2038. M32 roundabout J3 (127)

On sitting down to write a post about this Elvs piece from the M32 roundabout I have come to realise that I know virtually nothing about the artist. I know about his work and love the intricate lettering which usually has a vanishing point somewhere behind the piece, but I have never met him nor do I even know where he comes from. This secrecy is quite common amongst some street artists and is completely understandable… however it does lead to an awful lot of waffle filling the column inches.

Elvs, M32 roundabout, Bristol, January 2019
Elvs, M32 roundabout, Bristol, January 2019

This particular piece includes some pixels which might be a little nod of recognition to Aspire, but then again it might not. It also looks a little bit like there is a tide line on it, where the bottom third looks a little washed out. This effect is heightened with the wet pathway below the piece. Great work from this DBK artist.

2037. Lawrence Hill roundabout (3)

It would appear that Soap is a happy man these days, or at least his mouth motif has a joyous demeanour which may or may not reflect the artist’s own disposition. It is noticeable though that his recent pieces are all a lot more expressive and smiley than some of his older work.

Soap, Lawrence Hill roundabout, Bristol, February 2019
Soap, Lawrence Hill roundabout, Bristol, February 2019

This is a colourful and nicely embellished piece that screams out laughter and fun and is definitely a welcome addition to the rather drab tunnels at Lawrence Hill roundabout. I really like the squiggle decorations around the piece which might be Soap’s original tag. Good work.

Thursday doors

Doors 61.

I am still struggling a little to find new doors, and haven’t done an awful lot of travelling lately, so I have retreated to my safe heartland of graffiti doors because there is never ever a shortage of them in Bristol.

The featured image door and the ones below are something of a curiosity. They appeared back in January 2017 and were attached to some walls in what I thought at the time was an effort to disrupt the work of street/graffiti artists, but I think that they might have been a part of a campaign about homelessness. Either way, they introduced a new dynamic to the Bristol scene and presented a challenge to local artists. The doors remained in situ for many months before disappearing as quickly as they had appeared.

Doors on a Wall, Moon Street, Bristol, January 2017
Doors on a Wall, Moon Street, Bristol, January 2017
Doors on a wall embellished by Ryder sitting over a Mr Klue piece, Bristol, January 2017
Doors on a wall embellished by Ryder sitting over a Mr Klue piece, Bristol, January 2017

The next few doors are classic graffiti doors in Bristol:

Coin-Op Militia, Mr Klue and DNT, Stokes Croft, Bristol, January 2017
Coin-Op Militia, Mr Klue and DNT, Stokes Croft, Bristol, January 2017

Spot the cat…

Door, Leonard Lane, Bristol, January 2018
Door, Leonard Lane, Bristol, January 2018
Heavily tagged door, Stokes Croft, Bristol, November 2017
Heavily tagged door, Stokes Croft, Bristol, November 2017

So that’s your lot for this week, I wish you all the very best until next Thursday.

Let yourself in to a world of doors at: Thursday Doors – Norm 2.0, just follow the frog.

by Scooj

 

2036. Lawrence Hill roundabout (2)

I guess that Big Bird from Sesame Street is known to pretty much all of us who might have been watching TV since 1969, and here is a terrific tribute by Rezwonk to the Jim Henson creation on an end wall of one of the tunnels on the Lawrence Hill roundabout.

Rezwonk, Lawrence Hill, Bristol, February 2019
Rezwonk, Lawrence Hill, Bristol, February 2019

The backdrop to Big Bird is a spread of Rezwonk icons, these with smilie faces on them. It’s funny, but it doesn’t seem logical to put a yellow subject on a yellow background, but somehow in this piece Rezwonk carries it off perfectly. I love this piece in one of the newer spots to me. It’ll be interesting to see how long it lasts, as I don’t yet have a feel for the turnover of work here.

2035. M32 cycle path (20)

How is it possible that I can still keep finding Laic217 pieces in my archive? This one is from October last year on the M32 cycle path but probably didn’t get published immediately on account of the poor light quality. This particular wall is very hard to photograph without getting flaring from the sun or bright sky behind it. So much about photographing street art is dependent on light quality and time of day – I get it wrong too often, but with a full-time job I am rather constrained in the times I get to go out.

Laic217, M32 cycle path, Bristol, October 2018
Laic217, M32 cycle path, Bristol, October 2018

I rarely say this about Laic217’s work, but in my view this is not his best. The shirt material is exceptional , but I am just not sure about the face. I think a partially decomposed face is probably very difficult to do and the teeth and nose don’t quite seem right. Having said that it’s all still pretty good and utterly likeable. Will I be able to dig out some more oldies from Laic217…?

2034. Dean Lane skate park (193)

A couple of days back I posted a great piece by the lovely artist Cros, and said that I had seen some of his work before – this is that work. Back in September Cros and his friend Lorris took over two-thirds of the long wall at Dean Lane to produce this wonderful collaboration.

Cros, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2018
Cros, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2018

The letters Cros creates tend to be quite angular, but have a soft touch to them. His fills are really neat too with all sorts of nice patterns and shapes in green, orange and black. Everything is neat and tidy and I like his rings and arrows, both classic writing motifs.

Lorris, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2018
Lorris, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2018

This is the first piece (I hope of many) by Lorris that I have posted and it is a really charming piece. Now, I wonder if I would have said it has a feminine touch if I hadn’t known that Lorris was a woman. Difficult to know really – the lettering in soft and curvy, but the clincher is the hair bow on the ‘O’ of Lorris…I can’t imagine a male artist ever spraying a hair bow in anything other than a photorealistic portrait. All my unconscious bias being laid bare there. Anyhow I really like her style and can’t wait to see more.

2033. Dean Lane skate park (192)

I seem to be forever trying to play catch up with some of the artists in Bristol, such as Mr Draws, Face 1st, Deamze and in this example Tasha Bee. With only writing two posts each day and having to share as much as I can from Bristol streets and Upfest and occasionally London and further afield, inevitably some good works struggle to make it on to these pages. Often too good to leave out, I try to publish them, but often a long time after completion. Certainly I have enough material to last me for at least a year if I stopped taking pictures today.

Tasha Bee, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2018
Tasha Bee, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2018

This is a lovely example of Tasha Bee’s work from last year at the Dean Lane skate park with each of the two figures reversed out, so one green with lilac features and the other lilac with green features. All round a lovely calming work. See more in my Tasha Bee gallery.

2032. Stokes Croft

I am going back a long way (December 2015) through my archive now to share this piece by DNT and another artist, possibly Mr Sleven, but I am not sure. I really don’t know why I have held on to this for so long, because it is a fine and rather unusual collaboration next to the Matchbox Gallery.

DNT, Stokes Croft, Bristol, December 2015
DNT, Stokes Croft, Bristol, December 2015

The ‘stone’ cherub is by DNT, and for a while there were a few of these dotted around the area. I have a feeling that the cherub sitting in a pile of spray cans is a stencil, which is a surprise as I’m not aware of any other stencils by DNT.

DNT, Stokes Croft, Bristol, December 2015
DNT, Stokes Croft, Bristol, December 2015

I love the way the whole thing is black and white apart from little flashes of colour on the spray cans. A memorable piece.

2031. Gloucester Road

This piece goes back a little way, and kind of got lost because it was taken on my mobile phone and not on my camera – hence the rather poor quality. It is a piece by Hoax and Akarat above the Coop on Gloucester Road and didn’t last too long before it got dogged, which was a pity.

Hoax and Akarat, Gloucester Road, Bristol, August 2018
Hoax and Akarat, Gloucester Road, Bristol, August 2018

It has been a long time since I have seen anything by these two on the streets so I was rather excited by this collaboration. Unfortunately, by the time I returned some while later with a camera it was gone. Entitled Run run run, the piece includes a couple of galloping horses and what looks like an architectural feature, possibly a window and roof. I would have loved to get a closer look, but this was the best I could do.

2030. King Square Avenue (4)

Somehow this Deamze piece passed me by. Probably because this spot always seems to have one of his pieces in it…he owns the space. It is not a street with much other street art, so trips there are infrequent and therefore any refresh of this wall can be easily missed.

Deamze, King Square Avenue, Bristol, August 2018
Deamze, King Square Avenue, Bristol, August 2018

The work is not unlike his previous one here (see below) in so much as it is in his sharp and jagged style and has a hog character. So crisp and clean, just another example of the brilliance of this artist. Although I took the picture in August last year, I have only just got round to posting it. Worth the wait.

Deamze, Kings Square Avenue, Bristol, April 2017
Deamze, Kings Square Avenue, Bristol, April 2017