At last year’s Upfest, 23 Magpies had a board all to herself, rather than her usual wheatpastes dotted around the place on utility boxes and lamp posts. I am a big fan of her work and am the proud owner of one of her small creations.
This work at Upfest is a clever piece of artwork purporting to be a National Geographic cover. A nice political message up front and lovely illustration, which chimes very much with the National Geographic house style. Packing a punch and an evocative image.
I like 23 Magpie’s work so much that I recently bought a small piece that she was selling through Instagram. It is waiting for a frame, along with several other things that need frames…I really do need to earn a little more money.
As well as her official work, 23 Magpies left a treasure trail of paste ups all around North Street, some of which I have posted on this blog, and others that I have yet to post. I think I may have got them all, but I can’t be sure. This is a fox painted with a design onto sheet music, something that she does quite a lot. It is always a pleasure finding one of these.
Somehow this seems to be the perfect wheatpaste pairing. The fabulous D7606 bottles that can be found in so many places and the enchanting one-off pieces that 23 Magpies leaves for explorers to find.
You may recall that I posted paste ups of a mouse and a cat by 23 Magpies recently. Well here is another one of the treats that she left behind at Upfest. This time, always on a wildlife theme, we are presented with a charming wheatpaste of a newt drawn onto the cover of an Ian Maclaren title page.
Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush was Ian Maclaren’s first story about rural Scottish life. I have no idea if this is of any significance to the piece by 23 Magpies, or if it is a random bit of book used as a background context for the little newt. Whatever the intention, the execution is once again excellent. I think there may be more to come from 23 Magpies in these Upfest posts.
23Magpies is an artist I have admired for sometime now. Although she has already featured in one Upfest 2016 post already, her ‘official’ work, I couldn’t resist including some of her ‘extras’.
These extras are often left behind by street artists during a festival and wheatpastes in particular seem to appear all over the place. 23Magpies leaves these treats for people like me to find. Often she pastes them onto utility boxes and lamp posts.
Generally to get a good look and photograph one needs to stoop somewhat drawing strange glances from passers-by. Of course if you don’t look, you won’t see. Some will never see beyond their next text message.
23Magpies is known for her wildlife and environmental themes in her work and with this cat and mouse pair she doesn’t sdisappoint. More 23Magpies extras in a future post…I promise.
I never made it to Upfest 2015, which might be a blessing, as I would probably still be writing posts about it now if I had. I was struck though by how many ‘treats’ were hidden in the North Street area after the event.
It was in searching carefully for these ‘treats’ that I started to find some lovely paste ups by 23Magpies, such as this chameleon. Her work is heavily focused on wildlife and the environment, and her feature piece for Upfest was this lovely fox and design.
I am a big fan of 23Magpies’ work and will be writing about some of the treats she left behind after this year’s festival. On this particular piece, you’ve got to love the detail of the bee on the rim, which the fox appears to be watching. Great stuff.
One of the true pleasures of photographing street art is finding some of subtle hidden pieces that are out there, but are often overlooked. 23 Magpies specialises in wildlife wheatpastes, often stuck in such ordinary places that if you blink you miss them.
This lovely work of a crow on sheet music is pasted onto a utility box, much as the chameleon was not far up the road on Dean Lane. I don’t know how long this has been here, but I only noticed it last week.
I am very fond of these pasteups, they feel like my own little treasures. If you look carefully you can see one of Andy Council’s pieces in the background.
I surprise myself that this is the first post from Jamaica Street…it won’t be the last. I spotted this tiny wheatpaste a few weeks ago. It is by the fabulous 23 Magpies from Gloucester, and is so different from most of the street art I see. I love her work, and featured a piece from Dean Lane back in September 2015.
23 Magpies currently has an exhibition of her work in Gloucester Guildhall. I think it unlikely that I shall be able to go, but I will keep an eye out for more of her works in Bristol.
This flying squirrel is certainly one of the more unusual pieces I have seen.
7/10
I pretty much walked past this small poster, but stopped in my tracks and took a closer look.
This is a really interesting wheatpaste by an artist called ’23 Magpies’. I think the artist is based in Gloucester, given that most of the works I can find are from there. My guess is that this was posted up during Upfest 2015, as it is only a short walk away from North Street. I have not been able to find out much about the artist, but some other works are shown here.
6.5/10
Natural adventures 