Leonard Lane has had a small renaissance lately thanks in no small part to 3F Fino who seems to have been enjoying himself and experimenting with ideas in the murky, narrow, stinky Lane.
This is an unusual and impactful piece from 3F Fino, and I’m not sure I would have been able to attribute it to him if it were not signed. There is something faintly Van Goughian about the artwork which looks like a series of brush strokes rather than the work of a spray can. Original and interesting work.
This is a very special post showcasing the work of an artist who has only recently hit the scene with almost all of his work appearing on the columns under Brunel Way. The artist is Maybe, and his small acrylic/marker pen works have been improving from week to week. This is a wonderful example of the depth and breadth of street art in Bristol and shows that there is room for everyone here.
I have collected several pieces into this one post to give you a flavour of his style and subject material that tends to focus on faces and interlocking images.
Even since April the quality of the line drawings and the materials he uses have improved considerably and in future posts you will see how quickly the artist is getting used to working on concrete canvasses and gaining in confidence.
For people like me (and Paul H) it is always very exciting when new artists emerge on to the scene and establish their intent. The egg face piece above is one of my favourites.
Even running from top to bottom in this series you can see how the lines have become sharper and the creativity of ideas expanded. There is so much to look forward to from this artist. All that remains is for me to get lucky enough to meet him while painting one of these creations.
Face 1st is still painting at full tilt at the moment and every day I feel like I am stumbling across something new from him. This piece was from earlier on this month and is in the style of his most recent theme of what looks like burst bubblegum mess surrounding the smiling girl’s mouth and face.
It is interesting how some artists hit upon an idea or theme and then work on it for a while before moving on to the next thing. Decay is another artist who reinvents his theme roughly annually and then produces lots of versions of the new theme. All fascinating stuff. More of these from Face 1st to come.
Another flurry of activity from Face 1st and Soap, whom are really making my life very difficult at the moment with their productivity and quality of work. If their stuff was rubbish, then I could easily ignore it and move on, but it is not and I feel compelled to post it whenever possible.
This pair of PWA artists have collaborated in this spot quite a few times over the years and their friendship appears to be as strong as ever. The collaboration is a Kill the Bill piece, which will meet with a lot of sympathy in Bristol. Another cheerful expression on this happy girl from Face 1st with a subtle FACE written into her hair.
Soap has reverted to a standard form of his iconic skull/mouths design, and the character is holding up a protest banner. The fill is very nicely blended with some nice decorations. The whole collaboration is set on a pinky cloudy kind of backdrop and ticks a lot of boxes for me. Nice work.
Striking and definitely photogenic is this lovely recent portrait piece from Zake, who has been rather quiet of late. It is kind of comforting when artists who have been lying low, for whatever reason, come back and hit a wall with such gusto.
Zake is an artist who pretty much specialises in portraits and gives them loads of depth with his trademark shading around the features. This face feels like it should belong to a comic book, perhaps it is a representation from one. He has labelled the piece with DLH 21. DLH in my book is Dean Lane Hardcore, but I am not too sure what it means in this context. A decent and long-awaited return.
At the entrance to St Werburghs tunnel, Face 1st left this beautiful trademark piece a little while back. It would seem that Face 1st has been experimenting of late with some angular block lettering which I have seen two or three times now.
As ever, there is an enormous amount of expression in the piece, something that Face 1st manages to achieve with the minimum of fuss, not dissimilar to the way Stik conveys emotion with his simple figures. I have lots of Face 1st pieces to catch up on… aargh, the backlog!
Here he is again, the beating heart, the drum-beat of Bristol graffiti art reassuring us that all’s well. Face 1st has painted this doorway in Moon Street many times in the past, but his visits to this holy place for graffiti, along with visits of other artists, have declined in frequency since the area started undergoing some major gentrification. Soon Moon Street and the nearby hotspots for street art and graffiti will be mere memories, embedded in photographic archives and digital spaces. The Bristol scene will continue to thrive though, I am sure, just in different places.
This piece is similar to one that Face 1st painter on the M32 roundabout a couple of weeks back, with a lot of pink bubblegum kind of stuff going on with the character’s hair. I think that Face 1st must have had a job lot of pink and needed to use it up. Always good and always present. Fun from this PWA perennial.
A classic piece of Face 1stery going on here on the M32 roundabout. In times of turbulence and disruption there are rocks, sturdy landmarks, that remind us that actually everything is ok. Face 1st is one of those rocks. His pieces are painted regularly and when I see them I feel comforted and grounded.
This is a lovely example of his work with the customarily cheerful girl whose hair is composed of the letters FACE. This time there is a pink goo highlighting the letters, looking a little bit like bubblegum, which in my experience is best kept well away from hair.
I remember once back in the 1970s I was in a smoke-filled cinema in Muswell Hill (incredible to think that smoking at the cinema was the norm). Half way through the film a discarded piece of bubblegum that had been lobbed from the circle seats landed and lodged in my 1970s hair. Disgusting. My mum had to cut it out with scissors when I got home. I felt violated and humiliated. If I ever catch the perpetrator I’ll…
Here we have a classic Face 1st piece. A wall tucked away from general view and a chuckling girl’s face splashed on it. It is pieces like this, dotted all over the city that add to the overall fabric of Bristol. Sub-consciously, many thousands of people in Bristol will have seen one of these faces, they might not have registered them, but they will have seen them, and they will process them simply as being part of the furniture of the city.
Somehow, Face 1st injects a sense of fun and mischief into his work that comes across so well. These cheeky girls probably play slightly into the hands of subversive minds (it is graffiti after all), but are entirely accessible for all to enjoy and feel free. This one is a particularly lovely ecxample.
More fabulous Pekoe work… this artist has been going paint crazy over the last few weeks and keeps turning out beautiful portraits. Painting this one would have involved climbing over an iron railing (rather her than me) to access this swimming pool wall.
This face-on portrait in blue with bright yellow hair certainly grabs attention. The subjects cheeks are emphasised with circles in which sit Pekoe’s trademark tears. I feel sad when I see the tears as it makes me think that the artist herself is sad and expresses her sadness in this way. Of course, it might simply be a thing that has no deeper meaning at all. This is another fine Pekoe portrait, yet another one in a superb series.
Natural adventures 