Character – Page 19 – Natural adventures

6600. Upfest 2024 (59)

Dave Bain, Upfest 2024, Bristol, May 2024

Dave Bain is a reasonably well known muralist in Bristol, and I have featured a few of his pieces before in Natural Adventures. This was his Upfest 2024 piece, which as you can see took up the whole front of a terraced house, giving it that something special compared to its neighbours.

Dave Bain’s imagination and creativity have run wild in this floral piece which combined familiar shapes and figures with abstract ones. There may be a little symbolism in the piece too, with a spaceman-like figure holding up a polyhedral shape on a starry background. I feel that sometimes Dave Bain could be a little bit more adventurous with his colours, because this colour palette is quite subtle, and perhaps doesn’t do the artwork justice (my view only). An interesting festival piece.

6591. Brunel Way (305)

Face 1st and Zake, Brunel Way, Bristol, December 2024

True to his word, Face 1st said that despite moving to Herefordshire, he would be back in Bristol to have a paint from time to time, and who better to team up with than his PWA partner in crime Zake, who thrives on collaborations. This is a combination piece, with Face 1st’s writing wrapped around an unusual portrait by Zake.

Face 1st has enjoyed using the block letters idea, which he has used quite a lot to good effect, and here, they frame a rather sinister portrait from Zake. Seeing Zake’s characters with hair always adds a little bit of weirdness, especially in this piece, where the face is green and the hair purple. Although I photographed this collaboration not long after it was painted, the dampness of the wall has caused some damage on the character’s nose. I am so glad to see Face 1st popping down to see us.

6590. Brunel Way (304)

Mr Underbite, Brunel Way, Bristol, November 2024

Every time I write about Mr Underbite’s character pieces, the word that always springs immediately to mind is ‘hapless’. Just looking at the face, the Underbite character looks like he is down on his luck, or simply unfortunate. It is clever that the name and the portrayal create this image.

I haven’t seen any new pieces by Mr Underbite for a long while, so it was great to find this one at the Southern end of thee Brunel Way spot. This is the standard version of the character, in mono colour and without any ‘extras’. As ever, it is always great to find these distinctive pieces.

6589. Dean Lane skate park (788)

Awkward, Dean Lane, Bristol, November 2024

I met Awkward for the first time at the Ikea Wall of Fame Metalheadz paint jam organised by Goldie. As is usually the case, Awkward was nothing like the image I had of him in my mind, based on his artwork. It was so good to have a chat with him and understand a little about his motivations around art and music, where his music is his main thing.

This cheeky piece (why is it that most of his character pieces seem to be on the cheeky side?) features a pink faced character with enormous eyes and a speech bubble with the words ‘Universal magnetic’. This may be a reference to his friend Benjimagnetic. To the left of the face, Awkward has left his customary signature split into two halves, AWK…WARD.

6577. Dean Lane skate park (786)

Jevoissoul, Dean Lane, Bristol, November 2024

Super-quick posts this morning, as Christmas shopping beckons and a very busy day ahead. I am quite looking forward to going to some actual ‘physical’ shops, as I am getting a little sick of on-line shopping. Today’s post is a piece by Jevoissoul, who is living up to his promise of having a busy year painting the streets of Bristol.

Jevoissoul’s characters have a very distinctive look, crossing over between a sketch and cartoon style. This cheeky chappy, with his baseball cap coming adrift (a nice touch) is nicely painted and finished, and marks the continuous improvement shown by the artist. The placement was at the edge of a production piece, but respectfully managed to avoid overwriting any part of it.

6575. Cumberland Basin

Noise and Zake, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2024

One of the reasons that I am able to dwell a little on going back through my archives is that the winter weather is finally getting the better of ‘fair-weather’ artists, and turnover has slowed considerably since the back end of November. Although it is never good to see a slow-down, the upside is that it does give me a bit of a breather and the chance to share some ‘forgotten’ pieces, including this fine collaboration from Noise and Zake.

I have said it before, that Zake loves to team up with anyone who is willing to paint with him, and in this piece he has combined really well with Noise, incorporating his cartoon character as the ‘O’ of NOISE. The deep stripy drop shadow lifts the collaboration and unintentionally mirrors the teeth of Zake’s character. This is a really satisfying collaboration to see, from two of Bristol’s best artists.

6553. Gloucester Road

Sepr, Gloucester Road, Bristol, November 2024

As the crow flies, this is probably one of thee nearest pieces of street art to where I live, and I probably pass it a few times a week. I hadn’t noticed until recently that it had changed. Sepr painted a piece here back in February 2020, and you can just see a little bit of that black and white piece on the left of this banner on the Filthy XIII bar.

This new piece (although I don’t know how new) Features a man and a couple of birds chilling with some rather gaudy cocktails. Sepr has filled the thin horizontal strip perfectly, and his unique cartoon style is full of humour and warmth. Fabulous work.

Sepr, Gloucester Road, Bristol, February 2020

6550. Brunel Way (302)

Bean, Brunel Way, Bristol, November 2024

At the moment, Bean is spending a lot of time away from Bristol, and only comes back for short periods, such is the student way of life. When he returns he manages to find a few moments to decorate the odd wall or two. This is fine piece in one of his favourite spots under Brunel Way.

The piece is actually based on a photograph which Bean has included in his Instagram post about this portrait of ‘The Great Tear Gas Hoax: How a Kenyan protestor fooled the world’, which was a story about a guy who pretended he was inhaling the gas out of a tear gas canister. Bean has faithfully reproduced the moment in this beautifully painted piece, which is a slight departure from his more fantastical cartoon creations. Looking forward to Bean’s next visit, which might be around Christmas.

6546. Frome Side (42)

Kool Hand and Scrapyardspec, Frome Side, Bristol, November 2024

This is not a pairing that I would necessarily have predicted, but on reflection, is is a good match, and I can see why these two, Kool Hand and Scrapyardspec, have collaborated. Both have opted for an orange colour theme, either by accident (Kool Hand’s orangutan is usually this colour, and Scrapyardspec often uses orange) or by design.

Kool Hand does what Kool Hand does with his familiar character, that he must be able to rattle off in his sleep. It is a pity that his white fill is a bit thin and there is some previous artwork bleeding through, some paints are thin, and there isn’t a lot you can do about it. To the right, Scrapyardspec has painted another of his zany wobbly characters, that we are seeing all over Bristol at the moment. Both artists have decorated the piece with spots, but in their own styles, rather than creating some kind of uniformity across both pieces (which I think might have sealed the collaboration a little better). Great to see these two pairing up.

6544. Dean Lane skate park (780)

Hire and Zake, Dean Lane, Bristol, November 2024

I really like Zake’s enthusiasm for teaming up with any and pretty much every graffiti/street artist in the city. It is probably easier to list those he hasn’t painted with. Here he has teamed up with Hire to create this interesting combination collaboration.

The writing on the left is by Hire and takes the form of his spiky angular letter style The letters, spelling HIRE and painted in a grey colour with rouge tints, has a hint of symmetry about it. I fear that the dark blue background rather dominates the piece and makes it a little hard to pick out the lettering, which would probably look better set on a different base colour.

Zake has painted another of his familiar round-face characters, so full of depth created by clever use of light and shade. The red underglow is so effective. The face is surrounded by plumes of smoke and white dots. The two pieces, although stylistically completely different, complement each other well.

	scooj on Waterlogged
	scooj on Waterlogged
	wrookieschu on Thursday doors – 12 Febr…
	restlessjo on Thursday doors – 12 Febr…
	skat on Waterlogged

	scooj on Waterlogged
	scooj on Waterlogged
	wrookieschu on Thursday doors – 12 Febr…
	restlessjo on Thursday doors – 12 Febr…
	skat on Waterlogged

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