.
Smoke from a bonfire
hangs over a valley copse
breezeless dispersal
.
by Scooj
Tag: Bristol
2560. M32 roundabout J3 (176)
A Halloween double bill from the fabulous Biers from a week or two back. I got lucky enough to catch Biers while he was still painting the piece on the right featuring a cartoon Jason Voorhees from ‘Friday the 13th’.
Biers gave no indication that he was going to paint a second character piece (is it from the ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’?) but paint one he did to create this double set. He seems to be enjoying the letters OYEAH at the moment although he didn’t rule out writing Biers again in the future.
Biers did explain to me the colour choices in his letters and that they were very deliberately chosen from the colours used in a game or something. If I am honest he lost me a bit on the story. I knew I should have written it down at the time. my memory is like a sieve at the moment.
Anyhow this is a pleasurable Halloween romp and a fine pair from Biers. Hats off!
2559. Upper York Street (17)
Sled One is hitting a bit of a purple patch just at the moment, and his Instagram feed is overflowing with recent pieces from all over the country. This is a reasonably recent collaboration with Ments and is located on a wall that both artists are familiar with.
Whether it is graffiti writing or character pieces, Sled One simply knocks it out of the park every time, and his writing in particular seems to embrace so many different styles and techniques. Although you can pretty much always identify the work as his, he has a very broad range of letter shapes and styles and no two pieces are remotely the same, unlike some artists who use the same essential building blocks for every piece. A master at the top of his game.
Half time
Taking a breather
TV football ironing
composing haiku.
by Scooj
2557. Wilder Street (37)
I can’t think of a time when Sled One hasn’t been on fire. His work is always of such an exceptionally high standard and not only is it technically brilliant, but he combines that excellence with a fertile imagination and interesting concepts.
This piece on the ‘Where the Wall’ curated area is a beautiful (belated) birthday work for his frequent painting buddy Smak. It gives me a warm feeling to know that these guys pay tribute to each other in this kind of way and reassures me that the street art community is built on friendship and decency. The piece itself is a creative spelling of SMAK and is painted with a fabulous colour palette underpinned by a deep red and a scarlet. What a nice birthday present to get.
P.S. it is my birthday in January… any chance…?
Drowsy
It is the weather
that makes me soporific
so I’d like to think
by Scooj
2556. Moon Street (77)
This is one of a great many rabbits by Nevergiveup that I have in my archive of Bristol street art, and I will be releasing them slowly as and when slots appear or the inclination takes me. This particular one in Moon Street goes back to May 2018.
As I recall this furry fellow stayed put for quite a while, but like so many of his colleagues eventually disappeared. I noticed that Bristol City Council have been on an anti-rabbit patrol lately and buffed out a whole bunch of them from utility boxes in the Cumberland Basin area (boo). Now that Nevergiveup has left town I expect the cull to gather pace.
2555. The Bearpit (184)
As a street art hunter (a rather geeky description that I am not very fond of – archivist might be better) it is always worth taking pictures of everything you see, even if you don’t know the artist – you never know, you might be able to find out more later. And so it is with what is probably the first piece I saw by Conrico back in April 2018.
You can tell this is an old piece, because it is from The Bearpit, which has been ‘hermetically sealed’ since the spring this year. The picture is of a coiled snake and a hat without a body – presumably the owner of the hat – has been consumed or crushed by the constrictor, with only his spray cans and hat surviving the ordeal. The patterns on the snake are brilliantly done and this piece was an early indication of the talent that has since been unleashed on the streets of Bristol this year.
Board games
Two wicker baskets
filled with childhood adventures
it’s hard to let go.
by Scooj
2554. Midland Road
Obvs this is a piece by Mr Penfold and what a grand piece it is too. This large design that presents five bold patterns separated by jaggedy white lines is typical of his his more recent work. I say more recent, but I should add that this picture was taken in x 2018.
When writing this post, I used StreetView to remind myself of the street name, and was surprised to find that this piece has grown considerably in size and now occupies the facade of the building to the right as well. Watch this space for an update… one day.
The blue plaque, on what is now the ‘To The Moon’ bar and cafe, is a memorial to John Wright or ‘John the Caff’ as he was known locally. His obituary in The Guardian from July 2009 can be found here.
Natural adventures 