Tag: Haka

4291. Peel Street Green (6)

I have been pleasantly surprised by how many New pieces Haka is creating these days, or perhaps I am just getting better at finding them and posting them. Either way, his influence and impact on the Bristol street art scene is tangible and significant.

Haka, Peel Street Green, Bristol, March 2022
Haka, Peel Street Green, Bristol, March 2022

This is a fabulous and fun piece on the long wall at Peel Street Green, and features a Garfield cartoon character driving a railroad engine through a rural scene. Jesse is a name that appears on some of Haka’s works, but I can’t help wanting to make the link to Jesse James, although I don’t think there is one. This is a lovely clean and tidy piece painted in Haka’s very individual idiosyncratic style. Two blog posts from this artist in two days… maybe it is time for a gallery.

4289. Sparke Evan Park (34)

What a fabulous small piece this is from Haka. Anyone familiar with the children’s picture book Funnybones by Janet and Allen Ahlberg will be familiar with the characters, and will struggle not to be entranced by this labour of love.

Haka, Spark Evans Park, Bristol, February 2022
Haka, Spark Evans Park, Bristol, February 2022

The sense of nostalgia is thoroughly awoken with this mural, and although I never read the book as a child, it was one of my children’s and niece’s favourites. The style of the characters lend themselves very well to being upscaled and Haka has been faithful to the original illustrations. I love the mischievous speech bubbles: ‘what shall we do tonight?’ To which the reply is ‘Let’s go painting’. Brilliant stuff, beautifully recreated.

4272. Thomas Street

This bright and breezy mural by Haka has been around for a long while and includes a tribute to DJ Derek, a Bristol celebrity and much loved character, who sadly passed away in 2015, although his remains weren’t found until March 2016. I have been meaning to post this piece forever, and finally dug it out last week.

Haka, Thomas Street, Bristol, April 2016
Haka, Thomas Street, Bristol, April 2016

The whole mural is rather different from the stuff we usually see from Haka and may well have been painted to a brief. The soft colour selection allows the piece to be noticed without being brash or garish. There is so much detail through the piece and plenty of local references, such as the Banksy bear throwing a Molotov cocktail, the original of which is just around the corner.

Haka, Thomas Street, Bristol, April 2016
Haka, Thomas Street, Bristol, April 2016

I am guessing that the piece was a commission from the householder, and remarkably for the area remains largely untouched by taggers. A wonderful testament to Bristol culture and of course DJ Derek.

4242. M32 Spot (133)

The best thing about photographing and chronicling street art in Bristol are the surprises, and they don’t come much bigger than this fabulous three way collaboration from Logoe, Sepr and Haka. Three old hands (I hope they won’t mind me calling them that) on the Bristol scene combining their talents on one wall.

Logoe, M32 Spot, Bristol, January 2022
Logoe, M32 Spot, Bristol, January 2022

To the left of the triptych is a truly fabulous piece of script graffiti writing from Logoe, who has been mad for it this winter. There really has been no stopping him, despite the fact he doesn’t even live in Bristol and blitzes our walls in short bursts.

Sepr, M32 Spot, Bristol, January 2022
Sepr, M32 Spot, Bristol, January 2022

The middle section is a superb character piece from Sepr, featuring a beautifully dresses satan balancing a flaming earth on his finger. Why would such a thing be happening?… oh yeah, the planet is being run by imbeciles and climate change is going to change everything. Satan surely has a hand in all of this somewhere.

Haka, M32 Spot, Bristol, January 2022
Haka, M32 Spot, Bristol, January 2022

The right-hand section is a cheerful piece by Haka, that clearly demonstrates his ability when he puts his mind to it. Often his pieces have a rough-edge, grounded feel to them, but not this one. Here he has pulled-off some stylish writing and excellent fills that do the job nicely and round off the whole collaboration. Great work from these three.

Logoe, Sepr and Haka, M32 Spot, Bristol, January 2022
Logoe, Sepr and Haka, M32 Spot, Bristol, January 2022

4159. Feeder Road (1)

Over the Christmas break, I was able to take some slightly longer lunchtime walks than usual, and walked the length of the River Avon from Sparke Evans Park to Temple Meads Station. , and I am surely glad that I did, because I picked up a whole load of new, and some old, pieces, including this fun piece from Haka.

Haka, Feeder Road, Bristol, December 2021
Haka, Feeder Road, Bristol, December 2021

This writing/character combination incorporates a rather lovely rendition of Thomas the Tank Engine, which Haka has pimped slightly with the addition of CK in front of the number 1 to pay tribute to his friend CK One (RIP), as he does on every piece he paints. This is a fun piece and so typically Haka, if you know what I mean.

4146. M32 roundabout J3 (371)

As mentioned before in recent posts, Logoe has been hitting the streets of Bristol hard this winter, sometimes on his own and sometimes in partnership with either Silent Hobo or Haka. This piece on the M32 roundabout was with the latter.

Haka, M32 roundabout, Bristol, December 2021
Haka, M32 roundabout, Bristol, December 2021

Haka’s distinctive and rather unusual lettering style occupies the right hand side of the wall and is painted in chrome, with typically bright and colourful yellows and oranges as a backdrop. There is something joyful and mischievous about his letters, that I like a lot.

Logoe, M32 roundabout, Bristol, December 2021
Logoe, M32 roundabout, Bristol, December 2021

To the left is another fabulous script letter piece from Logoe, spelling out his name with real class and style. No philosophising or quotes to accompany this one, just a delicious array of spots, some drifting across from Haka’s writing beside. A comely collaborative effort.

4051. Sparke Evans Park (18)

Finding and photographing this wonderful collaboration between Haka and Logoe was a very special moment, because I met Haka for the first time, just as he was tidying up and photographing his work; and what a phenomenally nice bloke he is.

Haka, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, November 2021
Haka, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, November 2021

On the left is a fairly typical piece of block letter writing combined with a cheeky character. His somewhat chaotic style belies his talent as a graffiti artist of great merit. It is always great to see too his everlasting tributes to CK1.

Logoe, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, November 2021
Logoe, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, November 2021

On the right is another Logoe piece from his recent prolific assault on Bristol’s walls. Haka was able to shed some light on this peak activity. I understand that Logoe lives in Pembrokeshire and only occasionally visits Bristol. When he does come he brings with him loads of sketches and ideas for pieces and paints like there is no tomorrow. This is, of course, great news for us. This script style piece decorated with shades of grey and purple carries the message “Just because you grow old… you don’t have to grow up”. Makes sense to me. More to come from this Logoe marathon.

4037. M32 roundabout (358)

This lovely collaboration on the M32 roundabout took me a little while to unravel, although once unravelled it is blindingly obvious. To the left is a very ‘Haka’ Haka piece and the right hand side is a blended collaboration between Logoe and Sepr.

Haka, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2021
Haka, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2021

I probably haven’t posted nearly as many Haka pieces as I should have over the years, and might need to do a bit of digging in my archives to get a few more out there. This is a simple but joyful piece of writing from Haka with the ever-present shout out to CK1 RIP.

Logoe and Sepr, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2021
Logoe and Sepr, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2021

The Logoe/Sepr mash up is simply brilliant, and the second recent piece in a burst from Logoe who appears to have woken from a long slumber. The letters are by Logoe in his unique script style and the writing isn’t his usual message or lyric, but  the year spelled out. The fills are beautifully done and colours reflective of the time of year.  Sepr has contributed a face and hand into the mix and as a whole it works really well. This must have been a fun session.

3715. M32 roundabout J3 (323)

What a delightful surprise it was to come across this unheralded piece from Haka on the M32 roundabout. Haka is one of those artists who very much does his own thing in his own way, and pretty much every piece is a tribute to his friend CK One, which is really touching.

Haka, M32 roundabout, Bristol, May 2021
Haka, M32 roundabout, Bristol, May 2021

This particular vibrant and wild portrait is, according to Haka’s own Instagram feed, a self-portrait. Having never met the artist, I can’t vouch for its accuracy, but I haven’t seen anyone looking like this in the Bristol area before. Great fun piece.

3059. Cattle Market Road (6)

Adjacent to the new hoardings on Cattle Market Road that have been immaculately painted by Josh B, Bnie, The Hass, Hazard and Sled One are some slightly older hoardings which are beginning to be ‘decorated’, this one by Haka

Haka, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, June 2020
Haka, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, June 2020

Haka’s work is a little more edgy than his neighbours and has a real sense of vandalism about it compared to their high-end work. All of this wonderfully illustrates exactly why I love street/graffiti art… the vast spectrum of styles, ‘respectability’, talent on offer caters for pretty much every taste. This character-writing combination is a cheerful piece with Tom and the Roadrunner flanking a nicely written JESSE. A fun piece.