6275. Dean Lane skate park (740)

Awkward, Fade and Dibz, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2024
Awkward, Fade and Dibz, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2024

The FUA (From Up Above) boys are at it again, although this time they are joined by Awkward, and have opted for a smaller wall for this collaboration. In this piece we see our two main protagonists getting closer and closer to fusion in their work.

Fade and Dibz, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2024
Fade and Dibz, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2024

Fade on the left and Dibz on the right have opted to use the same colours, 3D drop shadow, decorations and background, and it is only their stylistic differences that separate them. Dibz’ work tends to be a little bit more angular than the smoother edges of Fade. The colour transitions in the fills are excellent in both halves.

Awkward, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2024
Awkward, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2024
Awkward, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2024
Awkward, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2024

The central piece is book-ended by two characters by Awkward, who has painted with Dibz and Fade in Dean Lane not all that long ago. Messages contained in the speech bubbles are ‘roll the dice’, ‘Awkward’ and ‘Stop the war’. The characters look typically alarmed/animated with their exaggerated eyes and wobbly outlines. A rather nice collaboration from the three artists.

6273. M32 roundabout J3 (614)

Chill, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2024
Chill, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2024

It is nice to be able to single out a piece by Chill, without having to share the post with other PWA crew artists, which is usually the case. It feels like a while ago when I first came across Chill’s cartoon character work, in St Werburghs tunnel, if I recall correctly. Back then, he tended to work in black and white with a red background. Over the months and years he has massively developed his characters, his colours his detailed background accessories, and continues to grow with each new piece, which cannot be said for all artists, for sure.

Chill, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2024
Chill, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2024

I wouldn’t say that this was my favourite piece that Chill has painted, but it carries all the hallmarks of the tattoo artist. The black lines (ink lines) create plenty of detail around the ear and eyes. The eyes themselves are interestingly presented where the pupils have a wedge cut out of them and there are larger white circles above them, which in this piece I don’t think work all that well. There is plenty of colour dividing up the different elements of the face, which really is a huge contrast from his early pieces. Nice and slightly weird work painted alongside Zake’s equally weird piece posted a few days ago.

6266. Cheltenham Paint Festival 2024 (1)

Curtis Hylton, Cheltenham Paint Festival 2024, Barnyard Close, Cheltenham, July 2024
Curtis Hylton, Cheltenham Paint Festival 2024, Barnyard Close, Cheltenham, July 2024

A couple of weekends ago I managed to spend a day at the Cheltenham Paint festival, which was amazing, and organiser Andy ‘Dice’ Davies and his team should be congratulated for building the event into one of the best paint festivals in the UK, and in a town that has quite a small graffiti/street art sub-culture. I took so many pictures of pieces from this year and previous years, that I will be bunching them together in my posts of the festival, due to sheer volume of photographs in my folders.

Curtis Hylton, Cheltenham Paint Festival 2024, Barnyard Close, Cheltenham, July 2024
Curtis Hylton, Cheltenham Paint Festival 2024, Barnyard Close, Cheltenham, July 2024

Here we start with a wonderful piece from Curtis Hilton on the edge of the town, with a signature piece of a bird composed of  flower petals.

DFC1848, Cheltenham Paint Festival 2024, Honeybourne Line tunnel, Cheltenham, July 2024
DFC1848, Cheltenham Paint Festival 2024, Honeybourne Line tunnel, Cheltenham, July 2024

Next up is a large piece by local artist DFC1848. How magnificently the gold colour on the diver’s helmet picks up the texture of the wall and appears to glisten. Really nice cartoon character fun.

Stephen Quick, Cheltenham Paint Festival 2024, North Place car park, Cheltenham, July 2024
Stephen Quick, Cheltenham Paint Festival 2024, North Place car park, Cheltenham, July 2024

Finally, for this first burst of three pieces from the festival, a stunner from Stephen Quick, a Bristol Stencil Artist, who I caught up with for a moment. He said the he left the peeling white paint on purpose to add texture and interest to the piece. Such a nice man by the way. More of these Cheltenham compilations to follow.

6264. M32 roundabout J3 (613)

Zake, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2024
Zake, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2024

Well this is a bit weird, even by Zake standards, and I am not entirely sure what to make of it. To me the piece looks a bit like a cross between an aristocrat and a spaniel, and once seen, I can’t unsee it. There is something about that pointy nose that I find quite unsettling.

Zake, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2024
Zake, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2024

Zake has been on fire for a very long time and continues to push boundaries, but also reverts from time to time to his basic round face characters. His USP is working with light and shade to create depth and texture, great example of which can be seen in the eyes and cheeks of this character. Both bizarre and wonderful work from Zake.

6263. M32 roundabout J3 (612)

Dime, Jody and Turoe, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2024
Dime, Jody and Turoe, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2024

What a wonderful triptych piece on the roundabout which is what I would describe as a unique collaboration between Dime, Jody and Turoe. I am not familiar with Dime and am guessing that he was visiting Bristol and made contact with artists in the city to see who’d like to have a paint. That is how I imagine these kind of things happen.

Dime, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2024
Dime, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2024

The collaboration starts with a stunning piece of graffiti writing from Dime, with nicely defined letters, beautiful fill colours and a deep 3D drop shadow. The borders are nice and thin and flawless, and the letters are lifted with contrasting orange and red blobby decorations around the outside. The way I think about decorations in a piece is to try and imagine what it would look like without them – often they enrich what might have been something a little ordinary. Decorations are part of the composition, not just an afterthought.

Jody, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2024
Jody, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2024

Jody has been smashing it all over the place for a sustained period, and I understand from talking to Fade, is really enjoying himself. In this piece he provides the filling in a graffiti writing sandwich and features a cartoon style cool character striking a pose with a cloudy background. I love the sparkle on the sunglasses, a brilliant touch.

Turoe, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2024
Turoe, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2024

Rounding off the collaboration is a piece of writing from a Bristol legend, Turoe, although I originally thought it was by Soker it is actually a tribute collaboration to Soker who had a cycling accident recently (Thanks to Jay for the background information). If ever you want to know what outstanding graffiti writing looks like, then look no further than Turoe, and this piece demonstrates why. Perfect colour selection, superb interlocking letters without being over-engineered, a deep and contrasting 3D drop shadow and tight border. All the elements are there and they are brought together by a master of his craft. All in all, this is a fabulous and quite unexpected collaboration. We are blessed, and a fabulous tribute.

6253. M32 roundabout J3 (608)

Raid, M32 roundabout, Bristol, June 2024
Raid, M32 roundabout, Bristol, June 2024

Raid has slowed down a little, only a little mind, but his presence is felt whenever he paints one of his RAID writings. This one has to be marked out as being slightly different from his usual work on account of the inclusion of a character – a welcome addition.

Raid, M32 roundabout, Bristol, June 2024
Raid, M32 roundabout, Bristol, June 2024

The glaringly obvious feature of this piece is the camouflage fill, which is something I have seen quite a lot of, I would guess that it is probably easier to do than some fills, because the shapes and colour patchwork are quite random, and forgiving of little mistakes. The character is a bit of fun, but has very different characteristics to the confidence demonstrated in the writing. It will be interesting to see if Raid continues with the inclusion of characters. I noticed that his Instagram account appears to have disappeared, which is a pity.

6246. Ashton Avenue.

Mote, Ashton Avenue, Bristol, July 2024
Mote, Ashton Avenue, Bristol, July 2024

I took a slightly longer walk away from Brunel Way a few weeks back on a very warm summer’s afternoon. Ashton Avenue (I think that is what it is called) is part of the Metrobus route that joins north and south Bristol without getting clogged up on the main thoroughfares, and is a sleepy track, except for the occasional bus trundling past. The route is peppered with utility boxes, some of which have been decorated by the unstoppable duo, Mote and Mr Crawls. Here are some of them.

Mote, Ashton Avenue, Bristol, July 2024
Mote, Ashton Avenue, Bristol, July 2024

I really need to update Mote’s gallery, and I still haven’t actually created one for Mr Crawls yet, which would seem to be something of an oversight. (Note to self – post a Mr Crawls gallery soon). Both artists have been using chrome backgrounds, which I think is a really effective way of framing their character pieces.

Mr Crawls, Ashton Avenue, Bristol, July 2024
Mr Crawls, Ashton Avenue, Bristol, July 2024

These examples really highlight the differences between the artists’ styles, but also the similarities, where a certain amount of cross-influencing has been at work. Mr Crawls has produced several versions of this character wearing some kind of hat, and indeed, hats seem to be quite an important feature in his work.

Mr Crawls, Ashton Avenue, Bristol, July 2024
Mr Crawls, Ashton Avenue, Bristol, July 2024

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get to a couple of these pieces before the taggers got to them, but the other two are nice and clean. Here again, Mr Crawls’ character is wearing a hat. His work, in particular, has transitioned quite a lot from when he broke onto the Bristol scene with his gulls, parrots and other birds.

Well worth the extra walk.

6240. Dean Lane skate park (736)

I am Ian, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2024
I am Ian, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2024

One of this summer’s pleasures has been the reasonably regular appearances by Kid Crayon and his painting pal, I am Ian. This wacky piece features a large cartoon-style character, with tears flowing from his exaggerated eyes, and the caption ‘Ain’t easy being macho’, which is really funny.

I am Ian, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2024
I am Ian, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2024

Although it isn’t necessarily intended to be topical or political, this piece and the caption speaks to me about a growing and disturbing phenomenon of disenfranchised white males, often poorly educated and with limited prospects, turning to the far right of politics, encouraged by the untruths and promises of divisive and disingenuous politicians and activists. The perfect example of this was the man in a grey tracksuit at the race riot in Southport this week, who was posturing and puffing out his chest in front of a line of police with their riot gear, only to be hit on the head with a brick and another large item, thrown by other rioters at the police, and then on retreating back to the fold, got struck in the bo**ocks by another missile. ‘Ain’t easy being macho’.

6237. Purdown (73)

Merny, Purdown, Bristol July 2024
Merny, Purdown, Bristol July 2024

Ha ha! ‘It’s all gone woke’, so says this marvellous character by Merny. The phrase is one used by anybody who doesn’t like or disagrees with those elements of policy/regulation/rules/behaviour that they take issue with on account of it not complying with their own values. The peak example of the phrase was probably the quote from former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who used the term  ‘Guardian-reading, tofu-eating  wokerati’ to describe Just Stop Oil protesters in 2022. I wonder how she would describe the pigs who are currently protesting against immigrants in the UK. Spot the tumbleweed.

Merny, Purdown, Bristol July 2024
Merny, Purdown, Bristol July 2024

This is a lovely Merny piece, so ‘of its time’, simple and powerful, like so much of his work. The piece was painted around the time of his excellent exhibition, which I understand from speaking to him since, went better than expected, and he managed to sell quite a few original pieces, which is great to hear. I would have loved to have bought one or two of his originals, but alas they were marginally outside my price range. See some of them below:

Merny Exhibition, 17 Midland Road, Bristol, July 2024
Merny Exhibition, 17 Midland Road, Bristol, July 2024

Merny Exhibition, 17 Midland Road, Bristol, July 2024
Merny Exhibition, 17 Midland Road, Bristol, July 2024

6234. Purdown (72)

Peanutsdeli, Purdown, Bristol, July 2024
Peanutsdeli, Purdown, Bristol, July 2024

The Purdown Anti Aircraft gun emplacement is a wartime relic which these days doubles up as a goat enclosure and graffiti spot, giving this monument a second life of sorts. Visiting this spot is always a bit of a lottery because turnover is usually pretty slow, and sometimes there is nothing new to look at, and other times (because visits tend to be infrequent) pieces can be quite badly tagged, or damaged by the goats!

Peanutsdeli, Purdown, Bristol, July 2024
Peanutsdeli, Purdown, Bristol, July 2024

On my last trip, a couple of weeks ago, I his the jackpot though, with several new pieces all in pretty good condition, including this beauty by Peanutsdeli. I have to say that he is probably the last artist I would expect to find up here, so this manga-style cartoon portrait came as a very pleasant surprise indeed. The yelling face fits the rectangular slab perfectly, and I was even able to give the character a little bit of extra hair from the tree behind. More to come from this Purdown visit soon.