I think I saw my first piece by Dice 67 in almost this exact spot in the north tunnel of The Bearpit a couple of years back. His stencil work is really first class and his subject matter always intriguing.
I believe the girl featured in this piece is his daughter, who often appears in his works. I love his stencil work, the layers all come together so seamlessly. The attitude of this piece is fantastic. I hope he comes back to Upfest this year, he will be most welcome.
It took me a little while to photograph this fine pheasant by Andy Council, but at last I bagged it. This is the third of his birds that he has recently completed in the North Street area, the others being a turkey and a cockerel, both covered previously on this blog.
This pheasant will most likely disappear in July when Upfest comes to town, as this is a very desirable wall. The pheasant is a really great pierce of work by Andy Council with the usual architectural superstructure and fantastic colours. This is a lovely piece. The other recent birds are shown below:
Well it seems that lightening does strike twice after all. Inkie has returned to exactly the same wall he sprayed a couple of weeks back, leaving another one of his trademark pieces.
This time the base colours are green pink and black. You can just about see the outline of his previous piece underneath this one. He really is a master of his craft.
A straight forward burner in great colours by Tuco, a Bristol street artist who is perhaps less prolific than some of the others around. He has gone to some effort for this piece of work, rolling the background in black before moving onto his letters.
This is a beautifully sprayed piece with really crisp lines and lovely filling and shapes. This is the first piece of his that I have seen since his Upfest 2016 piece.
For a long while now, there have been hoardings outside the Metropolis in Stokes Croft, but this is the first piece I have seen there, since they were erected, worthy of photographing.
I saw the piece being sprayed when I drove past it, but had to return with a camera. What I didn’t know at the time is that it was the elusive Face F1st at work. So now I have seen him, and I know he has a beard, but that is about it.
This time there is no FACE lettering, instead an octopus (something he has sprayed before) and a face emerging from the centre of the piece. It is certainly quite unusual, and the colours give it a rather understated appearance but it is a good piece and a slight extension of Face F1st’s usual format.
.
delicate flower
beautiful beyond compare
yet beauty deceives
as you spread your roots and leaves
you’ll not be mine celandine
.
by Scooj
I really enjoy the political edge that street art brings to us, and one artist more than any other in Bristol, challenges the status quo and presents us with philosophical and political thoughts. ObjectØØØ.
It is a while since I posted anything from the arches of the Carriageworks, but things have become busy there recently. This piece by ObjectØØØ is of an organic robotic creature and carries a stark warning:
‘As all these incredible new technologies come online, who benefits? The warmongers and profiteers. Maybe technology can save us, but not in the hands of self-serving elites…‘
This is ObjectØØØ in full flow and at his creative best. Full of rage, anger and passion. I love this piece. RESIST.
I include these pieces by Mr Draws, because they represent a strong reference point for the role street/graffiti art play in social commentary. In Bristol, and I imagine in cities all over the World, we face changes to our local communities happening at a rate faster than ever before. Globalisation and the advent of the Interweb have driven change, and along with the ‘progress’ this affords us, it also brings with it casualties.
The Bearpit sits at the end of the A38 (Cheltenham Road/Stokes Croft/Gloucester Road), which is famed for being one of the longest continuous ‘independent’ high streets in Britain. This is a claim that is disputable since a number of supermarket chains and coffee shops have moved in. As independent shops have struggled with the economic downturn, their premises have been bought up by supermarket ‘local’ outlets and by global coffee chains. It is this ‘changing of the guard’ that vexes so many citizens, particularly in a fiercely independent part of a fiercely independent city.
As for the works themselves, these are quick pieces from an artist normally associated with his stylised mountains. I like this political twist to his work which is becoming more and more creative as time goes on.
A week wouldn’t feel like a week without posting a piece by Laic217, and his productivity shown no signs of slowing down.
This piece is from about a month ago and was situated on the West underpass into The Bearpit. Several of Laic217’s favourite motifs are present in this work;the bucket hat, an alien, weed, smileys and a face distorted, this time in watery reflections. A nice piece from the master of freehand graffiti art.
Same place, same artist – here is another reasonably recent piece by Deamze in one of his favoured spots. This is one of his monochrome pieces, which is in the wildstyle plus cartoon character theme that he often adopts.
His monochrome works are really clever, using only shading and black to create a fully functional piece. A bit like watching black and white TV…remember that?
I have no idea who this cartoon character is but can be pretty sure that Deamze has done it justice.
Natural adventures 