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Tiniest fledglings
no tail feathers to speak of
ground-hugging test flights.
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by Scooj
Tag: bird
4521. Upfest 2022 (18)
One of Bristol’s biggest losses (in street art terms) in recent years was the departure of Aspire, who took up residence in the old smoke, making the opposite decision to the one I made many years ago. I definitely know where I’d rather live, and it is not in London. On the upside, Aspire does come to visit Bristol from time to time, and he always seems to dazzle us during Upfest.
Aspire specialises in creating the most beautiful pictures of birds and in this Upfest piece he has perfectly captured my favourite British bird, the Goldfinch. His work is never complete without his trademark pixelation, and it is interesting to see from this work in progress, that he adds the pixels at the end of the painting process.
I love this piece, it feels very uncluttered, and the neutral skyline background serves to lift the goldfinch out from the boards. If you are interested in seeing more of Aspire’s work, I recommend you take a little look at a gallery I compiled in 2018, and updated today.
I leave you with three Haiku poems I wrote about goldfinches:
Charm
Goldfinches return
colours exaggerated
in bright winter sun
Lucky Charm
One…two…five…seven…
nine goldfinches together
in our silver birch.
Haiku 7
Vibrant tricolor
and flanking golden flashes
majestic goldfinch
Wren
.
Across the decking
like a bullet, a fledgling
It’s maiden voyage
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by Scooj
4403. Greenbank (40)
Billy continues to utterly delight with her uncomplicated storytelling pieces. Her work is so accessible and has a deep connection with the viewer, and I imagine especially so with younger audiences. There is nothing pretentious or conceited about her work, it is full of fun and commentary that is pleasing to the eye and great for lifting the spirit.
I particularly like this piece, I mean what’s not to like about dogs, birds, hats, flowers, a pencil and a lava lamp. I think that the grey background works really well with the overall presentation and the colour scheme is superb. A feast for the eyes and a triumph for Billy – one of my favourite pieces of hers so far.
If you build it…
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Bird feeder installed
unseen, ignored for four days
and now the birds come
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by Scooj
4314. Dean Lane skate park (474)
This was something of a red-letter day for me, turning up at Dean Lane to find Mudra painting alongside Kosc and Flava136 (who has now changed his moniker to Saor). Unfortunately, Flava136’s piece had been painted over by the time I returned to get pictures of the completed works, but Mudra and Kosc’s were intact.
Mudra is an artist who, although he has only been painting in Bristol for a couple of years, has firmly established himself in the city and is definitely going from strength to strength. With each of his pieces, his confidence and dynamism grows, and I am thoroughly enjoying the ride.
This is a curious piece that, for once, doesn’t spell out Mudra, but instead incorporates the letters NTS, a crew name (I don’t yet know what it stands for). There is a typically stylised Mudra face with a giveaway coloured nose and for some utterly unknown reason a bird perching at a bird box. Great to see and great fun.
4263. Dean Lane skate park (465)
Well, blow me down with a feather. This lovely piece of writing from Xenz came as a complete unannounced surprise in Dean Lane, and is all the better for it. Finding a street art piece that you don’t know is there is like a palaeontologist uncovering a fossil never seen before, or something like that at least.
The piece spells out XENZ in a rock-like appearance with vines draped above and on the letters. The highlight, as is often the case with Xenz’s work, is the careful placement of little birds perching on the vines. Although we don’t get to see Xenz very frequently in Bristol, it is always noteworthy when he paints here. Fine work.
Round robin
.
Fluffy feather ball
partnered up and preparing
there’s work to be done
.
by Scooj
4084. M32 roundabout J3 (363)
Another fine piece that has been in The Natural Adventures ‘departure lounge’ for an eternity is this lovely bird by Aspire, reminding us of what we have missed since he moved to London a few years back.
Painted as part of a paint jam, you will notice a Kid Crayon character just to the right… what heady days those were. Pieces would stay intact for much longer back then. These days if you snooze you lose. I have had trouble identifying the blue and white bird, which troubles me as I consider myself quite good at identifying wildlife. It is beautifully painted with Aspire’s signature pixelated boxes. It was a sad day indeed, when he left Bristol.
Great spotted woodpecker
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Spotted visitor
in the Paulowonia tree
a sight for sore eyes.
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by Scooj
Natural adventures 