Tag: Kedals

2588. Queen Charlotte Street (3)

Only a matter of a few days ago I posted a fine piece by Kedals at the Cheltenham Paint Festival, then on rifling through some old folders in my archive, I came across these two fabulous wheatpastes in March this year. Kedals has such a unique style that comes through in his larger murals as well as his wheatpastes.

Kedals, Queen Charlotte Street, Bristol, March 2019
Kedals, Queen Charlotte Street, Bristol, March 2019

The first of this pair of striking posters features a portrait of a rather portly man sporting what looks like a straw or canvas hat and smoking a rather large cigar. The whole thing is decorated with bright colours and shapes and is st for the eyes.

Kedals, Queen Charlotte Street, Bristol, March 2019
Kedals, Queen Charlotte Street, Bristol, March 2019

The second of these portraits looks like it might be called ‘booze cruise’ although with a Kedals piece who knows what the title or sub-text is? There is a lady smoking (smoking seems to be a bit of a theme) puff, puff, looking up at a vintage car with the words ‘gear 4 gas’. Curious and compelling stuff. I’ll keep looking out for the work of this unusual Bristol artist.

2578. Cheltenham 2019 (23)

Kedals is an artist whose work I have come across a couple of times in Bristol but only in the format of wheatpastes, so it was something of a surprise and indeed a great pleasure to see this painted wall in the Honeybourne Line tunnel at this year’s Cheltenham Paint Festival.

Kedals, Paint Festival 2019, Cheltenham, September 2019
Kedals, Paint Festival 2019, Cheltenham, September 2019

What is amazing is that the style he has adopted here is exactly the same as the one he presents on his wheatpastes. Pulling together elements from the great cartoon/comic genre Kedals has kind of stuck to the brief for the Festival theme which was to incorporate books in some way – Kedals has written  ‘comics are books too’ by way of explanation.

Kedals, Paint Festival 2019, Cheltenham, September 2019
Kedals, Paint Festival 2019, Cheltenham, September 2019

I’m not sure what story the piece is trying to tell, but Kedals has cleverly incorporated the word ‘Knowledge’ across the top of the piece. I don’t know either, who the two faces belong to (they look like the Krays to me), but typical of his style, he has painted them twice as freehand duplicates, which is what he does with his wheatpastes. All in all I was really pleased to see this fine piece.

2136. Prince Street (2)

A new artist for me, Kedals, is one I know precious little about other than that he is a Bristol-based wheatpaster. This is great news, because not too long ago I was bemoaning the lack of wheatpasting in the city. If you go to other cities, there is much more (sometimes too much), but in Bristol it seems to be limited to visiting artists like Tian or qWeRT or Face the Strange or D7606.

Kedals, Prince Street, Bristol, March 2019
Kedals, Prince Street, Bristol, March 2019

This wonderful duo of paste ups shows that the artist is hard working, in that the base drawing is the same, but the rest of the piece is hand drawn, and each one although similar is unique. I have seen this technique used by other wheatpasters, and I really like it. For me it demonstrates love and attention to every piece that is pasted up, rather than doing a print-run of the same thing and posting it everywhere.

The style is quirky and there is a story going on here. I have seen one or two more pieces by Kedals and will be keeping my eyes peeled from now on. Very nice.