3929. Carlton Street (2), Weston-super-Mare

Weston-super-Mare and JPS go together like a hand in glove, everywhere you look and every back street has a little bit of JPS artwork, it is almost like an open air museum. Although the artist now lives on the continent, in Germany I think, he comes back often enough to paint occasional new stencils in the town, and with the low frequency of my visits, I get to see a whole load of work new to me. Including this Spiderman beauty.

JPS, Carlton Street, Weston-super-Mare, September 2021
JPS, Carlton Street, Weston-super-Mare, September 2021

JPS always injects humour into his work, and although this phrase is a little bit cheesy, it is also rather prophetic, and indeed the piece has ended up on the web as evidenced here and in countless other digital platforms. Beautifully situated and painted, this is yet another great example to the work of this fabulous artist.

2924. Carlton Street (1), Weston-super-Mare

It was a version of this stunning stencil in Frogmore Street in Bristol, together with Kid Crayon’s wheatpastes that drew me into the extraordinary world of street art about five years ago. It is called ‘The Big Deal’ and represents the drug dealing that JPS witnessed in his home town of Weston-super-Mare.

JPS, Carlton Street, Weston-super-Mare, August 2019
JPS, Carlton Street, Weston-super-Mare, August 2019

Knowing what the piece represents adds a layer of sophistication to the two young and ‘innocent’ characters that appear to have appeared from the 1960s (we all dressed like this in those days) although the box over the shoulder of one of the children might be a wartime gas mask. I cannot explain just how much I love this piece, which is on Carlton Street in Weston-super-Mare, not only because of its quality of a piece, but also of how it engaged directly with me and drew me in. My favourite.

JPS, Frogmore Street, Bristol, July 2015
JPS, Frogmore Street, Bristol, July 2015
JPS, North Pallant, Chichester
JPS, North Pallant, Chichester