2447. St Werburghs tunnel (98)

I am currently away in Cornwall on my annual sea fishing trip, and am finding it really difficult to keep up with these posts, so today’s contributions might be a little rushed.

Fiva, St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2019
Fiva, St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2019

This is yet another exceptional piece of writing from Fiva, where has superimposed two writing styles on top of each other and used different colours where the letters overlap. It is a very clever piece, skilfully painted, but I’d expect no less from this artist.

Fiva, St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2019
Fiva, St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2019

It is great also to see him include one of his characters on the left hand side of the piece. All very good indeed.

2382. St Werburghs tunnel (92)

Fiver or Fiva, consistently turns out highly distinctive burners, each with its own twist or story. Most of his work features the word FIVA or FIVER, often accompanied by a character, or given an interesting fill or sometimes both. In this piece Fiva has chosen to go for a silhouetted cityscape skyline running through his letters.

Fiva, St Werburghs, Bristol, July 2019
Fiva, St Werburghs, Bristol, July 2019

I have tried to write one of my own letters (teaching myself to spraypaint (with limited success)), the letter H in his style and it really isn’t as easy as it looks once it is up on a wall. Of course practice makes perfect, and Fiva has been doing these for some years. In addition to creating these fine pieces, I love the way that he has a little shout out to people, nothing over the top, just a simple ‘Yo xxxxxx’ in this case Desmond was feeling the love.

Scooj, H in the style of Fiva, Bristol, June 2019
Scooj, H in the style of Fiva, Bristol, June 2019

2367. St George skate park (1)

I have been meaning to get down to St George skate park for some time and finally a week or so back I made it and was rewarded with a whole ton of art that I had been aware of but thus far not seen. It was beautiful weather on the day I went to the skate park and it was incredibly busy, so I had to dodge pre-teens on their scooters, skateboards and bikes to get these pictures.

Fiva, St George, Bristol, July 2019
Fiva, St George, Bristol, July 2019

Regulars will know that I love the work of Fiva (Fiver), and although this one is a bit worn, it has all the hallmarks of a great piece from the artist. The cartoon character on the right sets the whole piece off nicely and the writing in seven colour tones ranging from green through to lilac and wonderfully worked, with an urban skyline depicted with the darkest shade of purple. A really lovely piece. I love his little shout out to Nightwayss (who has peppered this spot with pieces) at the bottom right too.

2307. St Werburghs tunnel (85)

In one of his favourite spots, Fiva (Fiver, Henry Barnes) has painted another of his lovely block capital pieces using the longer version of his name and overpainting it with the word ‘forever!’ in a kind of stone effect.

Fiva, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2019
Fiva, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2019

This time he has gone for the bevelled edge look to his large letters and included a 3D shadow in green to the left. In teaching myself to spray paint, I used his general style to create the letter H (in my series A-Z) and all was going well, in fact it was looking rather good, until I put a black and white outline around it. So the point is that to get straight outlines requires real skill to avoid wobbles and varying thickness of lines. Fiva has done a great job here with his yellow and black outline. I need to practice a lot.

2174. M32 roundabout J3 (142)

 

Ordinarily I’d be a little irritated by the overpainting of a Kid Crayon piece, especially after such a short existence, but in this instance I am more than prepared to forgive Fiva. In fairness, I think the collaboration had already been bombed and so the wall was ready for a new look.

Fiva, M32, Bristol, April 2019
Fiva, M32, Bristol, April 2019

This is a vibrant pink FIVA set on a green bubbly background, which employs all the tricks used by the artist to give a 3D look and feel to the piece. Better still, and I am so utterly made up by this, Fiva has given me my first ever ‘shout out’ in the bottom left hand corner ‘Yo Scooj’. I am touched and honoured to have made it onto such a splendid piece.

Fiva, Scooj, M32, Bristol, April 2019
Fiva, Scooj, M32, Bristol, April 2019

I have never met Fiva, so I must conclude that he has at some point stumbled on this blog and read some of my posts about him. Definitely, definitely need to hook up at some point, although I don’t think he uses Instagram, so getting in touch could be a challenge. Great work, and many thanks.

2063. St Werburghs tunnel (65)

A few weeks ago Fiva painted a fabulous piece in St Werburghs tunnel, and you know what? he’s only gone and done it again pretty much directly opposite the first. The piece is similar in that it uses the clever layering of two different scripts, saying FIVA/Fiver, superimposed on one another. The lettering has a rather crafty 3D thing going on too.

Fiva, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2019
Fiva, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2019

It is always a great pleasure seeing work by this occasional (compared to some of the others) street artist, especially as his work is so clean and tidy. I’m not too sure who the character on the left is, but the grayscale tones contrast really well with the blue and purple writing. Another great work from Fiva.

Fiva, St Werburghs, Bristol, December 2018
Fiva, St Werburghs, Bristol, December 2018

1382. St Werburghs tunnel (18)

Photograps taken in St Werburghs tunnel are a real challenge. The colours are yellowed out if you don’t use a flash, and when you do use a flash (a non-sophisticated one like I use) you get horrible reflections obscuring the art. This piece by Fiver (Fiva) looks a bit dreary, but it was far from that in the flesh.

Fiva, St Werburghs tunnel, Bristol, June 2016
Fiva, St Werburghs tunnel, Bristol, June 2016

Fiver is an artist I have featured a couple of times this winter, having not seen much from him for quite a long while. This is an old one, full of charm. I believe the character is Donkey Kong of Nintendo fame. A fun piece.

1227. Ashley Road (16)

This is the second piece by Fiva (Fiver) to appear on this hoarding in recent weeks, the first was featured in a post recently and that one was the first work I have seen from this artist in a while. It seems he is on a roll, and that his inspiration would appear to have come from (I think) recently becoming a father.

Fiva, Ashley Road, Bristol, December 2017
Fiva, Ashley Road, Bristol, December 2017

I do like these kind of writing pieces which conflate words and styles to create a layered puzzle. This is accomplished work from a good artist, and I’d like to see more of his work on the streets – as a new father though I expect his opportunities might be limited.

1161. Ashley Road (14)

Ok, so this is an interesting piece in Ashley road that appeared recently. It is, I think, by the Bristol artist Fiver, who also goes by the name Fiva and Henry Barnes who I posted about back in March this year. It is a bright and cheerful piece and would appear to be a celebration, welcoming ‘Eira’ into the world. Maybe his own child? I don’t know. I hope this isn’t just a one-off because I like the style of his work here.

Fiva, Ashley Road, Bristol, November 2017
Fiva, Ashley Road, Bristol, November 2017

As well as turning to street art from time to time Henry Barnes is also a tireless campaigner for the National Autistic Society and their too much information campaign, which is a thoroughly brilliant thing.

693. St Andrews Road (2)

On a walk to the Montpelier area of Bristol a little while back, I came across this interesting piece by Fiver aka Henry Barnes. It doesn’t get much more Bristol than spraying a Wallace and Gromit piece on your garage door as a nice way to encourage people not to park in front of it.

Fiver, St Andrews Road, Bristol, December 2016
Fiver, St Andrews Road, Bristol, December 2016

There is no doubting Fiver’s skill, and this is a nice piece. However, he is another Bristol artist who appears to have been under my radar, and this is the first of his pieces that I have featured. I think he tends to do a lot of work using existing characters from cartoons. On doing a bit of research, I found this nice article about how he proposed to his girlfriend in front of a piece he sprayed of her favourite characters. All good.