Not very often, but often enough to satisfy the appetite, Dibz creates one of his extremely precise and complex pieces of wild style writing. I have seen a few where he uses this black and red combination which he seems to favour.
Somewhere in there it probably says DIBZ, but I’ll be darned if I can find it. The whole thing is just so sharp and crisp, and technically pretty close to perfection. This is what the highest quality writing looks like. Bravo Dibz.
This, I think, is the largest Ugar piece I have seen to date. It is on the large single wall in Dean Lane that has played host to some truly magnificent pieces over the years. Ugar’s writing style is rather unusual, being quite organic and irregular, but it is his fills that lift him above the ordinary.
He decorates his letters with an array of patterns, swirls, bubbles, subtle shadings and lines that provides his unique finish to each of his pieces. I like the work of this Hungarian artist very much, and this one is worth a long hard look.
Another supreme example of gothic graffiti writing from Hire, who seems to have a real soft spot for this left-hand end of wall in Dean Lane. He has sprayed several other pieces here before. Hire used to work quite a lot in The Bearpit, but I haven’t seen anything of his there for an age.
This is a bright, confident and strong piece that is impossible to ignore. It screams out at the passer-by ‘look at me’. The letters I think spell out HIRE – I can see it whether it is there or not. He has also written quite cryptically ‘The BF One’ along the base of some of his letters. I have seen BF written before, in fact Hire’s Instagram handle is #hireonebf, but I don’t know what it relates to. He is a man of few words. I’ll have to ask him next time I see him.
Decay has become a very, very busy man recently and this is just one of several pieces I will be sharing with you over the coming days/weeks. His transition from abstract works to writing has been seamless and aided by the carry-through of his little ‘Chuck’ character as the ‘E’ in his name.
The colours of this piece in Dean Lane work really well, and it is surprising what a big difference just the tiniest subtle dash of blue tint can do to lift a piece. I am really enjoying his work at the moment and hope you are too.
Regular readers will know how excited I get when visiting artists leave behind a little gift for us to enjoy, and so I thought it fitting to write my 200th Dean Lane post about Italian artist Filippo Mozone.
The piece is so obviously not in the style of any of the Bristol artists I am aware of and for this reason was a real curiosity. The character appears to be painted in the manga style and has a sketch-like quality to it. The large eyes remind me of ‘Marine Boy’ a cartoon I loved as a child. I am quite pleased with myself spotting the Japanese link, because I have just read in Mozone’s website biography that he was ‘was dazzled by Japanese cartoons in the 80’s and graffiti in the early 90’s‘.
This piece was a lovely surprise (and I like surprises) and is one of my favourite pieces of the year so far.
When Cheo and 3Dom get together for a collaboration it is guaranteed to be interesting and of the highest quality, and so it is with this recent piece in Dean Lane.
The whole piece is a clever section of a Cheo character, the inside workings of which are by 3Dom. The character is a graffiti artist, complete with baseball cap, backpack and spray-paint can, primed to do his best. The innards of the character and his backpack are altogether a little weird.
There is a good chance that the piece may be around for a little while, as both artists are highly respected and the paintwork itself is flawless. Having said that, there are no rules. The final photograph just provides a little context for the wall and its surroundings in the skate park. A treat of a piece.
Back now to some Bristol street art after my brief excursion to Shoreditch in London with this fine writing by Ugar. I haven’t seen too much of his work of late, but this is a wonderful piece painted alongside a Laic217 piece back in November 2018.
His style is highly distinctive with asymmetric lettering and wonderfully creative fills and decorations, the letters spelling out UGAR. I like his rather organic and unconventional approach to writing.
When these two get together, it is always a recipe for something interesting, rarely missing the mark. Sled One and Smak have collaborated on this wall before at least once and possibly many times, but this is an absolute peach.
The two have used a McDonald’s theme for this collaboration, using the corporate colours of the food giant. I confess that I find it a slightly curious brand to celebrate, but that is my snobby bias coming into play, which I am not particularly proud of. Sled One has incorporated some fries and bubbling cheese into his writing which is utterly sharp and brilliant.
Smak takes the fun a little further with a little slogan ‘the big Smak and cheese’… very droll. Again, this is a supreme piece of writing, so sharp and clean. A great coming together of ASK and RAW. I rather like the bicycle, which I had to keep moving out of the way, but it kind of goes well with the yellow of the piece. So good.
Recently Face 1st has been teaming up with an artist I have not been aware of before who likes to paint elephants, Junk. I don’t yet know much about the artist, but I like his simple style which goes so well with a very similar style used by Face 1st.
I have actually posted a collaboration by these two before fairly recently, but thought that the whole thing was by Face 1st and that he had branched out into doing elephants…he corrected me via Instagram.
I hope to see more of this pairing…there is something rather calming and meditative about this collaboration… maybe it is an elephant thing.
It is such a pleasure to come across something new in Bristol, and visiting artists are always very welcome. This is an easy piece to miss, as it is on one of the ramps at Dean Lane skate park which is easy to walk past while focussing on the larger walls behind. The stencil of Kurt Cobain (from a photo shoot for a hat retailer) is by Cartoonneros, an Argentinian artist who appears to reside in London, judging from his Instagram posts.
Although I have pictures of his work from my London trips, I haven’t yet posted anything by him… but finding this one in Bristol recently might be just the prompt I was looking for to post his London stuff. The stencil itself is nicely composed with a basic black outline and areas coloured to bring the whole thing to life.
The style reminds me a little of Bristol’s Hoax, but only a little. I am so pleased with this find, especially as any art sprayed onto skate walls become scuffed very quickly and this still looks relatively fresh. I hope Cartoonneros makes another trim to the west of England again soon.
Natural adventures 