These pictures are my second attempt at capturing this fine bird piece by Mr Crawls, the first effort resulted in photographs that had the piece in brighter light but scattered with shadows. Sometimes overcast days are much better for certain spots, such as Greenbank and Sparke Evans Park, as well as anywhere with overhanging trees or herbage.
Mr Crawls, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2024
Mr Crawls has been having a great few months, especially since joining up with Mote, a partnership that appears to have stretched both artists with some terrific outcomes. In this bird piece, Mr Crawls has used his favoured chrome background as a backdrop for his raptor(?) character sporting a rather nice hat. Although Mr Crawls has been experimenting with all sorts of creative monsters, it is comforting when he returns to one of his classic birds.
The machine that is Dibz and Fade continues to produce outstanding collaborations, and this one in Dean Lane is a cracker. The Dark Knight is a popular icon for street artists, and Dibz and Fade have gone with the darker variant of the caped crusader, unlike the comedic, lighter cartoonish options they might have gone with
Dibz and Fade, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2024
When I asked Fade how I should attribute the artwork in their pieces, he suggested that where the lines become blurred, just label them Dibz and Fade. The writing is attributable, with Fade on the left and Dibz on the right, but the rest of the work is collaborative. A well-thought-out piece, tidily presented – what else would you expect?
I mentioned yesterday that you’d be seeing more of Noise today, and true to my promise, here is another fabulous piece from the artist. Noise has a very distinctive style, but I find it quite difficult to describe. His letters tend to be quite thick and nicely proportioned, and which work equally well in upper or lower case. His fills are dynamic, with plenty of interest.
Noise, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2024
Although this piece from Noise was completed, the wall opposite was being painted by other artists, and some of their kit was strewn around this wall, which I think adds a little to the overall ambience of Dean Lane. The fills in this piece are outstanding, and it is lifted (rather unsubtly) by the red drop shadow on a black background. Still more to come from Noise in what has been a busy month or so.
Chill, Face 1st and Zake, Dean Lane, Bristol, February 2024
One of the strong themes of Bristol street art in 2023 was the continuing presence of the PWA crew as a major force in the city’s graffiti scene. That presence has seamlessly continued into 2024. This February triptych from Chill, Face 1st and Zake in Dean Lane is part of that contiuity.
Chill, Dean Lane, Bristol, February 2024
I feel that I rather take Chill for granted a little, simply expecting every piece he paints to be as brilliant as the last, and in this respect he never disappoints. He has been introducing more colour into his pieces and adding more points of interest in beautiful doodle formats around his characters, such as the flower and little bird here. I feel that Chill has or desires to have a strong connection with nature, which I applaud.
Face 1st, Dean Lane, Bristol, February 2024
Face 1st is a hero of Bristol street art, and an ever-present throughout the nine years I have been writing about it. In this piece, a girl with big FACE hair, Face 1st has chosen some bright and striking colours that scream out very loudly from the wall behind the fence. There is some revisiting his brain theme and lots of splodges and drippy bits. Lots of fun here, although this girl doesn’t seem to be too happy.
Zake, Dean Lane, Bristol, February 2024
Rounding off the triptych is an unusual piece by Zake, who has incorporated a couple of ideas I haven’t seen from him before. I love it that artists often choose to push the boundaries of their craft. The orange lenses of the glasses the character is wearing work very nicely, the challenge here being to keep the face intact and seamless behind the orange colour. The other weirdness is the eye in the mouth, for which I have no explanation, it is just a bit odd and unsettling. The three PWA boys have smashed it once again.
I don’t do this too often, but I forgot about today’s posts until just now (8.42am). I have a lot on my mind. I am in Buxton in Derbyshire with work. Today’s posts are going to be super-short.
Zake, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2024
A brilliant pairing of Face 1st and Zake from the PWA crew. Zake smashes it with this gorgeous cartoon portrait full of texture and depth.
Face 1st, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2024
The writing from Face 1st is a little unusual but nonetheless captivating. Spelling out FACE and no smiling girls this time.
Awkward tends to drop his pieces in twos and threes, which is something he can easily do because his mega-tag characters are generally quite small. On this occasion he painted one on the door at the bottom right-hand end of Dean Lane and the other on the wall of the swimming pool, about 50 meters apart.
Awkward, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2024
This door is a candidate for the One Wall, Many Faces series of posts which I will get on to when I have a bit of spare time (thumbs diary, that’ll be 2029 then). Awkward has created a vision in yellow, with vibrant blue eyes and speech bubble set on a gorgeous black and red background. The characters he paints are a little bit on the eccentric, some might say, weird side, but they are distinctive and compelling.
Awkward, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2024
The character on the swimming pool wall uses the same three colours which are rotated, so the face is blue, the eyes and background yellow and the speech bubbles red. The writing in the speech bubbles is usually a signature, AWK WARD split over two lines, and in this piece he has included a year date ’24’. It is always a great bonus to find his work.
Here we have yet another classy piece from Biers, who is enjoying an extended period of inspiration and productivity, he really is turning out some banging graffiti writing/character combinations, and challenging my knowledge of popular cartoon culture from the last few decades (which is, I’m afraid rather rudimentary).
Biers, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2024
The colours and drippy fills in the WD40 are fantastic, and all very tidily finished. The ‘0’ I am guessing is an Easter egg, and the character emerging from it is Jesus, so I have to assume that the piece was painted over, or close to, the Easter weekend. Such is his purple patch these days, that I have several of his pieces that are becoming ‘trapped’ in my archive, which I really ought to do something about.
Laic217, Zake and Chill, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2024
This is an unusual collaboration from the PWA crew notable by the absence of either Face 1st or Soap, the driving forces behind the crew for some years. Not that the absence diminishes in any way this curious collection of character pieces from Laic217, Zake and Chill.
Laic217, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2024
On the left is something of a trippy throwback from Laic217, with one of his face distortion pieces that are both admirable and disturbing in equal measure. A welcome return of the bucket hat badged with a smiley face sits on top of a stretched out portrait, made up of three faces. I suspect this party animal is enjoying some hallucinations in this captured moment. Weird and wonderful stuff from Laic217.
Zake, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2024
The middle section of the collaboration is occupied by another slightly weird character piece from Zake this time. A buxom silver-haired lady is pictured in front of a rural house, with a porch and smoking chimney. I have no idea what the story is here, but I think that Zake is enjoying pushing boundaries.
Chill, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2024
Rounding off the collaboration is a charming portrait of what looks like a Mid-West farmer from the early 20th century with a pitchfork in hand and some chickens. The piece is absolutely brilliant, and all the more admirable for being painted in its entirety in greyscale. I have tried to look for a theme that binds the three pieces but cannot find one. Perhaps the theme is having fun painting together.
Laic217, Zake and Chill, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2024
The Easter break from his studies has been a productive time for Bean, and I expect we’ll be fortunate enough to see a whole load more in the summer holiday. With each piece, Bean’s work appears to get more sophisticated in both composition and execution.
Bean, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2024
In this piece he features a man, who looks like he might be a little upset, with steam coming out of his ears. On his finger, he is dangling a tomato(?) which is of course normal behaviour… not. There is so much great detail in the piece and plenty of perspective, and the medallion with his signature is a fabulous touch. I am pleased to see again that Bean has put a bit of a buffer background to differentiate his work from the noise of previous graffiti on the surrounding wall. Outstanding work from a young artist who I think will be wowing us for some years to come.
There has been no stopping Biers and his WD40 pieces this year, each one a real pleasure to find and photograph. His tried and tested formula of writing his letters and incorporating a character in the ‘0’ continues to delight and keeps his inspiration fresh. The idea is one adopted by other writing/character combination artists such as Zaenone, and builds a series of ‘collectible’ works.
Biers, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2024
It looks like Biers spent plenty of time with this one… it is neat and tidy with plenty of clean sharp lines and borders. Although the letters are generally fairly static from piece to piece, the two elements that give Biers scope for inspiration are the colour scheme and the character. Although these colours are not my personal favourite, he has worked them superbly into the horizontal layers with some drift shapes between them. The character is a treat, although I don’t know what popular culture cartoon he comes from. Altogether an awesome piece from Biers.
Natural adventures 