This sweetest of songs
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa
and I in duet
by Scooj
Tag: Bristol
2530. Lower Approach Road (7)
This is one of two new murals near the entrance of Temple Meads station that were commissioned to mark World Mental Health Day and the associated football campaign #onyourside. Beautifully painted by Kin Dose (Nick Harvey) this piece depicts a Bristol Rovers player (one of two football league teams in Bristol) and is a rather unusual commission which Kin Dose has executed brilliantly.
Obviously there was some working together with (spoiler alert) Jody, who painted the other mural, because they both have a similar look and feel about them. What this demonstrates is the artist’s extraordinary talent for working to a brief and turning out something exceptional. We are lucky to have Kin Dose decorating our streets which he has done with such vigour over the past year or two.
2529. St Werburghs tunnel (105)
At the farm end of St Werburghs tunnel is this magnificent comic-strip piece by Conrico. I was lucky enough to meet Conrico last week while he was just putting some finishing touches on a different work on the M32 cycle path. I stopped for a chat and do you know what, a nicer bloke you couldn’t hope to meet. He stopped what he was doing and we chewed the fat for quite a while, during the course of our conversation he gave me a ‘banana cap’ (a type of cap that you fix to the top of a spray can that regulates the pressure and spread of the paint) which he said might help me with my thinner lines. It was very kind of him and greatly appreciated.
I think the thing I like most about Conrico’s work is that each pecture tells a pretty elaborate story, and trying to work out what that story is is all part of the fun. I don’t know enough about anything to explain what might be happening here, but it is beautifully illustrated and the little details simply make the piece. His style is quite different from many of the character artists in Bristol, and I for one love it.
Rain stopped play
Neither I nor dog
have any inclination
to take a wet walk
by Scooj
2528. Dean Lane skate park (257)
Consistently out there and consistently upbeat Mr Draws continues to create his inspiring and light-hearted pieces wherever he can find space. I have just updated his gallery on Natural Adventures, and he really has been very busy over the last three years.
Mr Draws is quite unlike any of the other writers in Bristol and I would say that his style and fills are slightly unconventional. His lettering is reasonably straightforward, but the way he decorates his pieces is what brings them alive. In this piece I rather like the subtle shadow he has sprayed just to the left of the ‘D’ to lift it out from the wall a little. Nice technique.
2527. Dean Lane skate park (256)
There haven’t been nearly enough pieces by Hire in my view in the last twelve months or so. I like his unusual Gothic, almost brutal writing style that conjours up images of hardened steel weapons of the middle ages, or at least that’s what I see.
On the curved wall of Dean Lane, this one I am guessing spells out HIRE, but I have to confess that I can’t see it, so it might say something else. Hoping for more from this fabulous writer and now that Nevergiveup has moved to Bath, we will need his menacing rabbits more thasn ever to keep us going.
Hypocrisy
To not tolerate
all forms of intolerance
is intolerant
by Scooj
* I hear it all the time from politicians and pundits in the media – ‘intolerance will not be tolerated’. I know it is dependent on what is being talked about, but conceptually it is challenging to say such things.
2526. North Street
With a name like Zoe Power, you are never going to be easily forgotten. Marry that up with great talent and you get stunning memorable pieces like this one in North Street. Painted above Zara’s Chocolates in North Street, next door to the Upfest shop and Gemma Compton’s outstanding mural, this piece was created as part of Upfest’s Summer Editions and for me is one of the highlights.
I met Zoe Power at the Cheltenham Paint Festival, and I fear I may have bored her rigid, but she was polite and humoured me and my barrage of questions and natterings. I am an enormous fan of her work and love this Matisse-inspired mural (he is one of my all time favourite artists). There is a lot to like here, the female figures symmetrically placed around the windows of the building holding up symbols of the solar system, set on a plant-patterned background. I love, love, love it. I want to see a lot more of her stuff.
2525. L Dub (5)
It takes the fertile imagination and immense skill of an artist like Sled One to re-imagine a mermaid the wrong way round. I don’t think that too many sailors would fall in love with this beast.
The underpass at Lawrence Weston (L Dub) has a rather different and more select band of regular artists than those we are used to in town, for example, Sled One, Smak, DJ Perks, Dun Some, DFC and a selection of DBK bombers seem particularly fond of the old place.
When I finally get round to doing my first piece in public, I think it will be here because it is out of the way and quiet. Probably not until the Spring though. In the mean time it is probably just best to enjoy brilliant work like this from the masters.
Dawn haze
.
Sodium street lights
tormented and diffracted
Autumn fog in town
.
by Scooj
Natural adventures 