Mr Penfold is first and foremost a designer, whose work is largely abstract and uses colours and shapes that remind me of a cross between the 1980s and art deco. Clean crisp lines and floating objects.
His graffiti/street art work is very different to anything else found in Bristol and instantly recognisable. Whilst I like to see his pieces appearing around the city, his style does not pull me in as much as some of the other artists in Bristol.
A stunning piece by Decay for the ‘paint Jam’ on the 8 April, organised by Georgie and advertised at very short notice through social media. This is a favourite wall for Decay, and he has had several other pieces here before.
I was fortunate enough to be there while he was just finishing off the piece. I love the way the young boy is looking back at his work. So very few people stop to take a look (such a British behaviour) perhaps for fear of interrupting the artist, or worse still striking up a conversation.
All the very best features of a Decay piece are here: the abstract form of concentric rays emanating from a central face. The piece is directly adjacent to a large pink work I featured by Decay not so very long ago.
He is a busy man, and shortly after completing this piece he drifted over to Wilder street to do a piece on the nicely prepped walls…to follow in a little while.
This is a subtle piece that I photographed in August 2016, and so I am guessing must have been part of Upfest 2016. It is by Lost Monkeys who produced this wonderful tiger at the same time. I hadn’t been aware that he did two pieces for Upfest.
I love the use of colour in what appears to be a black and white piece, and it has the appearance of having been drawn with charcoal…beautifully done. I couldn’t get a great shot of it, because it was stuck behind a parked car when I saw it.
There is a story going on here, but I am not too sure what. The figures and lines remind me a little of Bristol’s own Shab. This is a fabulous understated piece by a very accomplished artist.
Sometimes collaborations really work well, and this beauty between Decay and John D’oh is quite a beauty. Half way along North Street, I first saw it during Upfest (it was a weekend and the shutters were down) although I don’t think it was sprayed for the festival.
It is a striking shutter piece and John D’oh’s stencil is rather special. I am not sure who it is of, but it works so well with the colours favoured by Decay. For me this is a special Bristol piece to be treasured.
It is always great to see a new Tom Miller piece, and this is a wall he has favoured in the past. I can’t keep up with this particular wall, and have some pieces that have never made it to the blog. Maybe if I was retired…
This work has all the hallmarks of a Miller piece; body parts bursting with a suffusion of colour and ‘imaginite’ – the way thoughts might look if they could be painted. There is a little story going on here, chasing after love perhaps. I would like to think it is a happy picture and not a morose or sad one. I really am a big fan of Tom Miller’s work.
Another large wall, this time a little out of the way on Dean Lane. This is one of the most awkward walls to photograph, let alone spray, but Inkie has done a commanding job of this one.
The large piece is on the side of the South Bank Club and features a trademark Inkie portrait. The whole thing is a Bristol as Bristol can be, with a rather nice reference to the Clifton Suspension Bridge on the left hand side.
I think the character at the top of the piece is a fairly effeminate looking Isambard Kindom Brunel.
The character at the bottom of the piece might be a self portrait, but I am not sure really. The whole thing is really impressive, and I was fortunate enough to catch up with Inkie while he was just finishing off the job. Inkie and Bristol are utterly interlinked, and we are lucky to have him around.
The observant will notice an Angus piece just to the bottom left of the picture.
I think I have said it before, but one of the great pleasures of Upfest is to see the work of artists from all over the world and from all kinds of disciplines descend on our little patch of South Bristol. One such artist, ‘Climber’ or Lee Nowell-Wilson from Baltimore left us with this beautiful portrait of a young child.
Climber graduated with a Batchelors in painting in 2011. According to her Upfest bio, she now works at bringing those traditional skills to the streets. With creating relationships as the main objective, she strives after levels of vulnerability within her work to encounter people in their everyday. She certainly achieves her objective with this piece.
I have been hanging on to these pictures for a long time now. They are a set of works that were drawn and pasted up by Jonesy for the Human Nature project in Leonard Lane in July 2015. These are harrowing drawings that highlight some of the perils threatening our environment and wildlife. There is a tortured feeling to these pictures.
Jonesy is probably better known for his sculptures, and I thoroughly recommend taking a look at some of his work on this Inspiring City website.
Each of these images is nightmarish and foreboding. Knowing what we know now about Trump and his intentions these warnings have even more potency about them.
Leonard Lane has become a bit tatty since the Human Nature project and it could really do with a Human Nature II project – nature fights back. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Once in a while, you feel that you might be witnessing something rather special, and so it is with the art of Tom Miller. I would be the first to concede that his surrealist style isn’t to everyone’s taste, but what he has to offer, both on canvass and on walls, is very different, refreshing, challenging, intelligent, busy and bright. I think and hope he will go a long way.
He was busy painting this new wall on New Year’s Eve and into New Year. Dedication to his craft.
I am not entirely sure what the piece is depicting, but it looks a little like Buddha with a whole load of things going on around him and a rather nice little hut ion his head for a hat. Miller’s pieces are always bursting with energy and weirdness. Lots of body parts and face parts adorn his subjects. There is meaning to all of this I’m sure, but it is probably deeply rooted in the artist’s sub-conscious.
A wonderful new landmark on the Bristol street art trail, slightly off the beaten track, but worth the walk.
There are rewards to be had when making the effort to walk just that little bit further, or turn down a street you’ve not been down before. My reward recently for doing this was to come across this beautiful mural on the front of a small terraced house in Montpelier.
Natural adventures 