Minto has been turning out a series of outstanding pieces lately, and it feels like he has a new energy in his work. This one has a base of turquoise shades which make a strong visual impact.
His piece is organised around the well disguised letters MINTO, but what brings his work to life is the detailing and the plethora of shapes, shadows, patterns, lines and if you look carefully, characters. His pieces are always a feast for the eyes and worth studying for a little while.
Conrico has had a productive year so far and in my view has been creating some of his best and most varied work, showing that within his unique ‘paintbrush’ style, he can conjure up exotic scenes, stunning portraits and throw in some writing too.
This is a wonderful piece that transitions between two perpendicular hoardings on the corner at the end of the Greenbank ‘wall’. Two cats, one on each board pose in front of a flaming background, and this cat looking backwards is accompanied by a tidy ‘CONRICO’ alongside it.
The second cat is walking towards the corner. There are two possible outcomes when these felines meet – familial recognition and love or a stand-off. They look like siblings to me, so I suspect the former outcome. A lovely story creatively told by Conrico. One for the cat-lovers.
Minto has been out and about quite a lot this year, which is great to see, and recently he has turned out a couple of pieces on a black background, of which this is one, that introduce a whole new aspect to his work, bringing in all sorts of opportunities for contrasting colours.
The letters, heavily disguised, spell MINTO, and they are heavily augmented with colours, lines and shapes that almost give a ‘firework’ appearance to the piece. I can see at least two ephemeral characters in the piece, a bird’s head in the centre, and a head at the top right. There is so much to look at and discover i this fine piece of graffiti writing.
There are several names that this artist goes under; Jest Soubriquet, Jest Likes and Likes Wan Tu. I tend to stick with the first one because it is the first name I used in this blog, and if nothing else, I do like a bit of consistency. This is a wonderful wildlife piece, painted during a paint jam alongside the River Avon.
The characters look familiar, probably based on Disney’s Lion King characters. The colourful one on the left (Mufasa?) is definitely a better rendition than the one on the right, where the nose doesn’t seem quite right. Excellent stuff from this regular visitor. Note to self – time for a gallery?
A gallery of wonderful character faces and writing from Bristol’s Asre.
Instagram: @azre_returns
All photographs by Scooj
There is a lot of flesh in this combination piece by Stivs, an artist who is not afraid to push the boundaries when it comes to scantily clad characters. Whatever one’s views about such things, the artwork is striking and skilfully presented.
Cat woman as you might not have seen her, although DC Comics did portray her in very tight catsuits, often with little left to the imagination – Stivs has just taken things to the next level. Stivs has given Cat Woman a couple of playful tattoos saying BAD CAT, and he has corrupted the initials ACAB (All Cops are Bastards) to ACAT, just because he can. D and S in calligraffiti-style bookend this character. Great work from Stivs.Cumberland Basin
This is a rather fun collaboration between Hire and Zake in Dean Lane. I can’t remember if these two have collaborated before, they probably have, but this is still a bit of a treat from the writer and the character artist.
On the left, Hire has written his letters in a rather compact block, which is quite unusual, as he typically spreads his letters out a fair bit. The fills of orange and light blue have been nicely done and work surprisingly well together. A deep drop shadow is bordered with a drippy pink line with light highlights woven in.
I’m not too sure what to say about Zake’s character piece, as it is all a little bit strange. A bald man with a huge mouth and multiple teeth has a little finger puppet attached to the end of his long tongue. The puppet character, which looks like some kind of lizard monster is spraying pink ‘vomit’ over Hire’s piece, thus creating his drippy pink outline. A great read-across between the two pieces in this collaboration.
Over the last year or so, Cheo seems to have upped his game (if that is at all possible), certainly in the frequency of his wall decorations. Cheo is a very talented artist who has been part of the ‘establishment’ in Bristol, but never lost his contemporary edge, and appears to be equally happy with his commercial work and his ‘graffiti’ art.
This piece in Dean Lane is in a narrow section and quite difficult to photograph – where would I be without a wide angle facility on my phone? The character in the piece, wearing a LIDL T-shirt has been spraying (one assumes) a CHEO throw up in green and blue. He is holding a spray can out of which a rather surreal scene unfolds… a pink blob character, complete with a plunger stuck to his head and smoking a cigar. What!? Great work from a master craftsman.
I do like it when Mr Klue ventures beyond his beloved St Werburghs tunnel, so finding this Mad Hatter piece at the gun emplacement up at Purdown made me very happy.
All the elements of a Mr Klue classic are here. The large hat with the ticket in the band, the invisible head, and the shirt and stripy tie, finished with a wisp of smoke rising to the left. I love the perspective created by light and shadow, and the use of pink for the left of the piece and yellow for the right. Great work from Mr Klue.
A quick couple of posts today. I am recovering from shingles – a very nasty affair – and return to work this morning with a rather large backlog of emails and messages to action. This mortal coil!
I have always had a big soft spot for Butch’s work, and this combination piece on the roundabout is a real beauty. His overlapping full cap letters are somewhat eclipsed by a dog/rabbit(?) riding a bicycle at haste. It is a wonderful piece of cartoon illustration full of energy and humour. Love it.
Natural adventures 