It was while he was completing this piece that I met Slakarts for the first time, and then the following week in the same place I met him again, both while he was painting collaborations with Nugmoose and Mudra. There three appear to have formed a tight group, and I look forward to many more collaborative walls from them.
Slakarts, Dean Lane, Bristol, February 2021
Slakarts is developing and evolving this character all the time with each iteration bringing together themes he has been working on, such as the doubling of some features and the addition of glasses with reflective stripes on them. Thoroughly fun to observe and Slakarts seems to derive a lot of happiness from his work. All good.
Tom Miller is an artist I have taken a great deal of interest in ever since I first encountered his unusual surreal pieces in Stokes Croft and in The Bearpit back in 2016. At that time he was still studying his craft at the university, but it was clear that he was creating something rather special. Some of his work is captured in this gallery.
Tom Miller, New Stadium Road, Bristol, February 2021
What is most pleasing is that he is now getting a number of commissions and his artwork is appearing on large walls around the city, but he is keeping it real by continuing with his street art work too. This magnificent piece on one of the most prominent walls in Bristol took him a couple of weeks to paint and during that time I stopped to catch up with him.
Tom Miller, New Stadium Road, Bristol, February 2021
Tom is genuinely one of the nicest artists I know, he is so modest and always seems to enjoy a bit of a chat. I have to say that I was concerned for his safety when he was painting this, because it was incredibly windy and the scaffold tower was wobbling much more than would have been comfortable. He survived though and what an amazing job he did.
Tom Miller, New Stadium Road, Bristol, February 2021
This piece, as you would expect, is so full of colour and detail. Some might call it busy, but I would call it expressive. Lots of body parts combined with flowers and other familiar shapes and objects fill the space, and then there is some respite from this crowded scene to the right of the piece with two less frenetic panels.
Tom Miller, New Stadium Road, Bristol, February 2021
The focal point is the face in the middle, and I wonder if it might be a subconscious nod to a piece that stood here for a few years of a large portrait of a girl with a yellow face.
Tom Miller, New Stadium Road, Bristol, February 2021
As I said, the two panels on the right offer something different from the rest of the piece, with some landscape and cosmos to calm things down a bot. The far right section reminds me a little bit of the Pink Floyd record sleeve of ‘Dark Side of the Moon. This epic wall is a great addition to Bristol’s iconic street art culture and is one that people leaving the city on the M32 can’t fail to see.
On my most recent visit to Lawrence Hill roundabout there wasn’t too much to write home about, there are a lot of throw ups and tagging in the tunnels and not so much ‘classy’ stuff that you get to see in other spots about the city. This character from Slakarts is a definite highlight.
Slakarts, Lawrence Hill, Bristol, February 2021
I met Slakarts for the first time as he was finishing off a collaborative effort with Mudra and Nugmoose at Dean Lane and I would just like to say what a lovely bloke he is. We stopped and chatted for quite a while and it was a genuine pleasure. As is always the case he was a lot younger than I had expected. He is enjoying painting this character at the moment, but said he’d really like to go big, so that is something to look forward to.
I don’t get over to Lawrence Hill roundabout all that often, so there is always something there that I haven’t seen before. However, the disadvantage of not regularly visiting is that any pieces new to me can be quite tired looking or tagged.
Mudra, Lawrence Hill Roundabout, Bristol, February 2021
Mudra has had a big impact since arriving in Bristol last year and has made his presence known all over the city with his distinctive pink faces and colourful writing. Although tagged, this moustached character with a distinctive outlined red nose is still looking rather bright, and I am pleased to have stumbled across it. Not long before I’ll have enough of his work to post a gallery.
This is the third piece by Big Hev that I have posted in recent weeks, which, I think, brings me up to date with her work in Bristol so far although I can’t be certain about that. Once again this young artist wows us with a big, bold and colourful portrait filling up one of the concrete walls of the battery.
Big Hev, Purdown Battery, Bristol, February 2021
There is a lot to like about this piece, starting with the great colour selections. It is impossible to ignore this piece as you wander around the old WWII buildings. I am full of admiration for artists who get out there and just do their stuff and I wish I had the courage, conviction and talent to join them. Big Hev will improve her technique, but her style identity is already forming, and I am so excited to witness her progress.
I managed to take the dog for a very muddy walk last week up at Purdown. It is the first time I have been there for a while and there were quite a few nice pieces up there. It would appear that Zace has made himself at home up there and this is the first of several pieces by him I will be posting.
Zace, Purdown Battery, Bristol, February 2021
There is a simplicity about Zace’s work that keeps it real and unpretentious. Clean lines and single colour shading keeps a focus on the alien character set in a starry sky. A fun modest piece from Zace.
The most common phrase I have used when writing about the work of Face 1st is “I will never tire of the work of Face 1st” and that phrase is as true now as it ever has been. Big or small, throw up or intricate piece, it just doesn’t matter, his art chimes for me, and he and those like him, are the engine room of Bristol graffiti art.
Face 1st, M32 Spot, Bristol, January 2021
The new(ish) ramps at the M32 Spot are proving to be quite a fertile ‘canvass’ for our artists and Face 1st has painted this back board with one of his characteristic winking girls with hair made up of FACE. I love everything about this. There is an element of Marine Boy anime in those eyes.
in writing that last sentence I got distracted by Marine Boy. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, take a trip down memory Lane with typing Marine Boy into YouTube. Enjoy.
I love this recent piece from 3F Fino. It is bright and arresting and cries out to be looked out. I particularly like the way that the bottom of the character and signature spills out onto the pathway. This is a piece that can’t be ignored.
3F Fino, M32 cycle path, Bristol, January 2021
I have been following the work of 3F Fino closely since I first found a piece of his in the Cumberland Basin, and have to say I am enjoying the journey. The character face is done nicely with some interesting contrasting colours and cool little shadings/highlights in blue. A nice neon orange ‘fino’ to boot.
This is a classic example of Face 1st doing what Face 1st does best and that is spraying an enormous face in a tunnel that is near impossible to photograph. I had toyed with the idea of not posting this piece, but that would be admitting defeat.
Face 1st, M32 roundabout, Bristol, January 2021
Face 1st seems to favour the M32 roundabout tunnels and it is rare for one of his pieces not to be present in one of the four tunnels 24/7/365. This piece is a trademark one from the artist with a happy girls face and hair composed of the letters FACE. Face 1st and his PWA crew mate Soap typify the vibrancy and energy of the Bristol street art scene.
Over the last three or four months, Slakarts has been rather busy with his three-quarter profile throw-up character, and probably produced more of these than his regular and rather more complex faces. This one is on one of the tunnel entrances of the M32 roundabout. There is an interesting artefact of photography, light and paint in this piece… in the feature photograph you can see the ghosts of old graffiti underneath the white parts, but in the content photograph below, the white fill is simply white. Curious.
Slakarts, M32 roundabout, Bristol, December 2020
I rather like this one from Slakarts because it is a little bit more finessed than some of the others in this series. The black lines are clean and the blue outlines work very well indeed. More of these in the archive!
Natural adventures 