Tag: Art

424. Fournier Street, Shoreditch (1)

Working two days a week in London has given me the opportunity to see some incredible street art in and around Shoreditch and Camden Town. It is interesting that the assemblage and style of art is really quite different to that in Bristol. In Shoreditch, for example, there are a lot, and I mean a lot, of paste ups, many more than you would see in Bristol. In London, there are also pieces by artists who would only ever visit Bristol for Upfest, but spray all over the place in their home City. One such artist is the incredible Shok 1 whose unicorn skull in Bristol is a memorable piece.

Shok 1, Fournier Street, Shoreditch, September 2016
Shok 1, Fournier Street, Shoreditch, September 2016

Here in Shoreditch we find a humorous piece by Shok 1. The ‘two fingered salute’ from an x-ray hand is quite brilliant. His style is so unique, that even the most unobservant viewer would be able to recognise his work.

Shok 1, Fournier Street, Shoreditch, September 2016
Shok 1, Fournier Street, Shoreditch, September 2016

Finding this piece was really exciting, especially as I don’t know my way around the Shoreditch ‘hotspots’ the way I do in Bristol, so pretty much everything is an unexpected surprise. To find this was thrilling.

423. Dean Lane skate park (17)

From one of the hot spots for graffiti art in Bristol, I recently found this quick piece in chrome by Soker. Any artist that paints this wall knows that their work will be gone in a matter of days, so knowing that, one can’t help thinking that they do this because they just love doing it.

Soker, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2016
Soker, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2016

What a wonderful way to be. To use one’s creative talents and produce things because you enjoy it. Surely this is what life is about? I think that what street art gives us all is a reminder that creativity is something we all have capacity for and can all celebrate. Even people like me who spend their lives chained to a desk. Street art is liberating and can set us all free if only for a moment. Soker sets me free.

Soker, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2016
Soker, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2016

422. North Street, No. 274

This amazing Tiger is no longer there; the wall has since been painted by Jody for Upfest 2016 (more on this to come). The tiger was painted for the Upfest 2015 festival and I never really got round to posting about it.

Osch, North Street, Bristol, September 2015
Osch, North Street, Bristol, September 2015

It is funny how things come about. I didn’t really know the artist, Osch (Otto Schade), until fairly recently and now I seem to be coming across his work all over the place in London. In fact I think I mentioned in a recent post that he hadn’t done much in Bristol. I was wrong, he did this.

Osch, North Street, Bristol, September 2015
Osch, North Street, Bristol, September 2015

The tiger is captivating and uses Osch’s unraveling bandage style of artwork. This work was something of a landmark on North Street and was part of a campaign to raise awareness for the Save Wild Tigers charity.

On the downside, this is one of the most difficult Upfest walls to photograph. It is very high and in a narrow lane and the best views are from a privately accessed roof. I’m afraid I didn’t have access, so my pictures are a little distorted.

421. University Road

I have held on to this one for a very long time, because although I suspected it, I was never one hundred per cent sure that it was by JPS. Well it is…although I had to check back on his Instagram account to be absolutely certain.

JPS, University Road, Bristol, July 2015
JPS, University Road, Bristol, July 2015

The featured image is the earliest photograph, taken in August 2014, and the cleanest version that I have. The Charlie Brown character has been defaced a couple of times since, and I am fairly sure that the last time I saw it, it was pretty much ruined.

JPS, University Road, Bristol, August 2015
JPS, University Road, Bristol, August 2015

It is one of my top ten stencils and was really the first introduction I had to photographing street art. I think I love everything JPS does, and I have so much more to share.

JPS, University Road, Bristol, August 2015
JPS, University Road, Bristol, August 2015

I seem to have in my mind that I read an article about this piece and that it made reference to Banksy’s successful New York tour, hence the ‘I love NY’ tag. I wish I could recall the article, because I doubt the sharpness of my mind.

JPS, University Road, Bristol, August 2015
JPS, University Road, Bristol, August 2015

420. Dean Lane skate park (16)

Always cheerful, always bright and always a pleasure to see…Eraze seems to enjoy working the walls of Deanerz. His style is usually to have his name involved in some way with a larger picture or often the word ‘Dope’ (cool). Previous posts include this and this, both at Dean Lane.

Eraze, Dean Lane, Bristol July 2016
Eraze, Dean Lane, Bristol July 2016

I really like his fresh works and the colours he uses. His slightly raw and edgy work, for me, epitomises the Bristol graffiti art scene. I am always pleased when I find one of his pieces. This one has long-since gone and was something of a curtain raiser to Upfest.

419. North Street hoarding (5)

This little alcove, created by the side of a shop on one side and a hoarding on the other is a favourite haunt of John D’oh’s. Hardly a week goes by without a new stencil from this productive agent provocateur appearing in the immediate area.

John D'oh, North Street, Bristol, July 2016
John D’oh, North Street, Bristol, July 2016

His works are often political, and here we have a statement about homelessness which frankly is difficult to disagree with. The expression of this issue through graffiti art is surely representative of a general groundswell of opinion that things just aren’t great at the moment for those who drop under the radar of our bullish Government. Casualties…collateral damage of ‘Britain being open for business’. Shame.

418. Upfest 2016 (45)

Krishna Malla is an illustrator from Cornwall. As a frequent visitor to Cornwall, I need to seek out some of his work, as street art is hard to come by down there. His wonderful work at Upfest, of a snail (what is it about snails…see 3Dom’s recent work in Stokes Croft) contains two of his alias’ ‘Hare’ and ‘Tech Moon’.

Krishna Malla, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Krishna Malla, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

He has a nice website, in which his ‘About’ section reads as follows:

“Street artist and illustrator from Cornwall.

I like doing drawings.”

That’s pretty cool. Krishna Malla teaches at the Arts University Bournemouth, which is also pretty cool. Given that Bristol is somewhere between Cornwall and Bournemouth, it would be nice to think he might drop by and paint something new for us sometime.

417. Upfest 2016 (44)

I have been aware of The Addicted Doodler for some time, but never posted any of his work before (something that will change I assure you). What I didn’t know until I started to find out a little bit more, was just what a brilliant designer and illustrator the Bristol-based artist is as well as his more familiar street art.

The Addicted Doodler, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
The Addicted Doodler, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

This piece from Upfest is typical of his light-hearted style in which he gives human characteristics to inanimate objects in a cartoon style, sometimes quite reminiscent of Mr Potatohead. Personification? Whatever the style is called, I love the bright and cheerful look he brings to the streets of Bristol.

416. Upfest 2016 (43)

I like a bit of edge, and at This year’s upfest it was provided in small doses by the brilliant wheatpaster ‘What Have I Done Now’. I don’t know if he had a ‘feature piece’ or whether he had been invited to simply paste up his work wherever he felt like, but there was plenty of the latter on show.

What Have I Done Now, North Street, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
What Have I Done Now, North Street, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

This small Piece appeared on the corner of a large advertising hoarding, and as with so many of these things, many visitors to Upfest walked straight past it, probably focusing on finding the next art venue. A pity.

What Have I Done Now, North Street, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
What Have I Done Now, North Street, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

I liked What Have I Done Now’s biography in the Upfest programme, it reads:

‘When people ask me what kind of artist I am, I say political.As more often than not I’m responding to the machinery of control as it grinds us all up in its gears. I’m trying to remind folk we can simply refuse to stop applying the grease.‘

Good words, and great art work. More to come.

415. Upfest 2016 (42)

There were several highly memorable pieces at Upfest this year, and this photorealistic colour negative by Takerone was in my view one of the best. Takerone, who comes from Hungary, tries to make his art photo real, but makes an effort to retain a natural look.

Takerone, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Takerone, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

If, like me, you are wondering what the positive image looks like, then definitely take a look at Takerone’s Facebook page which has a brilliant film clip with positive and negative versions of his work side by side. Just a great idea and incredible execution. I have tried to cut an image from his video below:

Takerone, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Takerone, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016