Tag: Fiva

Any and every time I see a piece by Fiva, it makes my heart sing. The rarity value has something to do with it and this is one of only three pieces painted in Bristol in 2023, and before these we had to wait three years for his reappearance.

This is an outstanding piece, adopting his customary formula of writing his name and accompanying it with a fun cartoon character. As in previous pieces, Fiva has superimposed a script ‘fiver’ over his block capitals ‘FIVER’ to create an amazing and very clever effect. He is a master of this technique and seems to make the complicated look simple.

The wonderful character is saying ‘Diolch Bristol’ which is Welsh for ‘Thank you, Bristol’. I’m not too sure what that means, but it has an inference of finality about it. I do hope not, and will be keeping my fingers crossed for a return by the artist in 2024. Meanwhile, I will simply enjoy and admire this outstanding piece.

What a treat! Two Fiva pieces in the space of three weeks, both in the tunnel, and both reminding us of what we have missed over the last couple of years. I am not too sure why he has been absent for so long, perhaps he moved away or there were other real life events that made painting difficult, but he is back and that is what matters. At the end of the last post I wrote “I hope this isn’t a flash in the pan”. The appearance of this piece puts that worry to bed.

Fiva has used this overlay technique to great effect before, and it is such a clever way to tell two stories in one go. There are large block capital letters in Grey spelling out ‘FIVA’ and overlaid is a lower case, script written ‘fiver’ in pink and blue (that winning combo again). The clever part is how these interact, for example, the bevelled edge of the capital letters runs through the lower case letters, but in different shades. No self-respecting Fiva piece is fully complete without a cheeky cartoon character, and this grey chappie with a purple cap rounds off the piece magnificently. Looking forward to more from an artist who has been much missed.

Finding this piece in the tunnel was one of the happiest street art moments of my year so far. Fiva (Fiver) has been absent from the Bristol street art scene for a long time (last seen in 2020), and I feared that he might have moved away or given up on painting altogether, so seeing this filled me with pure joy, as I am particularly fond of his work.

In classic Fiva style, he has painted a huge piece with large block letters that have plenty of depth and stand out from the brilliant pink buffed wall. As is customary, Fiva has painted a character looking on from the left in wonderful cartoon style. The whole thing is so refreshing after the long absence. Welcome back Fiva, I hope that this isn’t a flash in the pan.