I know nothing about Hank. I haven’t seen his stuff before, or at least registered it. This slightly curious piece is in Leonard Lane and I am not too sure if the top and bottom half even belong together. The signature at the top would suggest that they do.
Hank, Leonard Lane, Bristol, June 2018
I’ll be on the look out to see if there is any more from this elusive artist.
I took a recent walk down to the Cumberland Basin recently and came across this standalone piece from Epok, which is really rather good. It is less angular than his usual work with soft, almost cartoon-like curves.
Epok, Brunel Way bridge, Bristol, June 2018
The wall is very busy with previous pieces on it, andf it all looks a bit fragmented. I think this piece would have benefitted from having a slightly larger backwash, especially to the right, but it is a tedious process. Nice gold and silver burner.
As so often happens in this game, I go in search of one thing and find something else. I had seen a post on Instagram of a beautiful new collaboration by Face 1st and Tasha Bee in Dean Lane, quite unusual, because it is not a spot that Face 1st regularly paints and their collaborations seem to be a bit of a new thing at the moment. When I got there, it had already been overpainted.
Elvs, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2018
The good news is that the piece covering it is by Elvs, whose work is always of a brilliant standard. In this work he has chosen some dark and subtle colours to create his unique writing. You should be able to read the word ‘ELVS’ as well as some additional characters, in what looks like Japanese to me. I’m not sure what it says.
Elvs, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2018
The tragedy of Dean Lane (but also the thing that makes it so special) is the transient nature of the work there – blink and you miss it. I was sorry not to see the PWA collaboration, but at least I was rewarded with this superb Elvs burner.
This is an interesting burner from Soak in the quiet derelict area sandwiched between the M32 and Stapleton Road. It was part of the cycle route, but it has been closed off while some development works are being carried out.
Soak, M32 cycle path, Bristol, May 2018
Soak’s piece uses a fun theme of exploding his name with fragments falling off in all directions. There is movement in the piece and he seems to have spent a little more tome on this than on some of his other burners. Overall I rather like it.
I think that this is my favourite Oner piece to date. He has taken a little more time, which is possible in the backwater of this spot, which receives so little traffic since the cycle path along here was closed about six months ago.
Oner, M32 cycle path, Bristol, May 2018
His letters are a little more elaborate and he has included a rather dashing octopus character on the right hand side. I think that a piece like this showcases the capabilities of an artist. It is all fine to spray quick burners, because it is fun, but take a little more time and special work emerges. I love the colours and optimism of this burner.
2018 has certainly been the year of introductions, with a whole host of street/graffiti artists new to these pages, and here is yet another one. I have no idea if Wink is a newcomer or if I have just had my eyes closed, but there are a lot of Wink burners out there, and I have to say I am rather taken with them.
Wink, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2018
Here are a couple of examples from Dean Lane – they were pretty much next to each other. I have more to post and in the mean time I will try to find out something about Wink.
There is absolutely no stopping Mr Draws at the moment, everywhere I go I am presented with another of his distinctive burners. I would hate to think how much paint he gets through. This is a nice colourful piece on the M32 roundabout, where the turnover of work is quite high at the moment. I love the fill in this particular piece, it is like a child’s painting, full of colour and freedom.
Mr Draws, M32 roundabout, Bristol, May 2018
I recently bought some sketches from Mr Draws, and it turns out he lives just round the corner, literally, from me – it seems strange that we have never bumped into each other in the street, only at graffiti spots. So much more to come from Mr Draws.
I had to ask Sled One (who happened to be painting further along the wall) who this piece was by, because I didn’t recognise the style when I first saw it. He told me it was by Joe Poe or Poer who is from London. This would explain why I am not familiar with it.
Poer, M32 roundabout, Bristol, May 2018
This really is a top drawer piece of wildstyle writing from a classy artist who I really know little about. He seems to be a member of ASK or possibnly just received an invite to paint with them. I’ll have to do some more digging.
Cort is an artist I don’t know very much about at all. I do know that he likes to paint with Laic217, and if you look very carefully at the feature image, to the left you can see the edge of one of Laic217’s skeletons in a red hoodie.
Cort, M32 cycle path, Bristol, February 2018
This piece by Cort is in two halves, which are sprayed in vert different and distinct styles, I have seen the piece posted on Instagram as two different works, which is understandable, but it is only when you stitch the two pieces together that you can make out the letters CORT – obvious really.
Cort, M32 cycle path, Bristol, February 2018
Cort, M32 cycle path, Bristol, February 2018
There is a lot I like about this piece from Cort, beyond the different styles, particularly the face in the C which has a very strong designed feel about it which reminds me of my childhood (60s?). Anyhow, this ranks very highly as one of my favourite pieces of writing so far this year.
Who’d have thought with all this lovely dry weather we are having that it is ony a couple of months ago that Bristol had its second covering of snow. I took a little trip up the the skate park at Horfield Leisure Centre to pick my daughter up and while I was waiting (I was conveniently early) I took a quick look at the graffiti around the skate park. Usually the standard is not that great, and there is a lot of tagging, but I have noticed a slight upsurge in the quality recently…maybe the reduction in spots in central Bristol is pushing artists out a bit to places like this.
Oner, Horfield skate park, Bristol, March 2018
Anyhow, this is a nice simple burner from my new friend Oner, possibly the first pictures I have of his work. The shading looks a bit untidy, but if you take a closer look, there is actually a lot of detail in there and it is not a quick fill. The whole piece is nice and crisp (and even). I hope to track down a whole load more of his burners.