Tag: Decay

2667. Turbo Island

Of all the wonderful street art pieces that I write about on Natural Adventures, by far the most tricky are the ones linked to dates in the calendar, such as Christmas and Halloween. This is because I am pretty much always running with a backlog of posts and because I tend to write them in advance. This means that if I take pictures of a wonderful collaboration like this one by Decay and Rezwonk on Christmas Eve (which I did) it takes several days and sometimes weeks to process and write about them. What I am saying is that my system is not very flexible and I am not very agile in my approach. No matter, I get there in the end, and the artwork is no lessim pressive for the delay.

Rezwonk and Decay, Turbo Island, Bristol, December 2019
Rezwonk and Decay, Turbo Island, Bristol, December 2019

I couldn’t get a clean front-on shot of this piece at Turbo Island, because there were several homeless people sleeping just in front of it and I didn’t want to be insensitive to their privacy (not that you have any sleeping in the open air).

The collaboration itself is yet another from these two regulars who have painted together many times this year and seem to enjoy it – I think they paint together under the crew name HTM, but I don’t know what it stands for yet. The snowy scene is beautifully crafted by both artists, but it is the twinkling lights that top the piece off perfectly, and I love the socket and plug too, a great touch. A  near perfect Christmas piece (I think it has already gone).

2642. Cheltenham 2018 (8)

Taking coals to Newcastle. Bristol-based Decay originally hails from Cheltenham, so painting at the Cheltenham Paint Festival must feel rather like a homecoming each time he does it. This magnificent piece from the 2018 festival can be dated from its design, which has been superseded by his written word ‘Decay’ for the last year or so.

Decay, Paint Festival 2018, Cheltenham, September 2019
Decay, Paint Festival 2018, Cheltenham, September 2019

As I said in the last post featuring Inkie, Cheltenham’s large walls retain pieces from previous years, so visitors can benefit not only from the current festival, but from all of them. The only snag is that organiser Dice67 has to keep finding more walls every year. Painting the entire town.

2563. M32 Spot (51)

How lucky we are to have two such magnificent writers collaborating for a November 5th Guy Fawkes piece.

Remember, remember the fifth of November, gunpowder treason and plot. So the nursery rhyme goes and in keeping with tradition, this collaboration reminds us about the near destruction of parliament in 1605 by Guy Fawkes and his associates.

Another thing that rather resonates at the moment is the face mask for Guy Fawkes which has been adopted by protestors, often subversive, who rally against sitting governments or administrations – something we are seeing a lot of in the UK at the moment, but also globally in relation to the climate emergency or, for example, the protests in Hong Kong.

Decay and Ryder, M32 spot, Bristol, November 2019
Decay and Ryder, M32 spot, Bristol, November 2019

This piece is full of the fiery flames of bonfires and the two writing styles knit together rather well. It is unusual to see a writing collaboration arranged in this way, as we are more used to seeing the components side by side. I feel I ought to point out how stunning the flame fill in Decay’s letters is, quite awesome really. A nice seasonal collaboration.

2535. Cheltenham 2018 (7)

Three wonderful and elaborate tags from three amigos, painted I think at the 2018 Cheltenham Paint Festival and still all looking in pretty good nick. From left to right the artists are Decay, Nol and The Agent.

Decay, Nol and the Agent, Paint Festival 2018, Cheltenham, September 2019
Decay, Nol and the Agent, Paint Festival 2018, Cheltenham, September 2019

Decay has been including ‘Chuck’ as a central character in most of his work for longer than I have known him. A former citizen of Cheltenham, he now lives in Bristol, but seems to paint pretty regularly in both places. Nol is a Dutch artist who will be familiar to anyone who has visited Upfest in recent years, his regular visits to Bristol are always more thasn welcome. The Agent is Bristol through and through and has encouraged his son to become one of the most inventive street artists in the city. His Minion pieces appear less regularly than they used to, but cometh a festival, cometh the man. A charming little triptych.

2505. M32 Cycle path (34)

Here we have yet another outstanding example of fabulous writing from Decay whose pieces have been an absolute highlight in Bristol this year and my goodness, there have been a great many of them – Check some of them out in this gallery.

Decay, M32 cycle path, Bristol, October 2019
Decay, M32 cycle path, Bristol, October 2019

In this one Decay has gone for his customary letter shapes, but the fill has a kind of smokey atmospheric feel to it, and the white accents give it a wonderful 3D effect. As always, his little character ‘Chuck’ makes up the letter E in the word DECAY. A lovely piece of writing.

2466. Cheltenham 2019 (5)

How fabulous to see a Decay piece in his old stomping ground of Cheltenham and what a stunner it is too. This writing, that we are all so familiar with has been given the ‘hades’ treatment, looking like the fiery colours of the Earth’s core. Actually it is a bit of a protest piece and has a message: ‘Flames rage while the Amazon burns’

Decay, Paint festival 2019, Chemtenham, September 2019
Decay, Paint festival 2019, Chemtenham, September 2019

I visited the festival twice, once on the Friday and again on the Saturday, but although I missed Decay painting this, I did catch up with him for a short while, and as ever it was a real pleasure. Like so many of his peers, he is so modest about his work which really has hit a new level this year.

2427. St Werburghs tunnel (97)

Just when you thought the Rezwonk/Decay partnership couldn’t possibly get any better, they pull this one out of the hat (see what I did there?). This is a remarkable and thoroughly enjoyable collaboration painted brilliantly in the style of Dr Seuss’ Cat in the Hat.

Rezwonk, St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2019
Rezwonk, St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2019

The left hand side of the collaboration is by Rezwonk where the writing almost takes second place to The Cat, Thing 1, the kite and flower pot and the general setting of the piece. I believe this piece to be utterly outstanding and is right up there with my favourite pieces of the year.

Rezwonk, St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2019
Rezwonk, St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2019

The Cat in particular is so well painted, like he has stepped straight off the page of a book, Thing 1 also is incredibly faithful to the book. Surely this can’t have been painted with spray cans alone?

Decay and Rezwonk, St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2019
Decay and Rezwonk, St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2019

The right hand side of the collaboration is by Decay who has introduced the character Sam I am from the book Green Eggs and Ham. He also included the goldfish in his bowl from Cat in the Hat.

Decay and Rezwonk, St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2019
Decay and Rezwonk, St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2019

Decay has gone for a simple piece of writing in his usual (2019) style which acts as a fabulous backdrop to everything else that is going on with the piece. Fortunately the colour schemes used are not polluted by the horrible light conditions in the tunnel, and the photographs of the piece have come out OK.

Thoroughly brilliant by this pairing – Bravo! Bravo!

2400. Brighton Street (3)

Another one from a month or two back from Decay which was painted for this year’s St Paul’s carnival. What is interesting about this piece is that it is a reversion to his older style of work with ‘Chuck’ in the centre of rays of concentric ovals eminating from the middle. I guess this design probably fit the space better than his more recent writing designs which are better on a ‘landscape’ wall.

Decay, Brighton Street, Bristol, July 2019
Decay, Brighton Street, Bristol, July 2019

Of course the colour selection is entirely appropriate to the carnival and many other pieces by other artists carried the same base colours. I can’t think how many pieces Decay has painted this year, and I haven’t captured them all by any means. I think that together with Rezwonk he bears the crown of most productive Bristol artist 2019, unless things change for the remainder of the year.

2387. New Stadium Road (17)

Oh I really hate the light in this bridge/tunnel it is almost impossible to get decent pictures of anything, especially near the edge of the wall. Even though the picture doesn’t do it justice, I still felt it was worth sharing this recent collabortation between Decay and Ryder with you.

Decay, New Stadium Road, Bristol, August 2019
Decay, New Stadium Road, Bristol, August 2019

Decay as you know already is simply smashing it out of the park with every piece he does at the moment, and although the general shape of his writing is reasonably consistent from piece to piece, the colour palette and shadings and backgrounds continue to amaze.

Ryder, New Stadium Road, Bristol, August 2019
Ryder, New Stadium Road, Bristol, August 2019

I haven’t posted anything from Ryder for a while now, even though he has painted quite a lot recently, no reason, it just hasn’t happened… I’ll have to raid my archive and unlock a few I think. This small part of the collaboration hosts a couple of Ryder’s trademark character ‘Rs’ one of which is shooting laser beams across the whole thing.

These pieces are two of a larger collaboration which included Tasha Bee and T-Rex (to follow).

2383. Dean Lane skate park (238)

It would seem that Rezwonk and Decay are inseparable at the moment, they are churning out so many exciting and vibrant collaborations this summer. Some of these display a common theme used by both artists or some like this, one present two very different pieces side by side.

Rezwonk, Dean Lane, Bristol, August 2019
Rezwonk, Dean Lane, Bristol, August 2019

On the left is a colourful Rezwonk piece of writing, that is reasonably simple in concept – different coloured letters with melting drips, but complex in its execution. How on earth would you start such a piece? I’m not entirely sure the white ‘dusting’ works though, if anything it looks like someone has tried to obscure the piece… it might have been better without.

Decay, Dean Lane, Bristol, August 2019
Decay, Dean Lane, Bristol, August 2019

Then on the right is the Decay piece which shares only drippiness with Rezwonk’s. In all other aspects the writing and colour selection could hardly be more different. It is rermarkable to think how much Decay’s work has come on over the last twelve months or so. Perhaps a quick squint at his updated gallery will give you some idea of the progress made.