Dean Lane – Page 19 – Natural adventures

6311. Dean Lane skate park (742)

Well, this is surely one of the more unusual pieces from Hire, that indicates he is enjoying pushing boundaries. When I first encountered his work a few years ago, his USP was his spiky, sharp letters that could poke your eye out if you weren’t careful. Contrast that with this organic green piece spelling HIRE.

Each letter resembles a bushy tree with green branches and canopy, in various orientations. The letters are set on a dark conifer woodland silhouette. This is a very nicely considered and executed piece from Hire – connecting with nature.

6305. Dean Lane skate park (741)

Nice One, Dean Lane, Bristol, August 2024

Over the past few months some rather nice script writing has appeared all over Bristol, with the words ‘Nice One’. I had nothing more to go on about the artist, until now, when a signed portrait by the artist appeared in Dean Lane recently. Unfortunately the identity of the artist remains a mystery, and until I know more I will refer to them as Nice One.

This is a fantastic portrait piece painted in a ‘brush-stroke’ style, as if it were a charcoal sketch in a black book. The proportions and perspectives are superb, the work of a trained artist I would guess. I love the expression on the character’s face. The bold ‘e’ in the signature is something I’ll be looking out for. More to come from this Natural Adventures debutant soon.

6275. Dean Lane skate park (740)

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 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.

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.

6269. Dean Lane skate park (739)

In Dean Lane on the edge of the curved wall, Daz Cat has painted one of his trademark cats, but how his artwork has come on. In recent years, he has worked on and improved, immeasurably, his depth and features, which in his earlier work were rather flat. I guess I am saying that his work has become much more sophisticated. If you look at the image below, you will see what I mean.

This cheeky cat, sporting a bit of a quiff, is licking his face, something that cats seem to delight in being able to do. While this is a bit of a quick ‘stamp’ it is nonetheless really rather good.

6257. Dean Lane skate park (738)

There is no doubt in my mind. I simply have to publish a gallery of great graffiti writing by Noise, because his work is now so completely bedded down in Bristol, something he has managed to do in a relatively short amount of time. As well as working solo, he has also teamed up with a host of other Bristol artists in his celebrated collaborations, which has helped him to become super-established.

This magnificent gold and red piece, painted on one of my favourite walls, is big and bold, and has the tiniest nod to calligraffiti on the up ticks on the tops of some of the letters. I like the shout-outs to Dibz and Fade, who were probably painting other walls in Dean Lane at the time, and interestingly the words ‘Joburg-Bristol’ which makes me think that perhaps Noise has South African connections.

6256. Dean Lane skate park (737)

Foksymoron, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2024

Living in Bristol (as I do) and tracking down street/graffiti art (as I do) it is impossible not to be familiar with a stylised fox mega-tag that appears in all corners of the city. The foxes are painted by Foksymoron, and this is by far the largest one I have seen yet, in Dean Lane for Dean Lane Hardcore.

This skate ramp has often been decorated by Feek for the Dean Lane Hardcore event, but not this time, and Foksymoron appears to have done a pretty good job, filling the space. Foxes have a long and studied history in Bristol, and it is great to see so many featured on the street art scene. I have a host of foxes by Foksymoron in my archives, and feel that perhaps I ought to dig them out and post them all together… watch this space

6240. Dean Lane skate park (736)

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.

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’.

6225. Dean Lane skate park (736)

Zake and Face 1st, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2024

I’ll let you into a small and rather unimportant secret… I wrote this post yesterday because today I am going to visit Cheltenham tomorrow for the Cheltenham Paint Festival, which this year has an extraordinary line up, so expect some rather nice posts in about 2-3 weeks time. I am so pleased for Dice67, AKA Andy Davies, who has been running the festival since its inception, which is just becoming bigger and bigger with each year.

This is a rather nice collaboration from PWA duo Zake and Face 1st in the narrow bit between a building and a skate ramp, hence the rather odd angle in the top photograph. Zake has painted a character yelling, painted with as much relief and texture as it is possible to get.

Face 1st has painted his name in rather fetching reds and pinks with some interesting cross-hatching in the ‘c’ and in the hair of the laughing girl. I like the way that Face 1st has been experimenting with his writing a lot lately, although I miss his full body character pieces – I guess you can’t have it all!

6223. Dean Lane skate park (735)

Recently I have managed to miss out on a couple of Hire pieces, because I have just been too slow, and for some reason, his work has been getting overpainted quite quickly lately. I think it is bad timing on his part more than anything more sinister than that. So I was particularly pleased to catch this one.

I have been an enormous fan of Hire’s since the first pieces I saw, many years ago. He consistently turns out brilliant graffiti writing and occasional rabbits to such a high level of precision. In this piece he has used the willing combination of pink and blue to create his HIRE lettering, but what I particularly like here is the interaction between the letters and the brown background, which is impacted by, and augments the letter shapes. Very nice work from Hire.

6217. Dean Lane skate park (734)

Kid Crayon, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2024

I am hugely encouraged to see that Kid Crayon had rediscovered his appetite for painting on the streets, or perhaps he has had a slight lull in his commercial work, whatever the reasons, he has painted several pieces of late, including this surfing polar bear behind the railings at Dean Lane.

The combination piece features a rather cool polar bear surfing on an orange board in a sea of bubbles. The words Kid Crayon create a fine backdrop for the bear. Readers will know how much I like Kid Crayon’s work, however, this piece seems to lack something from my point of view. I think that maybe the black background isn’t right, or perhaps the bubbles don’t quite work, I don’t quite know, but when it comes to Kid Crayon I do set my expectations very high, so am probably just being a bit hyper-critical. More to come soon.

	beth on Champions
	paulh121 on 7658. Tobacco Factory –…
	paulh121 on Champions
	Bill Bisgood on Champions
	paulh121 on 7657. Stillhouse Lane –…

	beth on Champions
	paulh121 on 7658. Tobacco Factory –…
	paulh121 on Champions
	Bill Bisgood on Champions
	paulh121 on 7657. Stillhouse Lane –…

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