Tag: Cattle Market Road

4673. Cattle Market Road (13)

Dog Bless the Band, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, August 2022
Dog Bless the Band, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, August 2022

The writing says MOTEL, don’t ask me why, but it is an interesting word to choose – perhaps it gives options for some good letter shapes. The artist has one of the best names on the scene – Dog Bless the Band – again don’t ask me where that comes from, sometimes it is better not to know these things as it takes away the mystery.

Dog Bless the Band, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, August 2022
Dog Bless the Band, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, August 2022

One of the things that is consistent with all the Dog Bless the Band pieces that I have seen is the complex fills in muted tones. These subtle patterns are a refreshing change from the often brash shapes and colours that most fills are made of. I like to think of these fills by Dog Bless the Band as ‘muddy’ but in a good way, if that makes sense. I always love finding his special and unique work.

4551. Cattle Market Road (12)

On my tours of different spots around Bristol, I have bumped into Mote several times now, and each time it has been a genuine pleasure to converse with him. I am really enjoying his solid fill monsters, each quite different from the last. It is always good to see an artist turn out variations of an idea instead of perfecting an idea, although both approaches are completely ok.

Mote, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, June 2022

These two monsters are lurking behind a scooter stop, which I actually feel adds to the overall composition. It is as if they are looking after the scooters, and almost feels like a deliberate coming together, and the red colours match so well. I like the cartoon style that Mote uses that has the faintest touch of Gerald Scarfe about it – probably those swirly lines.

4496. Cattle Market Road (11)

The Bristol Womxn Mural Collective are a wonderful group of femxle (to use their convention) artists who come together several times a year to get out of their studios and try their hand at painting on the street. The outcome is invariable something rather special and different from the more conventional work we are used to seeing.

Nina Raines, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, May 2022
Nina Raines, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, May 2022

This is a superb study of a toadstool by Nina Raines, whose works are so incredibly diverse and don’t conform to a style, on account of her ‘proper’ profession as a theatrical scenic artist. This piece definitely works for me, with its different layers and textures. Great work… more to come from this paint jam.

4343. Cattle Market Road (10)

A mural artist who is rapidly developing a name for herself in Bristol is Farrah, and some recent additions to her portfolio include this wonderful piece in Cattle Market Road.

Farrah, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, March 2022
Farrah, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, March 2022

Farrah, with her abstract pieces, seems to be as comfortable with a commission as she does with a roadside hoarding like this one, and there seems to be something of a civic appetite for her work, for example I have noticed a number of planters around the city that have been decorated with her work.

Farrah, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, March 2022
Farrah, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, March 2022

This particular piece has a rather summery feel to it, reminiscent of sunflowers. The brush strokes have a movement to them and the blending of colours is so skilfully done. Farrah is an artist on the up and up.

4162. Cattle Market Road (9)

The large tunnel that runs underneath the railway tracks of Bristol Temple Meads station is home to a whole ton of graffiti, but is not a place I visit very often. It was great to see, therefore, on my most recent visit this magnificent skull piece by Dabuten Tronko.

Dabuten Tronko, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, December 2021
Dabuten Tronko, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, December 2021

I have never met the artist, but would be really interested in doing so at some point, just to get a sense of what makes him tick. His pieces are always really interesting to look at and his technical ability top notch, marry those together and you get a creative beast staring at you from the wall. This grim reaper figure has a bit of a tattoo artist feel to it, although I don’t think Dabuten Tronko is a tattoo artist. A satisfying find.

3742. Cattle Market Road (8)

The extraordinary pieces on Cattle Market Road from last summer were beginning to get a bit tagged up and have recently been fair game for new work. This is one of the new collaborations to appear there, by Acer One and Conrico.

Acer One, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, May 2021
Acer One, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, May 2021

It seems to me that Acer One is pretty much up for collaborating with anyone in Bristol who can chuck paint at a wall. Here he gives us a ‘LAZY DAZE’ block of writing in his geometric font on a beachy backdrop painted by Conrico. Acer One’s letters always play tricks with my eyes, sometimes when I look at the lettering it is completely flat pattern and I can’t make out the shapes, other times, if I stand further back, the 3D effect kicks in. Very clever stuff.

Conrico and Acer One, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, May 2021
Conrico and Acer One, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, May 2021

Conrico is a busy artist who paints loads of walls, but often in places unfamiliar to me, so he is somewhat underrepresented in Natural Adventures. In this collaboration Conrico has created an island paradise setting with some fun elements such as the exaggerated wave and little yacht, and the crab waving a placard which reads ‘Oli T, Conrico Steez, Acer One’. Which brings me to the point of the piece, which is a tribute to Oli T’s original Lazy Daze piece painted in Kingsdown in the early 1980s, one of the earliest spray can murals in the city (information taken from Acer One’s Instagram thread).

3335. Cattle Market Road (7)

I found these bunnies quite a while back, but like to spread out my posts of Nevergiveup’s (Eldey’s) work otherwise you might get overwhelmed with cuddly rabbits and that simply wouldn’t do.

Nevergiveup, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, June 2020
Nevergiveup, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, June 2020

This pair of rather cool rabbits reside in the tunnel under Temple Meads station alongside a whole world of hidden and rather forgotten burners and throw ups. Unfortunately the taggers got to these rabbits long before I did, although I have a feeling I have some older pictures that might be cleaner in my archives – finding them would be troublesome though.

Nevergiveup, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, June 2020
Nevergiveup, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, June 2020

Looking like a comedy double act – Cannon and Ball or Little and Large spring to mind, these charming characters add a bit of fun to our ordinary lives.

3059. Cattle Market Road (6)

Adjacent to the new hoardings on Cattle Market Road that have been immaculately painted by Josh B, Bnie, The Hass, Hazard and Sled One are some slightly older hoardings which are beginning to be ‘decorated’, this one by Haka

Haka, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, June 2020
Haka, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, June 2020

Haka’s work is a little more edgy than his neighbours and has a real sense of vandalism about it compared to their high-end work. All of this wonderfully illustrates exactly why I love street/graffiti art… the vast spectrum of styles, ‘respectability’, talent on offer caters for pretty much every taste. This character-writing combination is a cheerful piece with Tom and the Roadrunner flanking a nicely written JESSE. A fun piece.

3054. Cattle Market Road (5)

This is the fifth and final piece from the magnificent outdoor gallery in Cattle Market Road arranged by The Hass. it is by an artist I’ve not come across before, which should not come as too much as a surprise because he is a tattoo artist called Josh B.

Josh B, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, June 2020
Josh B, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, June 2020

It is immediately clear that this is the work of a tattoo artist, particularly looking at the bird, flowers and hand on the left. I can’t put my finger on why the tattoo style comes across so strongly, maybe the way the spray paint is used in the way that ink is, I don’t know. The piece is really beautifully painted and it is great to see the Bristol reference in the shape of the Bristol suspension bridge in one of the framed pictures. A lovely piece.

3045. Cattle Market Road (4)

There aren’t really the words to describe how good this bull piece by The Hass is. The trip down to Cattle Market Road would be worth it for this piece alone. The bull, so the story goes, escaped from the cattle market (we are talking some years ago) and terrorised the locals until it was captured.

The Hass, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, June 2020
The Hass, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, June 2020

The Hass coordinated the gathering of five artists to decorate the hoarding around the development site at the back of Temple Meads station, and I have to say the collection is one of the highlights of the year so far, and this piece is the highlight of the highlights.

The Hass, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, June 2020
The Hass, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, June 2020

The composition and colours are utterly stunning and contrast so amazingly with the blue sky and piles of rubble behind the hoarding. I think that the buildings represent the old Post Office sorting office that was knocked down to create this brownfield development opportunity. The bull looks a little bit more like a Spanish bull rather than a British one, but I’ll forgive The Hass for that.

I don’t want to go overboard on a description, but rather just leave you to enjoy and study the piece for yourself. Magnificent.