Tag: Graffiti

503. City Road (4)

I have known about this piece for a while, but just never knew where it was. To my huge excitement and fulfilment I found it recently, while looking for another piece nearby. This is by one of my favourite street artists, Aspire, who is better known for his amazing birds.

Aspire, City Road, Bristol, October 2016
Aspire, City Road, Bristol, October 2016

I don’t know who the subject of the piece is, but I would guess a prominent local musician or blues artist perhaps. It seems slightly peculiar seeing work by Aspire that is not a bird, but I consider it to be equally good, and I would like to see more of it.

Aspire, City Road, Bristol, October 2016
Aspire, City Road, Bristol, October 2016

The piece has been here for a while and is slightly worse for wear, but it has persisted and survived untagged…often the mark of a respected artist.

502. Armada Place (7)

This is a stunning, collaboration between Sled One and Epok, two of the best wildstyle writers about. It is easy to see the Sled One element…if you look carefully you can make out the letters SLED. I had to look hard though for Epok – I knew it was a collaboration because he had signed the piece. I think his lettering is in the grey-green underlayer – certainly this part is more in his style.

Sled One and Epok, Armada Place, Bristol, June 2016
Sled One and Epok, Armada Place, Bristol, June 2016

What I love most abut this piece is that it is on a modest hoarding with low footfall. This piece was done for the love of it. The colour palettes are brilliant and the whole thing quite beautiful. These things are so easily overlooked or dismissed…it is a pity.

501. M32 Roundabout J3 (22)

This is a beautiful bit of wildstyle writing from 3Dom. His wildstyle form tends to be quite organic and ethereal, more in the style of Ments, rather than the hard, clean, sharp geometric writing associated with his Bristol peers Deamze, Sokem, Epok and Voyder, to name just a few.

3Dom, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2016
3Dom, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2016

This piece was from a little while ago and has been painted over several times since. It is nice to have a record of it though. It was part of an ASK crew paint jam in March, and his piece here is sandwiched between Voyder on the left and Sled One on the right. Nice work.

500. Raleigh Road (3)

Opposite the Tobacco Factory car park, you (used to) come face to face with this building and a wonderful Thierry Noir pair. When I took the photographs, I hadn’t seen any of his work before, but on my escapades to London I have become more familiar with his very distinctive work.

Thierry Noir, Raleigh Road, Bristol, June 2016
Thierry Noir, Raleigh Road, Bristol, June 2016

These pieces were sprayed for Upfest 2015 and have since been over painted with a large Brexit commentary piece which was part of Upfest 2016 – I will post this newer piece soon.

Thierry Noir reminds me a lot of artists like Matisse, or the Stravinsky fountains outside the Pompidou centre in Paris, whose work contained bold and contrasting colours on simple figures and forms. Great stuff.

499. The Bearpit (28)

Every now and again you come across something quite different. Something that stands out from the crowd. This lovely colourful piece was at the end of one of the pedestrian tunnels at The Bearpit. It is by an artist I know nothing about, and I haven’t seen her work before. Her name is Georgie or Georgieartist as she signs herself and I think she comes from the West of England somewhere.

Georgie, The Bearpit, Bristol, April 2016
Georgie, The Bearpit, Bristol, April 2016

Her Facebook page demonstrates some of her work and how she creates it, it is well worth a good look. She has strong political convictions and I like that in a street artist, however this piece seems to be simply full of Bristolian joy. I love it. ‘Lush’ is a very Bristolian word which kind of means great or brilliant, but is usually used in the familiar vernacular. ‘That’s gert lush that is’.

498. Bolton Road (2)

Bolton road is a small alleyway branching off the Gloucester Road in the St Andrews area of Bristol. This always seems an unlikely place to find street art, but this is Bristol, and you never seem to be too far away from something a bit special.

Epok, Bolton Road, Bristol, February 2016
Epok, Bolton Road, Bristol, February 2016
This is a nice piece by Epok with all the usual traits of his work, that is, the angular and distorted letters, highly designed look and wonderfully complementary colour scheme. I am puzzled though by the space lady in the picture, and I am not surre if there was a collaborator or whether this is Epok’s work too. There are no other obvious signatures and I have exhausted searches on the interweb.

Epok, Bolton Road, Bristol, February 2016
Epok, Bolton Road, Bristol, February 2016
The lane is very difficult to take decent pictures in because it is so narrow, and sometimes there are awkward shadows cast across the walls. I have had these images a while, and ought to venture back to see if the piece is still there.

Epok, Bolton Road, Bristol, February 2016
Epok, Bolton Road, Bristol, February 2016

497. The Bearpit (27)

Tucked over to one side of the Bearpit, near the Premier Inn Hotel, I found this rather nice collaboration between Jee See and Mr Klue. In this piece we see the typical styles of each of these street artists. Mr Klue treats us to his swirling patterns in rich purples and lilacs, while Jee See offers a stencil of a girl with a revolutionary Castro look about her – a stencil I have seen repeatedly about Bristol.

Mr Klue and Jee See, The Bearpit, Bristol, February 2016
Mr Klue and Jee See, The Bearpit, Bristol, February 2016
I’m not sure if this piece is still there as I took the picture some time ago, and it is in a bit of The Bearpit I rarely visit. More from both to follow in time.

Mr Klue and Jee See, The Bearpit, Bristol, February 2016
Mr Klue and Jee See, The Bearpit, Bristol, February 2016

496. Dean Lane skate park (26)

This wonderful scene was created back in October by Sled One, in conjunction with a piece by Ments which I wrote about a little while back. It seems that Sled One has an endless energy and talent for conceiving and executing some of the most imaginative street art in Bristol. His style is quite cartoony and injected with humour, and as I have said before, there always seems to be a story going on in his pieces.

Sled One, Dean Lane, Bristol, October 2016
Sled One, Dean Lane, Bristol, October 2016

I’m not sure what the story is, but it includes one of those really irritating toy clockwork monkeys with clashing cymbals which is beautifully portrayed. In addition, the wisps of steam from the cup of tea are masterfully painted. There is some real quality about this piece. Sled One never seems to disappoint. This is in my view exceptional street art.

Sled One, Dean Lane, Bristol, October 2016
Sled One, Dean Lane, Bristol, October 2016

495. The Bearpit (26)

On the 15th October 2016 The Bearpit played host to an international exhibition entitled ‘Resiste’. The exhibition featured the works of the Assembly of Revolutionary Artists of Oaxaco, Mexico. I will cover this exhibition in more detail in a forthcoming post, but today I will focus on the participation in the exhibition by Bristol’s magnificent Aspire.

Aspire, The Bearpit, Bristol, October 2016
Aspire, The Bearpit, Bristol, October 2016
Aspire has sprayed many birds in The Bearpit, but perhaps none so eye catching and appropriate to the immediate context as these two beautiful humming birds. The Bearpit is awash with Mexican protest street art, but these humming birds bring some tranquility to the overall atmosphere.

Aspire, The Bearpit, Bristol, October 2016
Aspire, The Bearpit, Bristol, October 2016
Yet another example of Bristol street art at its best, working alongside other cultures, movements and politics. The Bearpit is such an interesting cultural space, often rather controversial and edgy, but never boring.

Aspire, The Bearpit, Bristol, October 2016
Aspire, The Bearpit, Bristol, October 2016

494. Stokes Croft, the Carriageworks (19)

This is a small piece by the wonderful Bristol street artist Face F1st whose works are always centered on a styalised face each one with a different decorative feature. In this one he has placed a small octopus on the face’s head. This is a political anti-Brexit piece which is articulated clearly, and the octopus represents the Brexit narrative ‘brainwashing’, which appears to be stifling any intellectual debate about what kind of Brexit British citizens might want (in particular the 48% who voted against).

Face F1st, Stokes Croft, Bristol, October 201
Face F1st, Stokes Croft, Bristol, October 2016
I like all of Face F1st’s work and enjoy spotting them, they always feel slightly understated and he tends to select untidy walls to spray. Face Fist belongs to the PWA crew, Pirate Wall Art which includes Soap. Looking forward to more from PWA and Face F1st.