’s another canter through a few Cheltenham doors – I hope to line some more up soon.

Meanwhile, please go 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.

 

by Scooj