5959. Cumberland Basin

Nina Raines, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, April 2024
Nina Raines, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, April 2024

A piece by Nina Raines can only mean one thing, and that is a Bristol Mural Collective paint jam. There were several excellent pieces painted by artists of Bristol, unfortunately most unsigned, during the paint jam, and this one stood out. Nina Raines paints scenery for productions as a profession, and her skills have certainly come to the fore in this small piece.

Nina Raines, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, April 2024
Nina Raines, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, April 2024

One of the things I like about artists swapping a day in the studio for painting public walls is that they have a very different take from regular street/graffiti artists, not having any rules or conventions to follow, and often their work is incredibly creative. This piece is simple… a pair of arches, one with a cloudy scene and the other with something a little bit more cosmic, a nighttime sky, perhaps. I will try to post some other pieces from the paint jam, because the work of the Bristol Mural Collective definitely has loads of appeal.

5958. Dean Lane skate park (708)

Awkward, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2024
Awkward, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2024

Awkward tends to drop his pieces in twos and threes, which is something he can easily do because his mega-tag characters are generally quite small. On this occasion he painted one on the door at the bottom right-hand end of Dean Lane and the other on the wall of the swimming pool, about 50 meters apart.

Awkward, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2024
Awkward, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2024

This door is a candidate for the One Wall, Many Faces series of posts which I will get on to when I have a bit of spare time (thumbs diary, that’ll be 2029 then). Awkward has created a vision in yellow, with vibrant blue eyes and speech bubble set on a gorgeous black and red background. The characters he paints are a little bit on the eccentric, some might say, weird side, but they are distinctive and compelling.

Awkward, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2024
Awkward, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2024

The character on the swimming pool wall uses the same three colours which are rotated, so the face is blue, the eyes and background yellow and the speech bubbles red. The writing in the speech bubbles is usually a signature, AWK WARD split over two lines, and in this piece he has included a year date ’24’. It is always a great bonus to find his work.

5957. Purdown (70)

 

Jest Soubriquet, Purdown, Bristol, March 2024
Jest Soubriquet, Purdown, Bristol, March 2024

When visiting artists come to Bristol, they will often paint more than one piece, and in the case of some, such as Logoe, they might paint several over a single weekend. I think that this is one of two pieces painted by Jest Soubriquet earlier this year.

Jest Soubriquet, Purdown, Bristol, March 2024
Jest Soubriquet, Purdown, Bristol, March 2024

The portrait piece is set on a Palestinian flag, thus making it a relevant contemporary addition to the complicated and troubled commentary on the conflict between the Israeli government and Hamas. The portrait is cleverly painted in a patchwork of colours that shouldn’t really work, but somehow do. This is a wonderful and highly distinctive piece from an artist who will always be welcome in Bristol.

5956. M32 roundabout J3 (565)

Bloem, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2024
Bloem, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2024

There is so much to like about Bloem’s work at the moment, and more than that, she is a really lovely person and talented artist and jewellery craftswomen. Her pieces are becoming more confident with each trip out, and she is spreading her wings, improving all the time.

Bloem, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2024
Bloem, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2024

This piece on the roundabout contains a few themes that she specialises in, for example the hand with sharp nails and the old-style brick mobile phone, with keypad. Springing from the phone display is a tangled growth of flowers, complete with personalities. The whole piece is set on a glorious red backdrop softened with a few patterns. This is truly stunning work from Bloem.

Fledgling

.

Bitter-sweet feeling

the girl flies out to Thailand

months away from home

.

by Scooj

5955. Cumberland Basin

Marckinetic and Kid Krishna, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, April 2024
Marckinetic and Kid Krishna, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, April 2024

Two things to notice immediately about this wonderful collaboration from Marckinetic and Kid Krishna. The first is the diabolical weather – it feels like it has been raining all winter, and is something of a miracle that artists have been painting in quite the frequency that they have and the second is the bright yellow background drawing attention to the pieces.

Marckinetic, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, April 2024
Marckinetic, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, April 2024

On the left, Marckinetic has painted one of his FFS pieces in his unusual writing style using elongated straight-lined squares and rectangles to form his letters. The letter fill has a clever marbelled effect, and the very deep black drop shadow is filled with an inky night sky with yellow stars and suns. Lovely and original work from Marckinetic

Kid Krishna, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, April 2024
Kid Krishna, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, April 2024

To the right is a rather more densely packed array of shapes and forms making out the letters CRIE. There is loads of colour and activity in the letters, which at times is almost overwhelming, and this is sometimes what you get with his work. Other times he will paint something so simple, he has it all in his armoury. There are lots of FFS tags all over the piece and a little “Four Five Six” to help us along with one of the acronyms for FFS.

5954. Dean Lane skate park (707)

Biers, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2024
Biers, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2024

Here we have yet another classy piece from Biers, who is enjoying an extended period of inspiration and productivity, he really is turning out some banging graffiti writing/character combinations, and challenging my knowledge of popular cartoon culture from the last few decades (which is, I’m afraid rather rudimentary).

Biers, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2024
Biers, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2024

The colours and drippy fills in the WD40 are fantastic, and all very tidily finished. The ‘0’ I am guessing is an Easter egg, and the character emerging from it is Jesus, so I have to assume that the piece was painted over, or close to, the Easter weekend. Such is his purple patch these days, that I have several of his pieces that are becoming ‘trapped’ in my archive, which I really ought to do something about.

5953. Dean Lane skate park (706)

Laic217, Zake and Chill, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2024
Laic217, Zake and Chill, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2024

This is an unusual collaboration from the PWA crew notable by the absence of either Face 1st or Soap, the driving forces behind the crew for some years. Not that the absence diminishes in any way this curious collection of character pieces from Laic217, Zake and Chill.

Laic217, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2024
Laic217, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2024

On the left is something of a trippy throwback from Laic217, with one of his face distortion pieces that are both admirable and disturbing in equal measure. A welcome return of the bucket hat badged with a smiley face sits on top of a stretched out portrait, made up of three faces. I suspect this party animal is enjoying some hallucinations in this captured moment. Weird and wonderful stuff from Laic217.

Zake, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2024
Zake, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2024

The middle section of the collaboration is occupied by another slightly weird character piece from Zake this time. A buxom silver-haired lady is pictured in front of a rural house, with a porch and smoking chimney. I have no idea what the story is here, but I think that Zake is enjoying pushing boundaries.

Chill, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2024
Chill, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2024

Rounding off the collaboration is a charming portrait of what looks like a Mid-West farmer from the early 20th century with a pitchfork in hand and some chickens. The piece is absolutely brilliant, and all the more admirable for being painted in its entirety in greyscale. I have tried to look for a theme that binds the three pieces but cannot find one. Perhaps the theme is having fun painting together.

Laic217, Zake and Chill, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2024
Laic217, Zake and Chill, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2024

5952. M32 roundabout J3 (564)

 

Klashwhensober, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2024
Klashwhensober, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2024

There is a lot of truth and honesty about Klashwhensober’s work. Sometimes his work can be a little scruffy and rushed, and sometimes it can be glorious, clean tidy and creative. This piece falls into the latter category, and s a general observation, his trajectory is upward and he is producing quite a lot of classy pieces at the moment.

Klashwhensober, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2024
Klashwhensober, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2024

The black letters on a blue background, spelling SOBER, are nicely done and complemented with a fine blue drop-shadow and tidy accents and starbursts. The inclusion of a character in the middle of the piece definitely improves the overall look and balances out the piece well. Great work from a still-productive Klashwhensober.

Resumption

.

It just couldn’t last

a warm weekend taste of spring

yields to wind and rain

.

by Scooj