Tag: Dean Lane

3944. Dean Lane skate park (427)

Another Dibz piece in one of his favourite spots. This is a magnificent piece of graffiti writing, made all the better with the appearance of a little Marvin the Martian character, adding interest. Marvin the Martian is a bit of a favourite with street artists and has made several appearances on Natural Adventures in the past.

Dibz, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2021
Dibz, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2021

The colours of the letters are sublime, and the explosive oranges and reds around the border work so well. The Marvin the Martian character seems to have a wonderful 3D quality about him, not a straightforward flat cartoon that you might expect. This is a highly accomplished and stunning piece of writing from the master.

Deamze, Hill Street, Bristol, October 2018
Deamze, Hill Street, Bristol, October 2018
Elvs, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2020
Elvs, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2020
Dtor, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2020
Dtor, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2020

3919. Dean Lane skate park (426)

It is a very good thing indeed that Flava136 has decided to visit Bristol several times recently, and long may it last – perhaps he should move here, that would be nice. His work is some of the cleanest you could hope to see, and by that I mean that everything, from the Emulsion backdrop to all the elements in his work are left with clean lines. There are no border lines tidying up little blemishes. Everything is perfectly painted, and this takes a lot of skill and patience.

Flava136, Dean Lane, Bristol, August 2021
Flava136, Dean Lane, Bristol, August 2021

The customary monster, with big teeth, is joined by a green smiley and decorated with all sorts of shapes, lines and colour schemes. The truth being tyold, I don’t think I can get enough of his pieces, each one being turned out immaculately. I don’t think I have seen a scrappy piece from the artist, ever. Superb piece, and more to come.

3914. Dean Lane skate park (425)

For the last year or so, there has been absolutely no stopping Dibz. I don’t know what happened (apart from the obvious pandemic impacts), but his occasional, sometimes rare, appearances turned into something approaching weekly. Of course this is simply great news for those of us who like his work.

Dibz, Dean Lane, Bristol, August 2021
Dibz, Dean Lane, Bristol, August 2021

There are several key hints that help to identify Dibz’ work and this piece illustrates them nicely. He usually preps his wall nicely so that everything is neat and tidy. The overall form of his writing is diamond shaped, starting and ending small with a fatter middle. His wildstyle letters usually spell out DIBZ but this can be tricky to make out sometimes. He usually adds depth to his letters with a well worked 3D shadow without a border.

So beautifully turned out, this piece is an archetypal Dibz work. Utterly brilliant.

3910. Dean Lane skate park (424)

There are times when you get lucky, right? And I got so lucky with this early evening ‘dog walk’ in Bedminster and Dean Lane in particular, as SkyHigh was just finishing off this remarkable block graffiti writing piece, that he is so well known for.

SkyHigh, Dean Lane, Bristol, August 2021
SkyHigh, Dean Lane, Bristol, August 2021

I don’t know what we in Bristol have done to deserve this, but this is the second visit by SkyHigh in as many months. We chatted for a while, as he tidied up the piece and it became blindingly obvious that I was in the presence of a perfectionist. Every small blemish was addressed and made good.

SkyHigh, Dean Lane, Bristol, August 2021
SkyHigh, Dean Lane, Bristol, August 2021

The block letters have become second nature for the artist and he makes what looks terribly complicated, simple… he paints with the confidence and ease of someone at the top of their game. I love the inclusion of the ‘Hello my name is’ sticker in the letter ‘I’, a common icon in street art. Another stunner from the London artist.

3883. Dean Lane skate park (424)

I tend to know what I expect to see from Dibz, so it always comes as a bit of a surprise when he turns out something different, and this was one such surprise from a week or two back at Dean Lane.

Dibz, Dean Lane, Bristol, August 2021
Dibz, Dean Lane, Bristol, August 2021

The style of the piece might be rather different from the usual fare, but the quality is up with his customary high standard. The desert island scene is cleverly thought out with both day and night views captured inside and outside the DIBZ lettering respectively. Clean, tidy and dreaming of holidays. Soon a time will come when we can put our dreams aside and achieve our heart’s desire, soon.

3873. Upfest 2021 75×75 (40)

This is such a wonderful piece on one of the most tricky walls to photograph in Bedminster (and there are a great many of them), but SkyHigh has worked with it rather than against it, and told me all about it when I met him while painting it.

SkyHigh, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2021, Upfest 21
SkyHigh, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2021, Upfest 21

The wall is in front of a little green which has been planted with trees, so photographing the full wall can only be achieved from the sides or through the trees. Taking this into account, SkyHigh has introduced a woodland scene as a backdrop and added a beautiful Bristol fox.

SkyHigh, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2021, Upfest 21
SkyHigh, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2021, Upfest 21

The block letters spell out SKYHIGH and are painted in a vibrant blue colour that contrasts brilliantly with the woodland greens and browns.

SkyHigh, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2021, Upfest 21
SkyHigh, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2021, Upfest 21

The whole scene might be a little more visible in the winter when the young trees have shed their leaves. I don’t think it really matters though because of the way the artist has approached the piece and incorporated the trees as part of the overall effect.

SkyHigh, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2021, Upfest 21
SkyHigh, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2021, Upfest 21

SkyHigh is a highly skilled artist and demonstrates this with the stunning fox portrait to the right hand side of the piece, one of the best street art foxes I have seen. SkyHigh is always, always welcome in Bristol.

3868. Dean Lane skate park (423)

From time to time unusual pieces appear in the regular spots in Bristol, unusual not only for the content or subject matter but also for the rarity of the artist’s work. This is a piece from a street artist called Stif or Stiff, who I know absolutely nothing about, but who has hit this Dean Lane wall a couple of times over recent months.

Stiff, Dean Lane, Bristol, January 2021
Stiff, Dean Lane, Bristol, January 2021

This piece from January this year features a kind of of robot wasp creature in grey and lime green. Definitely an unusual piece but set out nicely on the black background. I have another more recent piece from the artist which I will try to post soon.

3854. Dean Lane skate park (422)

Bandito is another artist who is ridiculously underrepresented in Natural Adventures. I have quite a few unpublished pictures of his work going back years, but he just hasn’t made it into the blog as often as he should, or as I thought. I hope to put this right over coming months, if ever the relentless production of new pieces ever slows.

Bandito, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2021
Bandito, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2021

This piece on the left hand side of the curved wall at Dean Lane is fairly typical of his writing style. Nothing too flashy, but the name Bandito always stands out from the background. His work is often quite long and slim compared to other writers, probably because of the number of letters he has. Nice to see.

3842. Dean Lane skate park (421)

Brace yourself for a flurry of Sake pieces. Sake is an old-school artist who has been painting since the 1980s in Bristol, but I haven’t ever posted any of his work. I don’t know why – maybe it is because I have never met him before, that is until last week, when I caught up with him twice in St Werburghs tunnel. I told him that I would look through my archives and see if I had any older stuff of his that I could share. He was  very pleased to hear this, and is keen to stop for a drink soon to talk about street art – I just need to find some time.

Sake, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2021
Sake, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2021

This piece is on the curved wall at Dean Lane and is a repair to a similar piece he painted on this exact wall a few weeks ago and which got badly tagged. I think I have pictures of that original. Alongside his letters ‘SAKE’ is a Vaughn Bodē lizard, which is a favourite character for graffiti artists along with Cheech Wizard. I think this is a theme that I’ll need to investigate further before writing too much about it now, but will return to in future. A very nice wall painted by a decent, if slightly intense, artist.

3737. Dean Lane skate park (420)

They say that necessity is the mother of invention, so when a large amount of scaffolding goes up against one of the most famous walls in Bristol what do you do?… well you simply work between the uprights like Zake has done with this small piece.

Zake, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2021
Zake, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2021

Zake is another artist who has been reasonably quiet over the last year, but has been painting just enough to ensure we don’t forget about him. The piece painted here is necessarily tall and thin to fit into a space between the scaffolding uprights. A very nice piece full of character and a rather fetching Victorian stiff collar. Great to see Zake getting really busy again with this being one of several new pieces.