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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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
2553. Dean Lane skate park (262)
One of the things I love about going through my archives is that I get to re-visit a whole bunch of gems that for one reason or another I didn’t publish at the time – often because I operate with a monumental backlog. I reckon that for every piece I post on Natural Adventures there must be five or six that never see the light of day.
This overlooked and yet utterly wonderful piece is by Slakarts and was painted in Dean Lane back in January last year. His trademark stylised faces are always recognisable and he seems to favour a soft or gentle colour palette. This face has been adorned with plenty of little decorations and some nice painted drips. More in my archives to come.
Natural adventures 