It has been enjoyable to watch as Astrea becomes more bold with her artwork and the spots she is choosing to post. She seems to be settling on a style that is all her own and quite Gothic in its appearance.
Using the colours red, black and white, which contrast superbly (a combination much used by Decay in his early days), she has created an attractive abstract design. Tucked away on the edge of a long hoarding, I would expect this piece to be around for a while. Great progression.
Many artists in Bristol seem to have temporarily slowed or perhaps disappeared altogether, such as Fiver, Mudra, Kosc, Laic217, to name just a few, but hot on their heels are new artists who are emerging or establishing themselves as part of the mainstream, including Bloem, Sub, Bean, Lis and the featured artist of this post Astrea.
Astrea, or Astra as she signs herself these days is experimenting with both writing and characters, and has in the past played with abstract designs too. It feels like she is settling on some preferred colour combinations, in particular red and black. For an artist who is still developing her street technique, this is an accomplished piece of writing with lots of common design ideas incorporated. Interestingly, she hasn’t painted a border line, instead opting for a white outline interrupted with dots. I think borders are really tricky until you get your can control perfected. Nice to see Astrea pushing her boundaries.
Because I have been following and writing about Bristol street art for ten years, I have been able to watch so many artists start their adventures and develop their skills over time, and it gives me immense pleasure to witness this. One such artist is Astra, hi first come into my vision last year, when she painted a garage shutter during a mini paint festival in Muriel alleyway.
This combination piece contains a dominant female character with a gun pointing out and the letters ASTRA in a bubble graffiti style. This is an interesting development phase and it is great to see her growing in confidence. I look forward to seeing more of her work this year.
Natural adventures 