EAT – Natural adventures

5117. Cattle Market Road (14)

SPZero76 and Kid Crayon, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, March 2023

Sometimes I am so far behind the curve I actually surprise myself. I think I was aware of this wonderful winter wonderland piece by SPZero76 and Kid Crayon, otherwise known as the EAT crew, from last Christmas, but I simply haven’t visited the hoarding in such a long time.

SPZero76, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, March 2023

The whole piece is a continuous story and a great collaboration, with the left-hand side painted by SPZero76 and the right-hand side by Kid Crayon. Inevitably, SPZero76 has included a robot snowball-launcher alongside a woman throwing a snowman’s head.

Kid Crayon, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, March 2023

Kid Crayon has painted a couple of young lads throwing and launching their own snowballs back. Beautifully sprayed by both artists, this is a fun, cartoon-style piece that really captures the spirit of winter, and snow that most Bristolians can only dream of (even though we had a little bit of the white stuff this year). We just don’t get to see enough by the EAT crew these days. Perhaps they will get busy on the streets this year.

4566. Dean Lane skate park (509)

You don’t get to see pieces by SPZero76, outside of festivals or commissions, as often as a few years ago, so stumbling across one was both a rare and joyful occasion. This recent piece was part of a collaborative wall, marking the first anniversary of the death of producer and rapper MF Doom.

SPZero76’s take on this anniversary was to paint a cartoon-style version of Marvel villain Dr Octopus asking ‘what’s a Doom?’. This is a hilarious piece and perfectly painted, sharp and clean, and just the kind of thing we are so privileged to see in Bristol. It would be great to see more of these casual pieces about the place from SPZero76.

SPZero76

A gallery of extraordinary cartoon-style pieces from the magnificent SPZero76

Crews – Lost Souls and EAT

All photographs by Scooj

SPZero76, Greville Street, Bristol, June 2021, Upfest 21

SPZero76, Thomas Lane, Bristol, March 2021

SPZero76, Millpond Street, Bristol, February 2017

SPZero76 and Kid Crayon, M32 roundabout, Bristol, January 2020

SPZero76, M32 roundabout, Bristol, January 2020

SPZero76, Squirl and Kid Crayon, Millpond Street, Bristol, October 2019

SPZero76, Millpond Street, Bristol, October 2019

SPZero76 and Kid Crayon, Millpond Street, Bristol, Jabnuary 2019

SPZero76, Millpond Street, Bristol, Jabnuary 2019

SPZero76, Greville Street, Bristol, December 2018

Kid Crayon and SPZero76, Millpond Street, Bristol, December 2018

SPzero76 and Kid Crayon, Millpond Street, Bristol, May 2018

SPZero76, Anchor Road, Bristol, October 2017

SPZero76, M32 Spot, Bristol, September 2017

SPZero76, Lower Approach Road, Bristol, June 2017

Kid Crayon and SPZero, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2017

SPZero76 and Kid Crayon, Millpond Street, Bristol, May 2017

SPZero76, Millpond Street, Bristol, May 2017

SPZero76, The Bearpit, Bristol, February 2017

SPZero76 and Kid Crayon, Millpond Street, Bristol, February 2017

SPZero76, St Werberghs tunnel, Bristol, June 2016

SPZero76 and Mr Wigz, Stokes Croft, Bristol, 17 April 2016

SPZero76, Gloucester Road, Bristol February 2016

2730. Dean Lane skate park (276)

Hurrah! Seeing a wall like this just makes me so happy. A collaboration from two outstanding Bristol artists Kid Crayon and Subtle. Such a nicely prepped wall and great colour selection. Oh I do like this.

Kid Crayon, Dean Lane, Bristol, January 2020

On the left is a fabulous Kid Crayon piece which sadly had been ‘got to’ by some idiot before I managed to photograph it. What possible joy can a person get from spraying over the face and eyes of a nice piece like this? Of course, apart from the character (and return of the floating crayon) the other outstanding feature is the pine car air freshener forming the A in crayon. Typically KC and typically appealing.

Subtle, Dean Lane, Bristol, January 2020

On the right Subtle’s contribution is superb. Beautifully proportioned letters creating the word Subtle are combined from two colour schemes, one with white shades and one with black, the whole lot coming together neatly. I don’t know who Sophy is… why would I? But I love the shout out to her. This is a beautifully presented collaborative wall.

Kid Crayon and Subtle, Dean Lane, Bristol, January 2020

2712. M32 roundabout J3 (192)

I am beginning to form the opinion that EAT crew are becoming something of a collaborative force in Bristol. EAT are of course SPZero76 and Kid Crayon and the pairing, whose styles are light years apart, seem to be able to create great work together like these two characters playing conkers (remember that?).

SPZero76 is an extraordinary character artist and has an amazing ability to create an insane amount of detail in his pieces, and his style is quite sharp and pointy, if that makes any sense at all.

Kid Crayon, M32 roundabout, Bristol, January 2020

On the other hand, Kid Crayon has a much softer style with plenty of curves and roundness about it. Stitch the two together and you have a complementary mix that somehow works very well indeed, better than you might expect.

Kid Crayon, in particular has been very busy this year already, and that is music to my eyes, because he pretty much tops my list of Bristol artists and I have been enjoying watching him grow as an artist over the last six years or so.

In addition to the fabulous collaboration, these two have signed the piece by commandeering a waste bin and leaving two little self-portraits. Creative, imaginative and fun. Looking forward to seeing more eat collabs in 2020.

2006. Millpond Street (6)

It is great to see yet another EAT crew piece on this exclusive wall on the side of Domestic Drain Services. Their last piece has been over sprayed in what feels like the blink of an eye because it had suffered from being getting rasined on, and the paint had not stuck to the wall leaving behind a bit of a mess (one that I liked incidentally, but there we go).

EAT are of course SPZero76 and Kid Crayon who have formed a joyous partnership bringing together their contrasting styles in a seemingly effortless way. SPZero76 has a sharp clean and highly detailed style and Kid Crayon a much softer, rounded and organic style, each one exemplified by the writing in the middle of the piece.

On the left of the collaboration are a couple of characters chilling out to some music and using some spray paint – SPZero76 has replaced the ’94’ on the spray can with a ’76’. I am guessing that the 76 in SPZero’s name relates to the year of his birth, it would kind of make sense.

Kid Crayon, Millpond Street, Bristol, Jabnuary 2019

On the right is a character (is it a self-portrait?) also spraying and in his rucksack along with his roller and spray can is a fish. I do very much like Kid Crayon’s obsession with fish…it is something I can relate to. All in all this is a fun piece and more than makes up for the loss of its predecessor.

1926. Millpond Street (5)

When Kid Crayon and SPZero76 get together as ‘EAT’ crew, there is almost always a creative explosion that follows. This brilliant piece, which is a kind of quasi commission, they get paid in paint, is on a wall favoured by these two.

The theme for the piece highlights plastic in our seas, something that thankfully is front of mind for so many of us at the moment. In Kid Crayon’s side of the piece, the king and queen of the sea look less than impressed with the amount of plastic in their domain, and the fish look pretty troubled too.

Although the styles of these two artists are strikingly different, they seem to work well together. SPZero76 gives us a couple of characters, a robot and swimmer in highly protective gear venturing out into the polluted sea for a surf. What is really clever about this piece is that they have incorporated bits of their previous work on this wall, such as the yellow VW Beetle, by leaving them partially exposed, thus becoming part of the pollution in this piece. Really clever work.

I always love a piece with a big story.

Update – I have since found out that the ‘special effect’ was not intentional but rather rain damage. The piece has been replaced already by the EAT crew.

1643. Upfest 2018 (5)

Kid crayon is a favourite Bristol artist of mine and his contribution to Upfest this year was straight forward and fun. I’m not too sure what the crocodile, triangle and cake are all about, but I’m sure they have some kind of meaning. The piece also carries birthday wishes for Meg.

I think Kid Crayon had seen the forecast for Sunday and had managed to complete his piece by early Saturday afternoon. I managed to swing by when he was painting and chatted for a short while. It is one of the great things about Upfest that you get to see works in progress and figure out how these artists go about their work.

1508. Millpond Street (4)

Here’s another EAT crew (SPZero76 and Kid Crayon) collaboration on the side wall of Domestic Drain Services. Maybe once or twice a year, this company invites artists to paint the walls in return for free paint – or so I understand.

One wall was painted by Paul Monsters and featured on this blog a little while ago. This wall has been crafted into a comic strip which was described by Keith Hopewell, AKA SPZero76 on his Instagram account as follows:

‘This comic tells the tale of a race to find the Holy Grail in a post apocolyptic giant robot wasteland. Biker woman vs the pigs of doom (and their herder). Who will find the treasure first?’

The biker woman and robot wasteland are by SPZero76 and the pigs and their hereder by Kid Crayon. I still find this pairing of artists a little unusual, because their styles are so different, but somehow they pull it off every time they work together.

I particularly like the book end characters – Biker woman and the pig herder who reminds me a little of Woody or Andy his owner from Toy Story. The whole piece is crazy, imaginative and inspiring. I love it when these two get together, you just never know what will happen.

1235. Upfest 2017 (119)

At the Ashton Gate Upfest site, which was opened up for the first time in 2017, there was a very long wall running down the entire side of the stadium. Certain sections of this wall were allocated to crews, who sprayed together to create their pieces. This one is by Kid Crayon who was joining up with the Lost Souls crew and Eat.

I am a big fan of Kid Crayon’s work, and it was his wheatpastes that originally stoked my interest in Bristol street art in the first place, so I have a lot to thank him for. This is a wonderful and colourful piece of a big fish in a sardine can. I don’t know the meaning of the piece, but I know I like it a lot.

Anything to do with fish tends to tick my box, so street art with a fish is a bit of a bonanza.

	paulh121 on 5274. Greenbank (82)
	paulh121 on 5273. M32 roundabout J3 (…
	Matt on 5273. M32 roundabout J3 (…
	Teresa on Thursday doors – 8 June…
	Sheree on Thursday doors – 8 June…

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: