In the last few months, Slakarts has had a bit of a renaissance and what fun it has been. His familiar portrait pieces have been given more body and depth and are all the better for it.
This is a perfect example of his newer work, where the character is lifted off the wall rather than being flat. Depth is an important development in street art work, and Slakarts is achieving it in bucket loads at the moment. An all round lovely piece.
An artist whose work I really rate, but never seem to have many photographs of is Conrico, or Conrico Steez as he signs himself. I think that part of this discrepancy is that he paints many of his pieces in places that I don’t tend to go all that often. Anyhow I managed to snap this rather fun column piece under Brunel Way recently.
If I am honest, circular column pieces are a pain in the backside because of the difficulty in capturing the whole thing in one shot. I often think that it would be good if phones could do panoramas the opposite way round… if that makes sense, then columns would be a piece of cake. The character face has that Conrico life about it, derived from the style he uses which is like drawing with spray paint. Good to see.
Until earlier this year, I had never come across Veee. His art just wasn’t a thing in Bristol, not that you’d know it now, it seems that there are dozens of his little pieces dotted all around the city, and this is one of the more recent ones from Dean Lane.
This small flat wall is the perfect size for Veee’s work and his ‘face’, made up of symbols, fits the space really well. Bright and colourful, Veee’s work is definitely becoming part of the furniture, and I think that he must have moved to Bristol for there to be so much of it. Watch this space for more from this artist.
The Maybe (or MaybePaints) factory continues to churn out more high quality and charming face pieces under Brunel Way. Maybe has definitely carved out a niche for himself in Bristol’s street art scene and is becoming established for what he does, and all of this in under a year.
Due to his prolific painting I have to group his pieces. If I didn’t ether wouldn’t be enough room on Natural Adventures for anyone else. This first column piece combines ideas that the artist has had, with a series of three interlocking faces, the central orange one being sandwiched by two planetary space scenes.
Another theme running through Maybe’s work is aggregating profile faces into geometric shapes, and in this piece he has three kissing pairs on three sides of a cube, which is very nicely done, adding perspective to his work.
The third piece in this group is probably my favourite and is a little less structured. It is more of a story-telling piece with one of his face characters communicating or taking a selfie on his cell phone across an oceanic sunset. Beautiful and tranquil, it should perhaps be entitled ‘face time’. All great stuff from an artist I have yet to meet.
Ooh! Creative, imaginative and lots of fun, this wonderful piece from Slakarts down in Cumberland Basin is an elaborate expansion on his regular face template. In this piece, Slakarts is telling much more of a story than simply painting up his mega-tag that we see quite a lot of in the city.
A man, a flower and a dog are the subjects of this lovely piece, and the confidence and boldness ooze out of the wall. Slakarts’ work is typified by the thick outlines and solid fills that present as clean and tidy work. There are some similarities in this work and that of Roo, which is a compliment indeed. More sophisticated stuff from Slakarts to come.
It is too easy to forget that nearly all of the artists who decorate the streets of Bristol have jobs, and that they have to fit in the painting around their work and families etc. For this reason, many artists will have peaks and troughs in activity. Slakarts, it would seem has recently emerged from one of those troughs and is firing on all cylinders with some marvellous work.
This piece on the M32 is a beautiful example of his work and is full of life and dynamism. Slakarts likes to work with big bold shapes and strong solid fills, and in this piece he has sprinkled in some additional decorative circles and dots. A lovely confident piece and another in his superb portfolio of work. More on the way.
Zake is fast becoming one of the most prolific artists in Bristol. His wonderful stylised faces are appearing all over the place with regularity, and of course improving all the time. This lovely recent piece is at the curved end of the concrete support wall under Brunel Way.
Zake’s work is typified by his extraordinary understanding of light and shadow, and the features on his faces are accentuated by the shading, gaining real depth. Often, his work will be under-lit or side-lit, but this one has a fairly uniform front-lit aspect. This piece is beautifully presented too.
Regular readers of Natural Adventures will know that I am really enjoying the work of Maybe . His small murals are improving all the time and he is starting to make his mark in spots all over Bristol, spreading out from his ‘safe space’ under Brunel Way.
This first piece on a ramp at Dean Lane skate park might just be my favourite yet from Maybe. The colours are superb, and the blends from dark to light in each colour tone are exceptional. Calm and pleasing, it has the appearance of an Eastern European children’s cartoon that were so much a thing in the 1970s and 1980s about it.
The other two pieces in Dean Lane are small Yin and Yang badges composed of interlocking faces, which is the ‘trademark’ of Maybe. Some really great creative stuff here, and he just keeps on producing.
The Bristol street art scene simply wouldn’t be what it is without the metronomic consistency of artists like Face 1st. These artists provide the foundations upon which all other artists build their works and reputations, but without this underground culture, street art would likely struggle in the city. Just look at those towns which have no culture of graffiti or street art and then host a festival, the legacy although stunning dies off and appears to be fake. Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing street art wherever it is, but people like Face 1st provide an authenticity that you simply can’t replicate through commissions alone.
This is a revisiting of one of Face 1st’s favourite themes, a girl’s laughing face with a hairdo made out of the word FACE. Lovely colours, nicely painted and everything I would want it to be.
I have a feeling that this fine little collaboration by Spanish duo Zake and Varo was painted on or around the Dean Lane Hardcore (DLH) event a couple of weeks ago. It is especially noteworthy because although Zake has been painting a lot recently, Varo has been on the rather quiet side for some time.
The face is obviously by Zake and yet another fantastic piece in his expanding repertoire. Once again, the piece is given a 3D appearance by some clever colour schemes, shading and highlighting, which is something of a speciality for Zake. The character has a thought bubble with the words ‘SK8 or Die’, which is definitely playing to the right audience in this spot.
Varo’s graffiti writing is altogether something different. He definitely favours these large blocky letters spelling out VARO, and with this artist, less is definitely more. He doesn’t go for intricate, swirly or patterned fills, but just keeps things simple. I love the turquoise middles to his letters that with some clever shading appear to hover above the letters. Good stuff – and as a bonus you get to see my dog’s rear end.
Natural adventures 