Peel back the layers.
We are the sum of our parts
there is beauty here.
by Scooj
Peel back the layers.
We are the sum of our parts
there is beauty here.
by Scooj
The once highly productive Laic217 seems to have taken his foot off the gas a little recently, which has allowed me a bit of a breather. Maybe he has a new job or maybe he has been away, either way it is good to see him hitting the streets again. This is a reasonably recent piece on the M32 roundabout in which he reverts to his format of writing his name and incorporating a character.

This is a nicely sprayed piece, and shows just how far this artist has come since some of his work I posted about eighteen months or so ago. The colour selection works well with the rather ghoulish subject matter.

On my way to work this morning I saw another brand new piece, so keep your eyes peeled for this in the coming days.
I am really enjoying the direction that Lemak is taking his work in at the moment, and even better, he is pasting up his fragmented stencils in The Bearpit. I am not sure exactly how he produces these works, but I think they start with stencil work followed by a printing process before finally being pasted up.

This particular magnificent piece can be found on one of the staircases leading down into The Bearpit from the northern side. It is a sophisticated portrait of a girl wearing a native North American headdress, part in sepia and part in colour. The segments are arranged on the wall, and our brain fills in the gaps so that we see the full piece when we look at it.

I cannot really express how much I like this piece and the original art Lemak is turning out at the moment. Well worth a trip to The Bearpit.
The light rays cascading across this piece catch me out every time I look at it…they feel real. This is a lovely small piece by Emily Donald, an artist based in Newquay, Cornwall – the coolest county in England. She works with inks and creates wonderful layered pictures, usually incorporating birds and flowers. You can see more of her artwork on this website.

In this piece two hummingbirds are busy collecting nectar from beautiful flowers. The whole work has a feeling of tranquility and peace, but it is the light rays that set the whole thing off for me. A wonderful work. I hope we get to see her again next year.
It is unfortunate that sometimes the photographs I take of great works simply don’t do them justice, this is one such example. This is a brilliant portrait by the London-based artist Ant Carver, who has used amazing colour shadings to create a rich and textured appearance on the skin of the subject. It is a really clever technique that adds real depth to the piece

By the time I got to photograph this great work, the sun was in completely the wrong place and it looks cold and a bit drab, which it most cerrtainly wasn’t. Ant Carver is an artist whose work chimes for me and I would have liked to have spent a moment or two to chat with him, but he looked a bit busy with finishing off, so I left him to it. Maybe next time.
One of the more sober and less ‘brash’ pieces at Ashton Gate was this beautiful work by Joan Aguiló. There is a fine story going on in this piece, which was laid out in two distinct halves, the right hand side of which is shown in the image below.

It looks like the story being told is one of travel, farewells, insecurity. It feels sad to me. The only thing that reads across the two halves are the flowers being cast by the lady on the left. Is it a story of childhood? Is it a story of immigration? – it is all a bit of a mystery really. It has a really serene feel to it and is quite different to many of the pieces that surounded it.

Joan Aguiló lives in Mallorca and uses public space to create his work predominantly in the city of Palma. This is a really interesting piece that might have been overlooked by some. Thoughtful.
RTC is a stencil artist who is based in Cheltenham, so not a million miles away from Bristol…in street art terms, he is pretty much a local. This is a fine multi-layered stencil featuring Guardians of the Galaxy characters Groot and Rocket Raccoon. It is a clever technical piece from this self-taught artist…there is hope for uas all.

This piece has a photorealistic appearance which is amll the more remarkable for being a stencil. I have not seen any of RTC’s wortk before, but will be looking out for him in the future.
I don’t want a dog;
overruled by family,
now I’m in a grump
along with our cat Ninja
and George the chameleon.
by Scooj
I never got to see this remarkable portrait in its final form, which was the case with several pieces sited at Ashton Gate this year. Having said that, I don’t think it changed a great deal from the featured image above, judging from pictures I have seen of it. It is by the excellent Naskool who produced another amazing piece at Upfest 2016.

It may be my general ignorance, but I am not sure who the portrait is of…it might not be of anyone in particular. Any ideas?

Naskool has an extraordinary touch for photorealistic work and it is interesting to see how he completes the subject first and then backfills the surround afterwards. All part of the fun of watching these pieces unfold over a few days. This was really one of the great pieces of the festival this year.
Can it really be
thirteen years? Adolescence,
the next stage in life.
by Scooj