3281. Clift House Road (4)

A recent epic collaborative piece on an ‘Upfest’ wall appeared without warning or fanfare a couple of weeks ago that brought together some fine atists, namely: Smak, Sled One, Ments and Curtis Hylton. What an utterly pleasant surprise and something of an improvement on the piece that adorned this wall before it.

Smak, Clift House Road, Bristol, October 2020
Smak, Clift House Road, Bristol, October 2020

On the left is a crazy but exquisite scene depicting venus flytraps feasting on various flying insects. In the middle is what looks a bit like an old microphone, although I’m not too sure if that is what it is. The story here… your guess is as good as mine.

Curtis Hylton, Ments and Sled One, Clift House Road, Bristol, October 2020
Curtis Hylton, Ments and Sled One, Clift House Road, Bristol, October 2020

Sled One has pulled together an equally bizarre piece that sems to be of a king cobra dressed as a policeman complete with truncheon and whistlewith an iced ring doughnut round its neck. The policeman woud appear to be in pursuit of a graffiti spraying mouse or two. Could this be a reference to some heavy handed policing which let to the prosecution of a street artist in St Werburghs tunnel recently?

Curtis Hylton, Ments and Sled One, Clift House Road, Bristol, October 2020
Curtis Hylton, Ments and Sled One, Clift House Road, Bristol, October 2020

To the right is a beautiful Hornbill by Curtis Hylton whose work usually involves a blend of stunning creatures composed of flowers, and he has worked miracles with this style here. Curtis Hylton has also embraced the colour scheme used by Sled One so that the two pieces merge into a true collaboration.

Ments, Clift House Road, Bristol, October 2020
Ments, Clift House Road, Bristol, October 2020

Dotted around the whole piece are a dozen or so ‘liquid’ spheres painted by Ments. It has been clear from recent pieces by Ments that he is working hard to create these solid/liquid forms and judging from his contribution to this collaboration this direction he is moving in is going really well. The whole collaboration is a celebration of bright creative ideas and utterly worth seeking out, although parking nearby is a bit of a challenge.

Smak, Curtis Hylton, Ments and Sled One, Clift House Road, Bristol, October 2020
Smak, Curtis Hylton, Ments and Sled One, Clift House Road, Bristol, October 2020

 

3280. M32 Cycle path (83)

Classy. It is something of an overused word on Natural Adventures, but in this case it is simply the best word I can think of to describe this amazing piece of graffiti writing by Claro_que_sssnoh. To make things a little easier I am going to call the artist Claro, that should save me about five minutes in typing time.

Claro_que_sssnoh, M32 cycle path, Bristol, October 2020
Claro_que_sssnoh, M32 cycle path, Bristol, October 2020

The letters spell out SNOH, but it is the superb way Claro has layered colours onto the chrome structure, with really interesting letter shapes that stands out in this piece. It is clean, creative, complex and he has even thrown in a little character for good measure. It is great to see a quality piece like a this on this wall.

3279. Cumberland Basin

Discovering new artists about the place is definitely part of the fun of seeking out street art, and meeting Mudra and subsequently finding several of his pieces in quick succession has been very rewarding. Although he has not been in Bristol long, he is certainly making his mark.

Mudra, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, October 2020
Mudra, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, October 2020

This piece is on the long Cumberland Basin wall and incorporates his soft pastel colours into the letters MUDRA. The writing is really clever with the letters being concealed through the piece – can you find them? In the centre is one of Mudra’s pink faced characters wearing a cap. This is a fine piece of work which stitches in all sorts of ideas and techniques. Lots more to come…

3278. Brunel Way bridge (67)

I didn’t find as many Halloween pieces this year as I usually find, but that might be as a result of the terrible wet weather we have had over the last week or so. I did however manage to capture this piece under Brunel Way by Pl8o and although not overtly Halloween, I think this collaborative wall was to celebrate the festival.

Pl8o, Brunel Way, Bristol, October 2020
Pl8o, Brunel Way, Bristol, October 2020

This piece is painted out entirely in greyscale which is rather nicely done. The owl in a darker grey stands out and adds interest to the piece overall. The bags in front of the piece actually belong to Varo who was painting the word ‘Conspiracy’ just to the right of this piece. Pl8o continues to go from strength to strength.

3277. Clift House Road (3)

From the time I saw my first wall by Nightwayss in Dean Lane a few years ago I have been captivated by his monkeys and their antics. Coming across this one was a bit of a nice extra surprise because it is next to a big wall that I had specifically come to photograph, but hadn’t known about this one.

Nightwayss, Clift House Road, Bristol, October 2020
Nightwayss, Clift House Road, Bristol, October 2020

There is a tenderness in this Piece which I find really rather touching. The large monkey has managed to catch his fingers in a mousetrap and is confused about it illustrated by the hamster wheel in his head. Another monkey is leaning in wondering what is going on. The second monkey has a implied caution, concern and curiosity about what is happening and seems to be well observed from how real monkeys might behave in such a situation.

Nightwayss, Clift House Road, Bristol, October 2020
Nightwayss, Clift House Road, Bristol, October 2020

The simple style of this illustration matches the wonderful ink drawings that Nightwayss has been producing for ‘Inktober’ and posting on his Instagram account. If you can, I strongly recommend you take a look at it. I love this piece.

3276. M32 roundabout J3 (260)

This rather sweet little collaboration first appeared a couple of weeks ago in mid-October and brings together the talents of CD-TC, Daz Cat and Kool Hand. I’m not too sure if these artists paint under a particular crew name, but they certainly seem to hang out together quite a lot.

CD.TC, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2020
CD.TC, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2020

On the left is a rather stlised and weird-looking monster-faced character smoking a cigarette, with the white smoke wisping about the place. It is obvious that CD-TC is a talented artist/deigner from the way he has drawn and filled the arm of his character in orange, black and grey – some great shading and highlighting technique there. CD-TC’s characters are appearing more frequently about the place, which can only be a good thing.

Daz Cat, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2020
Daz Cat, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2020

In the middle is a wonderful scene painted by Daz Cat of a female (hurrah) cat playing an old gramophone record player. She is winding the handle and the indication of motion is done really well – plenty of movement there. The cat is showing off some fine hair accessories that appear to be coming from her ear and add decorative interest to the piece.

Kool Hand, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2020
Kool Hand, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2020

The final part of he collaborative wall is a rather small Orangutan face wearing a cap that we have seen quite a lot of in recent months from Kool Hand. This is, I suppose, a king of mega-tag that Kool Hand is using to hone his skills, but a great framework that just rolls off the spraycan easily.

A refreshing collaboraion.

3275. M32 Spot (87)

Welcome to the first day of November, and as we wake up in England, we prepare ourselves for a month-long lock down starting on Thursday. I don’t think I relish the prospect and it will be very tough for many people, however I believe it to be the right action to protect people like my mother and her partner, vulnerable and sick people.

It is a pity it comes on the back of ten years of self-imposed austerity, an ideological decision made by the Tory government. An already struggling nation are once again being asked to make sacrifices to protect an underfunded NHS. It didn’t have to pan out this way, but Johnson and his ERG-fuelled right-wingers have ruined this country all so that capitalism can offer its rewards to self-interested money makers, sod the rest of us.

Rant over. Some lovely bunnies in the M32 Spot for a bit of Autumn cheer From the tireless Nevergiveup (Followmyrabbits, Eldey)

Nevergiveup, M32 Spot, October 2020
Nevergiveup, M32 Spot, October 2020

A rather nice Pair of rabbits squeezed onto a column. That is some green!

3274. M32 Cycle path (82)

Happy Haloween folks – although I’m never quite sure whether Haloween is supposed to be happy or scary – I’m still a bit old fashioned and struggle a bit with the commercialisation of this pagan festival, but then again isn’t it the same with Christmas? I digress…

I have done something a little unusual today, I am posting a piece that I only photographed this morning. This is a rare occurrence mainly because of the processes I have to go through to prepare my blog posts and the time I have available to do it. I tend to line up photographs in batches and upload them onto wordpress which means I can write the blogs from my iPad if necessary. But today I have seen something amazing and I have a moment of time to bump my queue with this outstanding Haloween piece by Smak painted only yesterday.

Smak, M32 cycle path, Bristol, October 2020
Smak, M32 cycle path, Bristol, October 2020

This was one of those wonderful discoveries. I had been to the recycling centre (tip) and on my home stopped off at St Werburghs tunnel and then on to the M32 Spot and cycle path just on the off chance that there might be something new… and there was lots, but right up there with the very best discoveries was this magnificent horror ventriloquist’s dummy by Smak.

Smak, M32 cycle path, Bristol, October 2020
Smak, M32 cycle path, Bristol, October 2020

I have had a little Google play and I think that the puppet might be Billy from the film Dead Silence, but not being fond of the horror film genre (I get scared tooo easily) I can’t be too certain. The portrait is masterfully painted and care and attention have been given not only to the subject but also to the background.

Finding this made my day.

Scary Haloween…

3273. M32 roundabout J3 (259)

This is the second recent piece from Taboo, the other one was in Dean Lane skate park. A feature of both of these superb pieces is the use of lots of colour, which is noteworthy simply because many of his pieces can be based around two or three colours. Perhaps he has been on a recent spending spree.

Taboo, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2020
Taboo, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2020

Taboo has stuck to his usual tradition of writing his name followed with a character piece, which will be familiar to most of you as Tom cat from Tom and Jerry. In addition there is an appearance from his Kilroy (was here) character in yellow peering out from one of the ‘O’s.

Taboo, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2020
Taboo, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2020

The Tom is superbly painted and the story being told here would indicate that Taboo considers his work to have been 19 years in the making and combines a mixed up style underpinned by no talent and painting big. I fear this is a modest story, and I consider this piece to demonstrate his obvious talents for all to see. Unusual yes, but nonetheless skilled and creative.

3272. Dean Lane skate park (360)

Around the time of lock down when the streets were rather empty, some artists took the opportunity to hit walls hard, some others disappeared almost entirely… Soge was most certainly in the former category. The he went a bit quiet, and this newish piece in Dean Lane is the first I have seen for a month or two.

Soge, Dean Lane, Bristol, October 2020
Soge, Dean Lane, Bristol, October 2020

One would normally associate Soge with his elaborate graffiti writing but he has been moving gently in the direction of character pieces (who can forget his lock down beavers?). This is an unusual and fun piece, clearly commenting on the coronavirus pandemic and our obsession with the news and ‘pandemic group behaviours’. The character looks like something out of Dungeons and Dragons and is really nicely painted and the green gives it a magical feel. A more than decent piece.