Well here’s the ton up and it’s still only November…who knows I might actually complete my Upfest 2017 posts before Upfest 2018! This is a beautiful piece by Rory McCann who has used his art to help him overcome his childhood health problems with arthrtis. His passion for drawing in those early years has grown to larger scale murals.
Rory McCann, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
Much of his work is about the environment and wildlife in the hope that it will help people to connect with nature. So far he has painted more than 80 large murals in schools, hospitals and public spaces, some of which you can see on his website. This Upfest lion is a stunner – those eyes! One of the truly memorable pieces this year – it was a pity it was a bit tucked away in the Ashton Gate stadium entrance as his work surely deserves more exposure.
I am rather fond of this fishing collaboration between Shane Ha and Niall O’Lochlainn, neither of whose work I have come across before (I think). Both are artists and illustrators from Dublin although I’m not sure if they have collaborated before.
Shane Ha and Niall O’Lochlainn, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
In doing just a little Instagram research on this piece I have rather fortuitously come across a couple of extra pieces they left behind in Bristol, so I will be popsting those before too long I hope.
Shane Ha and Niall O’Lochlainn, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
I was trying to establish which artist did which character, but I’m not sure I can tell, and this might be one of those examples of a collaboration where they both did bits of both. I’m not sure I will ever know. Nice piece.
Rob Wass took a lot of care and attention in producing this piece, and was out on both days, dodging the showers like everyone else. Some of you may remember his beautiful fox from Upfest 2015 which shares the same distinctive characteristics with this beautiful tree.
Rob Wass, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
Simplicity splashed with carefully selected colours leaves us with a very pleasing piece that generates a sense of calm and connection with our environment…I think I am a fan of his work.
My guess is that this is a cheeky little unofficial piece by Whysayit at Upfest this year. To my reasonably trained eye this looks like an opportunistic ‘quick one’ from an artist beter known for his ‘marginally less than legal’ tags and graffiti art all over the City.
Whysayit, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
It is a nice piece executed in his square style, which looks like it was put up in a bit of a hurry. I suspect he saw a free board at the festival and took his chance to make his mark, and why not? Festivals run the risk of being too clinical and up their own backsides with ‘corporate’ pieces – it is only when we have some real local street/graffiti artists that we remind ourselves what this is all about. Thank you YSAE.
Perhaps better known for his smaller pieces, stencils and wheatpastes, this large blue face by Beastie came as a bit of a surprise to me at Upfest, so much so that I didn’t even know it was by him when I photographed it.
Beastie, Upfest, Bristol, July2017
This was a striking piece that stood out and grabbed the attention and would appear to have an environmental theme to it too. It is interesting that this year’s Upfest appeared to have quite a lot of large portraits, many in single shades of one colour – maybe it is a thing or maybe just coincedence.
Beastie, Upfest, Bristol, July2017
Looking forward to seeing what direction Beastie takes with his street art as his work is always interesting.
Walking with my family on the obligatory clothes shopping trip in SoHo, we came across this magnificent tiger by Sonny. It is difficult to convey just how spectacular this piece is. Furthermore the piece is actually raising awareness for the global campaign ‘Project Cat‘ which aims to protect wild tigers and their habitat.
Sonny, SoHo, New York, October 2017
Looking at his website, it seems that Sonny is a specialist in painting large wildlife pieces, and has a special talent for this. I love the way he incorporates patterns into the face of the tiger and how cleverly the colours dribble down from the face to create a pool of blue and yellow.
I have the most enormous backlog of images to post, and can see that the only way to share as many of them as I can is to have slightly shorter written descriptions of the artists and their work, particularly with the non-Bristol street art, which takes me a lot longer to research.
Jerkface, Mott Street, New York, October 2017
On my recent trip to New York I was lucky enough to be staying in the lower East Side where there are amazing street/graffiti art surprises literally around every corner. This clever Mickey Mouse piece is by Jerkface who produces some amazing works in this grand cartoon style. Unfortunately his beautiful website reveals little about the artist.
Jerkface, Mott Street, New York, October 2017
This was one of my landmark finds from my trip, and I think it had only recently been sprayed.
Somewhat reminiscent of Banksy’s work or Unify or JPS, this lovely piece by Dotmaster Is just about perfect for this wall. Situated under a camden council sign stating ‘bill stickers will be prosecuted’. The corny old joke suggests that graffiti under the sign should read ‘Bill Stickers is innocent’ but the joke is a hundred years old.
Dotmaster, Camden Town, London, September 2016
This beautifully executed piece presents us with a naughty child spraying that most sacred of images, a heart, on the wall. A picture within a picture. I love this and pretty much everything about it, but I know little or nothing about the artist, but his biography on his website gives you a flavour. I love his comment:
It is impossible not to marvel at the work of Dan Kitchener, and the incredible atmospheric cityscapes he produces. One of the other things that he works on are his ‘speed paintings’ which are insanely brilliant photorealistic pictures – I strongly recommend that you take a look at his Instagram account to check these out.
Dan Kitchener, Hanbury Street, London, September 2016
I took these pictures last year when I was working two days a week in London and used my overnight stays as an opportunity to go to Shoreditch or Camden Town to check out the street/graffiti art.
Dan Kitchener, Hanbury Street, London, September 2016
This amazing piece by Dan Kitchener was actually hiding a little secret, which is pretty much invisible until you get close up to the piece. In amongst the cars and lights in this street scene there are three masks by Gregos.
Gregos, Hanbury Street, London, September 2016
Ther masks are different sizes and have three different expressions. Dan Kitchener has sprayed over these sensitively, but I am not sure if this was some kind of collaboration or if the masks had been there and Dan Kitchener simply sprayed over them at a later date. I’m not sure it matters too much, because on this wall you have such unbelievable creativity and two for the price of one.
Now this is a beautiful recent piece by Jody, and make no mistake I rate this extremely highly. I am however slightly conflicted by its placement. As part of Government public spending cuts, Local Authorities have had to make some difficult choices. Closing under-used libraries has been one way of reducing costs, and generating income from sale of the land. This hoarding has been erected around the building site that was formerly the library.
I am not particularly conflicted about any of that though, my issue is that the construction firm have gone out of their way (it seems) to avoid attracting graffiti to the hoardings (in an area where hoardings quickly become ‘decorated’). As part of this, they have commissioned two great street artists to complete panels, of which this is one. I suppose what bothers me is that it is that the message this sends out is that these boards are ok for some artists, but not for others. Who decides? On what grounds? How do the artists feel about this? It all feels a little uncomfortable.
Jody, Cheltenham Road, Bristol, November 2017
Putting all of that aside though, I think that this is absolutely stunning, and I consider this piece by Jody to be as good as any other I have seen of his. He does beautiful women’s faces to perfection, and I like the way the hair morphs into a smokey cloud.
Jody, Cheltenham Road, Bristol, November 2017
What a treat for me to be able to walk past this every day on my way to work. It will be interesting to see how the graffiti community treat this. Jody is held in high regard, but there are some taggers out there who have no respect and they may take exception to this hoarding being for the select few and not the many.
Natural adventures 