Tag: Bunny

Thursday doors – 30 January 2020

Doors 94 – #followmyrabbits doors

I’m afraid that this week I have cheated a little, because I am using previously posted photographs, although they have been associated with my street art posts rather than my Thursday Doors ones so many of you will not have seen them before.

Since about 2017 or so, rabbits started to appear on walls all around Bristol. At first they were confined to well known graffiti hotspots but after a while they spread out until no part of the city was spared from the rabbit invasion. The charming rabbits are the work of #followmyrabbits AKA Nevergiveup and other names he paints under. The artist, I believe has moved away from Bristol, but you wouldn’t know it because new ones are turning up weekly.

Most of the bunnys are not on doors, but these ones are, so I thought I’d share them with you. There are mixed views on these cheerful decorations ranging from the ‘vandalism’ end of the scale right through to the tourist attraction, bringing in rabbit hunters to the city. Of course I love them and see them as a humerous and harmless way of brightening up the place. What do you think?

Nevergiveup, River Avon, Bristol, January 2020
Nevergiveup, River Avon, Bristol, January 2020
Nevergiveup, Hotwell Road, Bristol, July 2019
Nevergiveup, Hotwell Road, Bristol, July 2019
Nevergiveup, North Street Green, Bristol, July 2019
Nevergiveup, North Street Green, Bristol, July 2019
Nevergiveup, Bedminster, Bristol, April 2019
Nevergiveup, Bedminster, Bristol, April 2019
Nevergiveup, Nelson Street, Bristol, April 2019
Nevergiveup, Nelson Street, Bristol, April 2019
Nevergiveup, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, December 2018
Nevergiveup, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, December 2018
Nevergiveup, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, December 2018
Nevergiveup, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, December 2018
Nevergiveup, Moon Street, Bristol, June 2018
Nevergiveup, Moon Street, Bristol, June 2018
NEVERGIVEUP, East Street, Bristol, April 2018
NEVERGIVEUP, East Street, Bristol, April 2018
NEVERGIVEUP, Moon Street, Bristol, April 2018
NEVERGIVEUP, Moon Street, Bristol, April 2018

 

Apologies for my absence over the last couple of weeks but I have been way too busy and neglected my door stories.

If you like doors, you ought to take a look at the Norm 2.0 blog – the originator of Thursday Doors where there are links to yet more doors in the comments section at the end.

 

by Scooj

2694. River Avon (2)

I took a riverside walk with the dog last week and found this recent and absolutely brilliant Nevergiveup (@followmyrabbits) piece. The weird thing about this was that as I was walking along the pathway I saw two men talking and I was sure I recognised one of them. I carried on anyway for about ten minutes before turning back along the path to get back to the car. I passed the two gentlemen again and the penny dropped. I had indeed recognised one of them… it was only Nevergiveup himself.

Nevergiveup, River Avon, Bristol, January 2020
Nevergiveup, River Avon, Bristol, January 2020

We had a little chat, and I asked if he had just painted this rabbit pair – he said he had not done it that day, but a weeek or two before. It was looking so fresh still.

I am however a little confused… Since the artist left Bristol for Bath, he seems to still be painting in the city with alarming regularity. I told him I can’t keep up with him and he said he can’t keep up with himself. At least I have a whole ton of rabbits in storage to share with you if things quieten down… as if.

2648. Dean Lane

This is the bit of Dean Lane that is the Real Dean Lane, that runs around the skate park. In fact this mischievous bunny rabbit by Nevergiveup is outside the Bedminster swimming baths, and although it has probably been there for an age, I only recently saw it.

Nevergiveup, Dean Lane, Bristol, December 2019
Nevergiveup, Dean Lane, Bristol, December 2019

This is one of many that I still have in my archives, and barely a day goes by when I don’t find a new one somewhere or other, so plenty more to come even though the artist no longer lives in Bristol. Rabbit, rabbit, boing boing, rabbit rabbit, boing boing…

2604. Nova Scotia (2)

I have said it before on Natural Adventures, that there are so many rewards to be had from changing what you do, the habits you get into, and recently I completely changed my lunchtime stroll to skirt around the harbourside area. I finally got round to seeing this family of rabbits by Nevergiveup which made the alteration to my usual stroll utterly worth it. I switched it up with great success.

Nevergiveup, Nova Scotia, Bristol, November 2019
Nevergiveup, Nova Scotia, Bristol, November 2019

I think that this might just be my favourite rabbit work by Nevergiveup. A near perfect grouping of magnificent colours and fortunately for me and the timing of the picture, looking fantastically Autumnal. There is some fine detail on these bunnies that indicates that he spent a little bit more time painting them perhaps than some of his other pieces. Somehow, for me, his brand #followmyrabbits culminates in this little cluster, it is just brilliant.

2585. Leonard Lane (22)

So you’ll all know all about this one… . It is hardly worth me writing very much about Nevergiveup and his bunny rabbits, because they have featured so many times on Natural Adventures before, and there are still plenty more in my archive warren to keep me going for a while.

Nevergiveup, Leonard Lane, Bristol, November 2019
Nevergiveup, Leonard Lane, Bristol, November 2019

This particular beauty is lurking in a doorway of the wonderfully ‘colourful’ Leonard Lane – a fascinating alleyway that marks thwe ancient boundary where the city wall used to be. You won’t have to wait too long before I uncover some more rabbits.

2572. Cumberland Basin

I think I said this last time I posted a piece by Nevergiveup but I will say it again because it is still pertinent… gone but not forgotten. I discovered a new (to me) graffiti spot in the Cumberland Basin recently, and one which I think Nevergiveup also discovered a little while before he left Bristol.

Nevergiveup, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, October 2019
Nevergiveup, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, October 2019

This rabbit looks like it has had a little dose of nuclear radiation, but apart from the extra eyes ears and tooth it seems to be in the rudest of health. I love the location of this rabbit and for me it really adds to the quality of the piece. Still plenty to come from #followmyrabbits.

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.

Nevergiveup, Moon Street, Bristol, May 2018
Nevergiveup, Moon Street, Bristol, 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.

2489. Little Paradise (4)

Well I’ve heard that Nevergiveup is leaving town, I’m not sure where he is going or whether he’ll be back, but you can walk anywhere in Bristol and it won’t take long to find a little reminder that he was here. His rabbits have become a bit of a thing over the last eighteen months or so and I still have a great many to find.

Nevergiveup, Little Paradise, Bristol, September
Nevergiveup, Little Paradise, Bristol, September

This purple fellow is in little paradise (possibly one of the least apt names for a place), propping up a long wall that has some interesting stuff at the other end of it. I have many more rabbits in my archive, but I like to intersperse them with other pieces – I have to be fair to all artists in the city. So although the artist may be leaving, his legacy will be appearing on the pages of Natural Adventures for some time to come. Farewell Nevergiveup Familia.

2405. Castle Park

Castle Park is not particularly known for its graffiti, there are not many walls and there is little or no culture of it, it was surprising therefore to find this little bit of ‘decorated’ wall and who should be there?… Nevergiveup and one of his rabbits.

Nevergiveup, Castle Park, Bristol, August 2019
Nevergiveup, Castle Park, Bristol, August 2019

The nature of his #followmyrabbits concept means that he is definitely the most ubiquitous artist in Bristol, more even than the most prolific taggers, who tend to stay within their districts. This is a particularly nice bunny photographed on a particularly nice day and painted on an interestingly textured wall that gives it a soft spongy look.

2357. Hotwell Road (3)

This is how I get to see most of Nevergiveup’s work for the first time. Because he doesn’t just paint regular spots but tends to paint everywhere he can in the city, he is one artist whose work you can spot from a car. This cheeky rabbit is on Hotwell Road and in a place that one is unlikely to stop – I got lucky, the traffic stopped right in front of me, my camera was on the passenger seat and so I snapped away. Lazy hunting, but sometimes you have to be opportunistic in this game.

Nevergiveup, Hotwell Road, Bristol, July 2019
Nevergiveup, Hotwell Road, Bristol, July 2019

I have lost count of his bunnies, and I miss an awful lot of them, but there is a bit of an addiction to trying to track them down, a bit like Pokemon Go or the Wallace and Gromit trails that Bristol has hosted in recent years. Another one for the gallery.