.
You know who you are
first day of a new chapter
happy day big man
.
by Scooj
for PH
.
You know who you are
first day of a new chapter
happy day big man
.
by Scooj
for PH

It is always, always a great pleasure to welcome Wispa to Bristol, and finding her pieces (almost always an unannounced surprise) is such sweet joy. This recent piece was painted to celebrate Pekoe’s birthday, hence the shout out top left.

Wispa’s work is always immaculately turned out, and the clever fills in this piece read across from letter to letter. Simply a wonderful piece.

Every now and again, something very special appears on the walls of Bristol, without warning or fanfare, and when you find them they blow your socks off. This collaboration between Bristol artist Kosc and Tunbridge Wells-based artist Humor is one such collaboration.

The collaboration, I gather, celebrates the birthday of actor Jenna Ortega, who I must admit is a little bit off my radar, although I faintly recognise her from her Wednesday Addams character, and the 2021 film The Fallout looks like it might be worth watching. She clearly has a large fan base, which I assume would include Kosc and Humor. Kosc has painted a gorgeous piece of graffiti writing which picks up the colours used for the birthday candles.

I haven’t come across Humor’s work before, but this photorealistic portrait of Jenna Ortega is quite stunning, and something we don’t see nearly enough of in Bristol, outside of festivals or commissions.

On the day I originally photographed this collaboration, there was quite a lot of glare on the wall, it can be a difficult wall to photograph, because it gets impacted by shadows and sunlight at all times of the day. I did return on a duller day, and think I got a slightly better picture with less glare (and a few more autumn leaves on the ground). Stunning work, especially when you consider it is a greyscale portrait. I would love to think that this might be the first of many visits to Bristol by Humor, but I won’t be holding my breath.

This wall in Dean Lane has taken a lot of paint recently, and anything painted here hasn’t lasted more than a few days, and so it was for this wonderful piece of anamorphic graffiti writing by Lokey. The piece was part of the celebratory paint jam marking Andy Council’s birthday (note the AC50), and encouraged by Paul H, we visited the spot the day after the works were finished, which was just as well given that several of them didn’t last long.

Recently, Lokey has been taking his daughter with him to paint (which, incidentally I think is brilliant), but on this occasion it was just him, so he was able to put maximum effort and concentration. I think that this is probably the best piece I have seen from Lokey for a while… so full of precision and a perfect teaser for the eyes. Those letters really pop. Wonderful stuff.

It must be nice (Hamilton earworm alert), to have talented friends who honour your birthday with a celebratory paint jam. On this occasion it was Andy Council’s special 50th birthday and he was joined by several artist friends in Dean Lane.

This was his own birthday piece which is a wonderful starling painted in his inimitable style. The stylised bird exaggerates the superb iridescent colours that starlings have which you can only really see when you get up close. This is a great piece, on a slightly awkward section of wall, but Andy Council has nailed it. Happy belated birthday.
.
Eleventh of Jan
a day I will celebrate
with my family
.
by Scooj

Happy New Year. I am thrilled to start the year with this magnificent portrait piece that Pekoe painted during an RBF paint jam organised to celebrate her birthday. I can only say that she smashed it with this outstanding portrait painted in her own unique style.

As with so many of Pekoe’s portraits there are three key elements that combine so well in her work, and they are the face, the hair and the decoration. In this piece, the face is beautiful, with eyes glancing left, a delicate nose, a mouth with gold markings and an ear with plenty of piercings. The hair is brilliant, tied up in bunches and the decoration in gold surrounds the portrait with leaves and peace symbols. A truly wonderful piece from Pekoe.

I would say that we haven’t seen nearly enough of Stivs’ work in the latter half of this year, so it was particularly gratifying to find this piece on the M32 roundabout, and even though it didn’t last very long, it was noticed.

The calligraffiti writing was painted as a birthday piece for his brother Kelvin, and I can’t really think of a better present than a tribute piece of artwork like this, I know I’d be made up by such a gesture. The beautifully proportioned letters are given an extra lift from the wall by the clever use of the green drop shadow, which itself has a black border. Care and attention was given to the piece, as demonstrated by the sand coloured background and subtle wisps of paint around the letters. Great work from Stivs.

If you want to see any work by DJ Perks, then a trip to L Dub is an absolute must. There must be at least half a dozen of his pieces up there at any one time, and some in the darker reaches of the tunnel have been there for a very considerable time. I met DJ Perks the day I took this photograph, and he had been having a birthday paint alongside his friend Donz. I was to go on and bump into DJ Perks for the next two days, which just doesn’t happen.

This as tidy a piece as you are likely to see anywhere. It pops out from the wall, thanks to some superb but subtle white highlights, and the blue shading around the letter ‘R’ is outstanding. The fills are beautifully painted and the whole thing is so tight it might burst. DJ Perks must be the most modest graffiti writer in Bristol, but he is fast becoming one of the best.

A couple of weeks back it was Werm’s birthday, and there was a fabulous turnout of friends and LRS crew to celebrate with a large paint jam. Werm, as usual, turned out an exceptional piece to mark the occasion, in the blue and pink theme colours.

Werm is continuing with his current form of writing a small WERM at the centre of the piece with elaborate extensions to the letters creating a complex wildstyle burst of terminal arrows. His work is always beautifully designed and turned out, and has come on such a long way since his early character pieces under his Eman moniker. Happy belated birthday.