Japanese – Natural adventures

7546. Brunel Way (353)

Conrico, Brunel Way, Bristol, March 2026

Generally speaking, rounded column pieces are a real pain from a photography point of view. For an artist they offer a large canvass in a small space, but as the piece wraps around the column, it becomes a challenge for the photographer. I have wondered whether the panorama setting on an iPhone would work, I’ll have to give it a try next time, but I doubt it.

Given my reservations about columns, Conrico has done a perfect job here. His vertical piece is of a Japanese style street lantern with its glowing orange light and atmospheric steam rising from the ground.

The piece wraps around the column, but not too far, so it is possible to get a sense of it from the front. Conrico continues to impress with a positive and impactful series of outstanding pieces this year – more to come.

6901. East Street

Tian’s visit to Bristol filled me with excitement, and the ‘treasure hunt’ he left behind on East Street, left me with a very memorable hour or so while walking the dog a few weeks back. His wheatpastes may go unnoticed by many, but not by me.

The Japanese lady in a kimono is taken from a piece called ‘le kimono d’invisibilité’, and just looks so incongruous with its surroundings and yet blends in as if she has always been there. A stunning piece from an artist who has mastered content and placement. One of the very best.

6961. Dean Lane

How excited was I to find this outstanding wheatpaste by Tian earlier this month? A rhetorical question of course. Back in April 2016, the French artist, Tian, bombarded Stokes Croft with a series of beautiful paste ups, and visited Bristol again in May 2019 doing much the same. Both visits were celebrated by me, and many others who enjoyed discovering his series of interesting cut-outs.

I guess he was visiting the city again, but this time I have only found two wheatpastes, one of which has already gone. I expect there are more, but I don’t know where to look. This one, on the swimming pool wall, is of a Japanese woman in a kimono holding chopsticks. This is very much in a theme that Tian has cultivated over the years, and embraces the sepia tint as part of the piece. I am so excited about this, and keen to find some others in the North Street area.

6687. Purdown (82)

Conrico is a very unusual street artist. He appears to be equally comfortable with graffiti writing or characters or landscapes and so on, always appearing to tell stories in his work. Much of his art and creativity is influenced by Japanese culture, and his spray technique looks much more like brush work than spray-painting. He is quite unique.

This piece was painted in three hours and features an Asian lady in an American diner – I found out this information from his Instagram feed. The piece is based on a photograph of Minami Yuzuzu, a Japanese actress/popular figure? His blend of cultures and special style has created a special and imaginative piece, not the sort of thing you might expect to see walking the dog through a WWII gun emplacement (unless you lived in Bristol).

6535. Frome Side (39)

Quale, Frome side, Bristol, November 2024

At first glance I was fooled into thinking that this piece was by Conrico, mainly based on the subject matter, but also a little o the style, but it didn’t quite feel right. It turns out it is by visiting artist Quale, as part of a chapter 17 World Wall Stylers paint jam challenge with the theme Ninja Scroll. Ninja Scroll is a 1993 Japanese animated jidaigeki–chanbara film written and directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri – who knew?

This piece (sorry about the glare, this wall is difficult to photograph) is stunning. It is so full of movement, and little pastiches from the film. I don’t know anything about Quale, but hope to see more in Bristol in the future.

5475. Cheltenham 2023 (7)

Elno, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2023

One of the highlights of my trip to Cheltenham for this year’s Paint Festival was the opportunity to meet and chat with Elno, a lovely, lovely person who made plenty of time to talk about her work, and a piece that I photographed earlier in the year from the Lighthouse Community Gardens. I caught up with her just as she was completing the piece, only the sword handle was incomplete and, of course, her signature.

I made a bit of a mistake asking Elno if her character had any links to Avatar (the film), and she swiftly put that one to bed. I gather that she has been painting characters like this for a while, and it is purely coincidental that this one resembles any kind of animation film characters, and if I am honest, I feel a bit of a fool for even asking as the resemblance is tenuous at best.

There is so much to like in this piece from the composition with its very strong Japanese influence. Characters with large eyes are always beguiling and beautiful, and the red hair, complete with flower, complements the blue skin perfectly. I love the touch of patterned material on the woman’s shoulder, adding some extra class to the piece. I suggested that she try to make it to Bristol for Upfest, a suggestion that didn’t fall on deaf ears. Let’s hope.

Elno, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023

4253. Greenbank (25)

I think the thing I love most about this outstanding piece from Conrico is that it is probably the most surprising subject for street art imaginable. A Japanese takeaway sushi meal, still in its plastic container, is either completely bonkers or utterly inspired, and I prefer to err on the side of the latter.

Conrico, Greenbank, Bristol, February 2022

There is no question that this is brilliantly painted in Conrico’s paint brush style, the plastic transparent box alone is worth a mention. Take a look at the delicacies inside the box, and you will notice that they spell out Conrico Steez, the full signature of the artist. I love, love, love this creative food fiesta – bravo!

1988

These lacquered chopsticks

a gift from Mr Cheba

an act of kindness

by Scooj

the backstory… I found some chopsticks in a drawer that were given to me by a crew member of the Koei Maru 30, a Japanese fishing boat that I worked on in the Falkland Islands – it was his way of making friends and welcoming me. Finding them transported me back to 1988.

2210. Stokes Croft

I can’t express how excited I was to see this last week, but it appears that Tian has been on another tour of Bristol and has left dozens of paste ups in the Stokes Croft area. Although He came for Upfest 2016, his last wheatpasting drop was in April 2016 so it has been some time, but how utterly worth the wait.

Over the next few weeks I will post more of his pieces. Once again he presents us with stencil work that has been printed and pasted up and this first design appears to be a Japanese scene with a geisha. If any of his past work is a guide, the piece is probably taken from a famous film, but I don’t know for sure.

Unusually for the work of Tian that I have seen, this piece diverges from his normal sepia-toned pieces and in fact if you look carefully there are two different tones of orange used in the versions of this wheatpaste.

These four paste ups were from various spots on my way to work… what a walk that was. I seem to remember it was raining quite hard but it simply didn’t matter I was in street art appreciation mode.

Loads more to come from this fabulous French artist.

Acer

Japanese maple

indescribable colour

natural wonder.

by Scooj

	M. on 7554. L Dub (81)
	hitandrun1964 on My Dog Sighs
	Suzette Benjamin on 7551. Greenbank (184)
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	M. on 7554. L Dub (81)
	hitandrun1964 on My Dog Sighs
	Suzette Benjamin on 7551. Greenbank (184)
	M. on 7550. M32 Roundabout J2 (…
	scooj on 7550. M32 Roundabout J2 (…

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