.
While the cats are out
two hours with a can in hand
I squeak with delight
.
by Scooj
- On to letter D tonight.
Tag: Graffiti
2208. Shoreditch, London (32)
An artist whose work I have long admired is London-based SkyHigh. His work is always immaculate with fabulous clean lines and complex designs. Most commonly he spells out his name using a contrasting style for each letter and somehow bringing the whole thing to life. His pieces almost feel like animations as the styles spill over from one to the next.
This one using pink tones with black is in my view one of the best I have seen, each component skilfully laid down to create a magnificent whole. I particularly like it that roughly once a year SkyHigh makes a trip to Bristol, and one of his pieces has lasted for probably a year or more. Always top class.
2207. Shoreditch, London (31)
My visit to Shoreditch, London, back in November last year reminded me of a significant difference between the London and Bristol street art scenes. In London, there is a strong wheatpaste movement, and in some places there is barely a square inch of a wall that isn’t covered with a paste up. In Bristol on the other hand, wheatpastes are a rarity, and are normally provided by visitors to the city such as Face the Strange, D7606, Tian, Losthills and of course qWeRT. The last frequent Bristol-based wheatpaster was Kid Crayon, but he has moved on to spray-painting now. I think Kedals might be the only one doing it at the moment – room for some new entrants?
This is a little collection of wonderful googly-eyed paste ups by qWeRT which are dotted all over the place in Shoreditch.
qWeRT’s pieces are always rather cute (a word I rarely use) and endearing, like this one holding up a banner saying simply ‘need more love’.
I have always liked this form of street art and qWeRT’s work in particular.
2206. Allen Gardens, London (3)
Sometimes it is just too difficult to talk about how good a piece really is, because the words used are clumsy and don’t really do the artist justice. This is a case in point. It is a zombie piece (not to everyone’s taste) by JXC, an artist I have come across a couple of times at Upfest.
Everything about this is good – an arresting subject, incredible precision and artwork, great colour selection and a level of detail rarely seen on the street. As an observer, sometimes it is just so hard to comprehend how these guys do this with spray cans, I am left in awe. As you can see, I rather like this piece which I photographed in London back in November last year.
2205. St Werburghs tunnel (81)
Diced Mango is an artist reasonably new to me, having only been aware of his street pieces for about six months or so. He has become rather busy lately and his letters are appearing in various spots around the city.
This piece, from January this year was in St Werburghs tunnel and shows how the artist plays with shapes and shadings to make the letters look like they are twisted a little. Clever stuff and it gives me ideas for things that I can try out at home. Several more to come from Diced Mango soon.
2204. M32 roundabout J3 (143)
Yet another wonderful, happy piece from Soap which I have uncovered from my January archive… it must have been a busy month to overlook this piece. Without question these are happy mouths, and in recent times have softened.
The colours are magnificent and I think the way that Soap has laid them down is rather clever and beautifully done. In my mind I am trying to work out the layering and sequence that the colours were laid down in. What I can say is this is an accomplished piece, and another belter from Soap.
2203. St Werburghs tunnel (80)
It is not often that you see a nicely painted van in Bristol, even though there are a great many vans with spray paint on them… sadly most of these are fairly rubbish throw ups or tags that frankly are untidy.
This is a lovely piece of 3D writing from Rusk which appeared near the entrance of St Werburghs tunnel recently. Since I took this picture, the other side has been sprayed by Soker, so this is one classy van. I have not seen writing like this from Rusk before, nor have I seen any kind of scenery work like this, so this is a bit of a collector’s item. Nice to witness the versatility of this great Bristol writer.
2202. St Werburghs tunnel (79)
A couple of weeks back there was a large paint jam in St Werburghs tunnel, and it would seem that it was something of a RAW (Read and Weep) get together. This collaborative piece included the T-Rex burner that I featured a few days ago, which was just to the right. These two are Ryder and Jaksta.
I don’t need to repeat myself, although I constantly find myself doing so, by telling you that Ryder is an incredibly accomplished writer, and here he has created something rather special in shades of gray with blue highlights. Having started trying to paint a little in the garden I realise how much I have to study what these guys do to understand tricks and techniques. Paint big was an important piece of advice I was given – smaller pieces are more difficult.
When I have been in the tunnel, it seems everyone notices the pig – he really stands out and the kids that walk past love him. Jaksta is a master of the character piece and his work often joins up pieces of writing like it does here. It is the details I love in this piece, the black shading and white highlights that give a 3D feel to the whole thing, and the two shades of pink that make it look like the light is coming from the right (which in this part of the tunnel it actually does). Great work.
2201. M32 Cycle path (26)
I have only met Ugar once and I remember him being a quiet and affable fellow. His work seems to crop up in all the main spots around Bristol, but this is the first piece I have seen along the M32 cycle path. Until recently, this spot became a bit of a ‘dead’ area because a tract of the path had been fenced off for development work. Since it re-opened about a month ago, turnover here has increased dramatically.
Ugar, in my view, has an extraordinary talent for filling his letters. His writing tends to be fairly organic and un-uniform, which makes it identifiable, but it is his unique variety of fills that scream out a Ugar piece. Always good and always interesting.
2200. Dean Lane skate park (211)
Painting collectively as Reseau, this is a magnificent and wonderfully colourful collaboration between Stupid Stupid Meathole, Panskaribas and Rory MacRaild, on a wall that has seen so much action over the years in Dean Lane but rarely three artists at one time.
On the left and right of the piece, Stupid Stupid Meathole gives us some writing which deviates a little from his customary all pink to include blue and green letters. On the right he has squeezed in some of his grotesque teeth… because he can.
Then in the top left and across to the right, Panskaribas delights us with his cartoonesque style. The character on the left appears to be using a record deck and I have noticed that music seems to feature a great deal in his work.
Finally, in the centre of the collaboration I am realy pleased to intoduce Rory MacRaild whose work I have not knowingly seen before. I think he has absolutely smashed it with this Picassoesque portrait. It really ticks all my bokes, it is interesting bright and colourful and beautifully executed.
The whole collaboration is like being in a gallery. It is a meeting of styles that kind of works, and It seems that SSM and Panskaribas enjoy working together as I have seen a few collaborative pieces by them now. Great piece that has lasted a little while. Respect.
Natural adventures 