Unless he is reading The Bible to his kids, this Jesus piece by Haka is a bit of a departure from his recent passion for painting characters from children’s story books. Representations of Jesus in street art are relatively rare, but this South Park Jesus breaks the mould.
Haka’s writing in this piece is really neat and tidy, with a bright colour combination that dazzles. Overall, a real pleasure to see this one, and to enjoy Hakas’ continuing purple patch.
It is getting very difficult to keep on top of the street art scene in Bristol at the moment. The sheer number of artists and the frequency with which they are painting, means that many pieces never see the light of day on the pages of Natural Adventures. An artist who doesn’t appear as much as he should is 3F Fino, and I have a great many of his pieces lurking in my archive.
I have managed to include this recent one from Greenbank, painted alongside LRS crew friends. The letters FINO are half decorated in a bubble style, that 3F Fino has used before at L Dub, if my memory serves me right. The design as very effective and unusual. Alongside the letters, the artist has painted a masked character jumping out of the side of a spray can with a brick wall motif, used a lot by street artists. All good work from 3F Fino.
Often painting with his LRS crew mates, Wxttsart continues to charm us with his unconventional graffiti writing style and funny word ‘MILK’. It always amuses me that anyone would write milk, and I’d love to know what the story of the genesis of these letters was.
The colours light blue and pink go so well together, and Wxttsart has made great use of the match with some stunning blue letters bounded with a fine pink border. I would describe Wxttsart’s style as a mash up of anti-graffiti and calligraffiti, which is a rare achievement, because those two styles are probably at opposite ends of the writing spectrum. A refreshing piece from Wxttsart.
Merny manages to turn his pieces out quite regularly these days, and some last longer than others, but overall his presence and ‘brand’ in Bristol is constantly growing. This is an artist who never shies away from bold political statements and has become an important street commentator on the pressures and divides in our country. “F*ck being posh” is a clear illustration of the resentment of the gap between rich and poor getting ever more prominent under 12 years of Tory Government.
Merny’s work, although naive in style, is full of narrative, movement and interest. It is impossible to walk past his work and not pay attention. Alongside John D’oh, Merny reminds us about the political landscape in which we live. A great piece of social commentary art.
This morning I bring you your regular dose of Laic217 and this fiery piece on the Bristol to Bath cycle path. The days of this spot are numbered, as the housing development completes, sections of hoarding will be removed and replaced with flimsy iron railings… arguably more in keeping with the housing, but I will mourn the loss of this fantastic graffiti spot.
As ever, this piece contains many of the key attributes we would expect to see in a Laic217 piece; a skeleton beautifully painted fabric, a touch of menace, a chain, a hat and fire. Always a pleasure seeing one of his pieces.
The next few posts willl be necessarily quite short, as I am about to take off for my annual fishing trip to Cornwall, and although it is a short break from work, we manage to fill our days, leaving not a lot of time for me to write. At this moment I am packing, ironing, looking for a reel I have lost, having breakfast, walking the dog, dropping my daughter off at school before leaping into the car for the three hour journey.
This piece by Conrico is a belter. Everything about it is brilliant; the composition, the weirdness and the execution left me spellbound when I saw it. There are some pieces you see and you forget, there are others that remain in the memory for a long time or forever and this is one of those pieces. Fabulous work from Conrico.
Pirate Wall Art (PWA) has been quite a dynamic crew over the last couple of years, with the inclusion of Nightwayss and Chill, and then the departure of Nightwayss (not from the crew, but from Bristol). Chill has embraced the group of friends with gusto, and regularly paints collaborations, often in the company of Face 1st, who I get the impression is always up for a paint.
The collaboration is beautifully presented on a grey buffed background with green foliage, flowers, clouds and a little bird by Chill. His cartoon character is wonderful, but it is the hand gently holding the flower that works so well… some real tenderness.
Face 1st has reverted to his girl with FACE for hair, written in a chunky block script. The shading on the letters F and E gives them a 3D effect, while the A and C are flatter, sitting back. It shows you what you can do with shading to make elements of a piece stand out. Of course, the girl is smiling, and the piece is a happy one. This is a fine collaboration from the PWA pair.
Here he is again with some more bright and striking pieces of graffiti writing. I am of course talking about the prolific Klashwhensober. It is strange, but there was a time a few months ago when I was bumping into Klashwhensober at least once a week, and our clocks were in sync… however, I haven’t seen him for quite a while now. The same thing happened with Werm.
Both of these pieces are at Greenbank, and a feast for the eyes. The first, spelling SOBER is really eye-catching and is notable for the smorgasbord of fills transitioning horizontally through the piece with interest through every layer, truly a thing of beauty.
The second piece is slightly more muted, but still beautifully presented. Spelling KLASH, this piece again offers some exquisite fill patterns and colours, complemented with a beautifully painted 3D shadow with a central disappearing point. Both pieces are top notch and a real celebration of Klashwhensober’s workmanship. Bravo!
I cannot express how much I am enjoying this ‘happy’ period from Face 1st. There is something new and fresh about his work at the moment, which you might only notice if you have been following his art for a while. Face 1st is concentrating a little more on his characters, nearly always laughing girls, but there is more movement and different poses entering into his work.
In this piece we have one of Face 1st’s letters and character pieces, with the letters FA and E broken up with a kick-dancing girl obscuring or being the C. The girl is striking a similar pose to one of his other recent pieces, which I posted a short while ago. Gotta love this one.
It is amazing how quickly an artist can make an impression and become part of the norm. It really isn’t all that long ago that I posted the first piece by Marckinetic that I had been aware of, and now he is turning out quality piece after quality piece almost as if he has been painting in Bristol forever.
This is a nice solid piece, which deliberately or otherwise has a metallic feel about it. The main body of letters is filled with a kind of sky-scape on the top half and a black lower half, giving the impression of being a mirror, reflecting the scene behind the viewer. The writing is set on a dark pink cloudy/bubbly background. This is an exceptionally good piece, and might be my favourite from the artist so far. He seems to be a real specialist in atmospheric/cosmic/sky-scape backdrops/fills.
Natural adventures 