Another great find, that I had seen on the Interweb, but tracked down recently on one of my walks. This is another acid house trippy piece by Laic217 similar to the one on Moon Street. In this case though the face is melting vertically rather than horizontally.
There is something about Laic217’s pieces that I really like. They are quite raw, but rather potent. They will stand out in a crowd, so there is something special there. I will be posting more of his work soon.
I am very pleased with these pictures. I caught a glimpse of ObjectØØØ at work last weekend on an Instagram movie made by Annikapixie in which she was showing off a new piece that she was working on…to follow. I recognised the spot and so went looking for the piece on a lunchtime walk. I found it.
ObjectØØØ has a very particular style that is quite unlike anything else I have seen in Bristol. It is very organic and combines a naturalist’s view with oddities and political thoughts. It is an acquired taste, but one I admire.
In addition ObjectØØØ has pasted a small sketch onto this piece and the close up shows that he has a very strong command of biological sciences. I can see the claw of a decapod, a scolex (from a parasitic tapeworm), dentition, wing structure, an animal cell, twigs and a climbing plant. I am interested in why he has left such a tiny sketch on his work. This stuff is quirky…and remember…’eat the rich’.
I have taken many photographs of this magnificent parrot since it was created at last year’s Upfest (2015), but somehow I just haven’t made time to put together a post. It is a difficult piece to photograph because of the white space on the wall and from the sky, which tends to bleach the picture out a bit.
The magnificent piece is by Luis Seven Martins, also known as L7M. He is another artist from Sao Paolo in Brazil (a hotbed of street art talent). Born in 1988, he has been working on street art from the age of 13. He specialises in drawing birds using a mix of spray paint and acrylics. This parrot is a beauty and one of the outstanding pieces of Upfest 2015. His Facebook page is here.
John D’oh is a very naughty political artist whose work I enjoy immensely, whether I agree with his assertions or not. Whenever I see his stuff I can’t help smiling at his cheeky nerve. I suspect it gets him into trouble occasionally, but I like the edge he brings to the Bristol street art scene. This time it is the turn of the Queen, a reference to the band of the same name and her position on Brexit as portrayed by some media outlets (in particular the Murdock News International Media group).
Not only is the content of his work noteworthy, but his execution using stencils and his profusion of work is impressive. I have a large backlog of his work, much of which is politically no longer contemporary, but nonetheless an indicator of political issues in 2010s Bristol.
The turnover of work at Dean Lane skate park is, I am discovering, very rapid indeed. I try to walk to the area once a week, and always there are new works to look at. This is by Eraze, an artist I have not yet featured in my posts, although I have seen several recently.
This is typical of his work, and similar in form to Laic217, in that his name is usually written out in a colourful and easily legible style, with a feature element as a focal point. In this instance a dope-smoking turtle/tortoise. I have since found out that the character is by Indy Skyzone.
Eraze describes himself as a ‘graffiti loving Bristolian’ – so I guess that in my book that makes him pretty special. I look forward to seeing his work develop.
One of the true pleasures of photographing street art is finding some of subtle hidden pieces that are out there, but are often overlooked. 23 Magpies specialises in wildlife wheatpastes, often stuck in such ordinary places that if you blink you miss them.
This lovely work of a crow on sheet music is pasted onto a utility box, much as the chameleon was not far up the road on Dean Lane. I don’t know how long this has been here, but I only noticed it last week.
I am very fond of these pasteups, they feel like my own little treasures. If you look carefully you can see one of Andy Council’s pieces in the background.
This is the second part of my marvelous Monday discovery. This is a piece by Bruno Smoky who is the husband of Shalak Attack and member of the Clandestinos Crew. I understand from his Instagram feed that Inkie was their host/guide over the weekend in Bristol, and who better to show them the best walls. I love the way the graffiti world hangs together.
This house on fire is a really breathtaking piece, and with the Shalak Attack work in the adjacent archway, the pair have really set the bar very high for the Carriageworks space. I hope the taggers stay clear and respect our visitors’ work. I like his nod to Buzz in the top left corner – respecting a little of our local thing.
Bruno Smoky grew up in Brasilandia, a neighbourhood in Sao Paolo, Brazil. He is now internationally recognised and has created works all over the world. I love this quote, lifted from his website:
“I do not neglect my roots, my greatest pleasure is to paint in communities, bringing art and culture to otherwise forgotten and precarious neighborhoods. I use Graffiti in the context of creating a space to exhibit my art to society, my themes are full of colors and forms of protest … ”
I feel genuinely privileged that they visited and painted in Bristol outside of any kind of art festival, such as Upfest.
I’m still excited by Devon Road. This is an exceptional piece by the brilliant Sepr. Typical of his pieces, it is in shades of gray and features a musician, in this case a guitarist.
The mustachioed character has a continental look about him and there is something rather peaceful about the work. I can almost hear the music.
I think it is fairly obvious, but I am a big fan of Sepr’s work and to find this near-perfect mural in Devon Road made me very happy indeed. Imagine my surprise when I came upon another one just around the corner. More on that one soon.
Back in April, there was a massive explosion of new pieces appearing in the tunnels of The Bearpit. This beautiful piece by Beastie, I believe, only happened because he was hanging out with some other artists and decided at the last minute to join in.
As is often the case at the moment, you have to be very quick to get ‘clean’ photographs of anything in the Bristol hotspots. By the time I got to this one, it was already quite heavily tagged. It is a really lovely work, Beastie is a very talented artist. Sadly, his cat in Hillgrove street has recently been defaced, which is a real shame, it is one of my favourite pieces in Bristol.
Every now and then, life throws wonderful surprises at you. On such days it is hard to contain one’s joy and enthusiasm. I am having one of those ‘red letter days’ that my grandmother used to talk about.
My walk to work on a Monday via Stokes Croft always gives me a bit of a thrill, because the graffiti artists tend to spray over the weekend, especially when the weather is nice, and many walls in the area get a facelift. This morning I was greeted with a double surprise on the archways of the Carriageworks. Two spanking new, clean pieces by internationally famous artists.
This husband and wife team come under the combined name of the ‘Clandestinos Collective’ and are ‘Shalak Attack’ and ‘Bruno Smoky’. This stunning colourful portrait is by Shalak Attack and is one of the most beautiful pieces I have seen in Stokes Croft.
Shalak Attack is a Canadian-Chilean artist who has been spraying urban murals across the world for over a decade. She and her husband are currently in the UK (London) with an exhibition ‘In the Raw’ of their work. What I love about this piece is that of all the places in the UK that they might have gone for the weekend, they chose Bristol and Stokes Croft…getting in some recreational spraying. How cool is that? I will post the second half of this happy event very soon.
Natural adventures 