This is a recent ‘quick one’ from Kid Crayon…utterly fantastic. It is also just a quick one from me too.
1671. Moon Street (52)
Tag: Face
1663. Upfest 2018 (14)
I think this is the one, my favourite piece of Upfest 2018. The reason this works so well for me is that I have long admired this wall for all its textures and character and have photographed it before when it had no graffiti at all (I have searched through my pictures, but can’t find the ones I have taken here in the past, which is really annoying).
The artist, Kowse One, is not even mentioned in the Upfest programme, and this certainly isn’t an official wall, but he did work on a fabulous collaboration with Braga Last One ( to come). I think he comes from Marseille, but beyond that I know little of him.
The piece itself is perfect in every way. The use of the rendered part of the wall and its juxtaposition with the bare brickwork, the colours used contrasting so well with the surrounding, the accomplished portrait work and the lettering on the face reflecting some of the tags nearby make this an enchanting and exciting piece. There is some real edge and brilliant improvisation. I love it, I love it.
1650. The Bearpit (157)
Wowzer…(not a word I use often), what a fabulous piece in The Bearpit from Face 1st. I have to say that I am just loving his development to full body pieces, and that hair…it’s just brilliant.
Now I happened to get really lucky a few days back and met Face 1st, Soap and Tasha Bee all at once all for the first time while they were collaborating at the M32 roundabout – more about that in another post. It was such a pleasure to meet Face 1st at last, after three years of posting, and it was rather gratifying and humbling that he had read this blog and even shared some posts with his mother. Watching these guys at work simply inspires me to get out there and start spraying – I would love to be able to do what they do as well as they do it. I guess I need to practice…a lot.
I love, love this piece, and have noticed that he is doing more of these and going big – so much to look forward to.
As an aside – this post is scheduled to publish while I am on an aeroplane bound for Italy…the wonders of modern technology.
1625. M32 Spot (24)
This is not the first piece I have seen by this artist, who I assume is Zake, not Cake or Eake, but it is the first I am posting about them…watch this space for more soon. I know nothing of the artist although I have tried to find out on the Interweb, so will have to confine my writing to what I see, rather than what I know.
A cartoonish portrait or character, with so much charm and personality. It is a piece that is wonderfully crafted and in a particular style with a lot of focus around the eyes. The touches in purple to give a shadow are perfect, and I love a piece that has a discrete shadow underneath (something that Sepr does a lot). I love and rate this small column piece by Zake.
1597. St Werburghs tunnel (30)
Members of the PWA (Pirate Wall Art) crew have been rather active of late, none more so than Face 1st. In this collaboration he is joined by his friend soap and this piece is opposite some writing, featured in an earlier post by Sikoh.
When Soap and Face 1st get together, they quite often create one of these vertical collaborations, with the distinctive mouths of Soap on the top and beautiful face underneath by Face 1st.
There are a couple of nice touches on the work. The hair of the girl is made up of wiriting that spells out Face, and forms the lower jaw of Soap’s mouths. There is a little slogan ‘peacefully writin’ art‘, picking up on the crew name. I am always delighted to find work by these two.
1592. The Bearpit (151)
A quick one in The Bearpit from Face 1st going back a little. The main reason that I have posted this is because I remember at the time being incenced by the aggressive graffiti cross in the middle of the face with its far right connotations. When I see this kind of disruption, my immediate thought is ‘what kind of idiot would do this?’. I guess I still find myself constantly challenged by this mindless behaviour. I know that pretty much all artists expect this on the street, but it doesn’t necessarily make it right.
I don’t think I will ever tire of Face 1st’s work, and I get real pleasure out of each and every piece of his that I find.
1574. Moon Street (47)
When I saw this piece on Face 1st’s Instagram feed, I knew I had to get down to Moon Street straight away to find it. Find it I did, and I think it is probably in my top 3 all time Face 1st pieces.
There is so much to like – rarely, if ever, have I seen more than a face in any of his characters…and here we have the full body complete with frilly pink knickers. The soft colours and tones contrast wildly with the bold graffiti aurrounding the piece, making it stand out from the crowd – it is nicely framed in the doorway.
Face 1st has always a productive artist, but recently he appears to have gone into overdrive, and he seems to be collaborating a lot too. I’m not sure where this new lease of life has come from, but whatever the reason I love it.
1547. Stokes Croft Corner wall (7)
Once you get your eye in for a particular artist, it seems that you see their work absolutely everywhere, and so it is with Pekoe. Her work was, until recently, off my radar until I saw a piece at the M32 roundabout. Since then I have found three more pieces dotted about the place, including this one and an Upfest piece.
This interesting work was painted as part of a collaboration which included Mr Sleven and one other. Pekoe appears to be fond of the third eye and its symbolism, as it appears in other work. I am still learning about her work and style, and really look forward to discovering more.
1539. Upfest 2017 (172)
Well, well, well, the gifts just keep coming. Regular readers will know that I have only recently discovered the wonderful art of Pekoe and I have featured her work a couple of times in the last month. It turns out that while I was going through another batch of pictures from my Upfest 2017 archive, I found this piece by an ‘unknown’ artist who I now know is Pekoe. I love it when this kind of thing happens.
Her Upfest piece was definitely one that caught the eye and is rather more polished than some of her street work – it is a festival after all. She sticks with the female portrait formula that appears to be her preferred subject matter. I am reliably informed by Gary, the art blogger that this wea actually a collaboration piece with Mr Sleven and DNT.
Pekoe is a talented Bristol-based artist whose work I am just getting to grips with and I certainly want to see a whole load more. Looking forward to it. Worth a quick peek at her Linked-in page too.
1537. Dean Lane skate park (132)
One of the great joys of trawling through my archives is finding pieces that were never posted because the artist was unknown to me. Fast forward to the present day and I have since discovered the talent and feel like I know a little more. So it was with this old one from Tash Bee back in July 2017.
I liked the piece enough to photograph it, but then it sat dormant in my archive until now. Liberation. It is signed with a large B, but I didn’t know that was her signature back then. This is another serene piece beautifully put together by an artist who is fast rising up the tables of my Bristol faves. Same about the evening sun and shadow.
Natural adventures 