Tag: Dean Lane

5165. Dean Lane skate park (590)

Bean, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023
Bean, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023

It seems that we have another new artist on the block who is already making a name for themselves with some imaginative character pieces dotted around the place. The artist’s name is Bean, and what better way to introduce Bean than with this fabulous character piece in Dean Lane.

Bean, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023
Bean, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023

I have a feeling that the way Bean works is to draft up a digital sketch and reproduce it on a large scale with spray paints. The way the solid fills work would indicate that approach. Some nice touched here, the monocle and zip certainly add something. I have a feeling that we are going to see an awful lot of Bean this year, judging by the work rate over the last month or two.

5163. Dean Lane skate park (589)

Smak, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2023
Smak, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2023

This container on the elevated skate park platform, adjacent to the basketball courts, gets quite a lot of graffiti action – more often than not it plays host to throw ups and tagging, but occasionally it is adorned with something a little more classy, and that is the case with this Smak piece.

Smak, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2023
Smak, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2023

Smak, like several other writers in Bristol, has been something of a landmark, a heartbeat, of the graffiti writing scene. Ever-present, albeit with some short breaks, and always turning out quality pieces.  This is a beautifully conceived and crafted piece. The colours work so well together, everything is on point, even the (deliberately) cloudy bits. Fine work, in a modest setting, from one of Bristol’s best.

5157. Dean Lane skate park (588)

Kool Hand, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2023
Kool Hand, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2023

Kool Hand’s work just gets better and better and in this piece he returns to his trusty baseball cap-wearing orangutan, but rather than being a flat face on piece, he has added a three-quarter profile and depth to his character.

Kool Hand, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2023
Kool Hand, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2023

There is loads of movement in the basketball, which you can imagine is spinning on the orangutan’s finger. The whole piece is beautifully finished and set on a grey urban skyscape with tall buildings on the horizon line. I rate this piece very highly because it marks a shift to a new level for the artist.

5144. Dean Lane skate park (587)

Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2023
Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2023

It is great to see that Hire is getting out a bit more these days. His stunning pieces have been a constant backdrop in Natural Adventures over the last few years, alongside other favourite artists. His work is always beautifully presented, and he appears to take pride in his work, albeit incredibly modestly.

Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2023
Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2023

This piece spells out BF, which old ‘sieve brain’ here has forgotten despite being told what it stood for, only last week. The letters are crafted in his jagged writing style, tempered with a smoothness that has crept into his work more of late. The red centre and brown shading around the outside complement the work expertly. Imagine what this would look like without the accompaniments. Classy work, and a classy shadowed signature too.

5143. Dean Lane skate park (586)

Blimma Blamma, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023
Blimma Blamma, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023

This is another debut for an artist on Natural Adventures. I have been aware of Blimma Blamma’s unusual characters in Bristol for quite a while now, but only recently found out who they were, thanks to Instagram.

Blimma Blamma, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023
Blimma Blamma, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023

Blimma Blamma has a very distinct style and paints a character unlike anything else you might see about the place. I’m not entirely certain, but the character to me looks like a man inside a bear costume, with his face peering out of the bear’s mouth. Distinctive additions are the pink belly button and nipples, which look like those tiny ‘iced gem’ biscuits you used to get as a kid. Slightly curious and intriguing piece – more to come from the archives soon.

5131. Dean Lane skate park (585)

Nugmoose, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023
Nugmoose, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023

I would think that it is fair to say that Nugmoose is one of the most original artists in Bristol, and his ‘organic alien’ style is unlike anything else we see in the city. He usually paints alongside Mommy Nature these days, but unfortunately, when I got to photograph this, her adjacent jelly piece had already been painted over. You’ve got to be quick in this game.

Nugmoose, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023
Nugmoose, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023

Quite what goes on in Nugmoose’s mind is unfathomable, but his pieces always generate a certain amount of curiosity. He has a way of combining alien writing with organic forms, and he has treated us to a couple of humanoid aliens, a squid-type creature and a couple of alien items of fast food, or so it looks. Weird and compelling.

5129. Dean Lane skate park (594)

What Katy Made Next, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023
What Katy Made Next, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023

I have an interesting and rather close relationship with squid. The reason this blog exists, and why it is called Natural Adventures, is that It was a way of digitising a journal I kept when I worked in the Falkland Islands in 1987, much of the time being spent on a Japanese squid fishing boat called the Koei Maru 30. You can read the journal here (up to where I have reached so far).

What Katy Made Next, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023
What Katy Made Next, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023

This is a wonderful squid piece painted by What Katy Made Next at the Bristol Mural Collective paint Jam at the start of March. It is a fine piece that captures the colours and vibrancy of the cephalopod set on an Earth-like background. The very first piece I painted in my garden was also a squid with the letters SCOOJ concealed (rather cleverly, I thought). It is high time I did some more spraying of my own.

Scooj, Squid, Bristol, May 2019
Scooj, Squid, Bristol, May 2019

 

5127. Dean Lane skate park (583)

Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023
Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023

This door at the far end of the skate park gets quite a lot of attention from artists and taggers, and is a candidate for the ‘One Wall‘ series of posts that I do. This time it hosts a lovely rabbit piece from Hire. These are not to be confused with other rabbits that were a common feature in Bristol, until the artist, Eldey (followmyrabbits) was jailed for rape and attempted rape in 2021. Hire’s rabbits were the original Bristol rabbits and have an element of edge to them.

Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023
Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023

A yellow rabbit on a green door is the stuff of children’s picture books, I had a particular favourite called ‘Go Dog Go’, which features coloured dogs and trees and so on… I digress. This is another fine rabbit from Hire in a long sequence going back to when I first started photographing graffiti and street art in Bristol.

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5118. Dean Lane skate park (582)

Maybe, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023
Maybe, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023

There was a time last year when Maybe was painting roughly once a week, but he has definitely slowed down of late… perhaps it is the cold weather. This is a rather nice large piece in the skate park which is quite tricky to photograph because of the angle of the slope and the size of the piece.

Maybe, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023
Maybe, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023

Featuring his interlocking faces in a variety of contrasting colours, this triangular piece demonstrates how far Maybe has come in developing his early concepts from a couple of years ago. Some great use of blended fills and dark shading show a significant improvement in sophistication of his contemporary work.

Maybe, Brunel Way, Bristol, March 2021
Maybe, Brunel Way, Bristol, March 2021

5113. Dean Lane skate park (581)

Amy Lee Jones, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023
Amy Lee Jones, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023

This is another piece from the Bristol Mural Collective paint jam on 8 March to celebrate International Women’s Day – and what better way to celebrate than to paint a few walls.

Amy Lee Jones, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023
Amy Lee Jones, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023

This piece, on the right, is by Amy Lee Jones, an artist whose website states that she is from Leiden in the Netherlands, although I am guessing she is living or staying in Bristol at the moment. Primarily a studio artist who is focussing on abstract realism portraits, this piece is inspired by @reedamberx, and is quite different to her studio work.

To the left is a very powerful portrait piece, which I think is also by Amy Lee Jones, but can’t be completely certain. The style looks the same. These paint jams are always a great opportunity to be introduced to a whole raft of Bristol artists that might otherwise be overlooked.