I am really flagging. This is a beauty from Hypo, who I met at the M32 roundabout a couple of days ago. He continues to turn out quality pieces with great regularity, and this one is so full of energy and effervescence.
We talked a little of his penchant for symmetry, and chatted about Werm who is going through a phase of writing his letters with a bilateral symmetry. In symmetry lies perfection… That’s yer lot, back to bed for me.
I bumped in to Kid Krishna earlier this week when he was painting under Brunel Way which was particularly nice as I hadn’t seen him for a very long while. I’m not sure he recognised me without my beard. He has been on fire lately, even venturing into The Bearpit, which hasn’t seen any action for several years.
This is a really unusual CRIE piece with interesting colours. Quite unlike anything else you see about the place. The two colour palettes appear to be so at odds with one another, but somehow it works really well. I am mindful that I have a whole ton of Kid Krishna pieces in my archive and probably need to dig them out.
This is the third piece by Butch that I have posted, and although I can’t put my finger on exactly why, I really like what I see. There is a consistency to the letters from piece to piece, which means that the main focus is always likely to be on the fills and background.
This work by Butch, is on the cusp between casual throw up and a polished tight piece, which is an interesting space to inhabit, and I see that there is potential to create some high class finishing, but perhaps not the desire to go full-on high-end. The letters are composed of solid ‘plates’ of light blue and dusky yellow, riveted together, a device used by some artists, and a very effective one too. This is great work from the PLB graffiti writer.
I photographed this piece before I knew that Mena had had an accident and that she couldn’t have possibly painted this piece. I initially thought it was hers, but had doubts, because it isn’t really in her style. This leaves me with a bit of a problem, in that I don’t know who to attribute this shout-out piece to, hence the label of ‘unknown artist’.
There are some clues in the piece as to who painted it… there are lots of graffiti arrows, used a lot by artists such as Hypo. There are also some nice subtle stars in the fill patterning, which many artists use. This one will remain a mystery until somebody tells me who painted it, but the sentiment is, I’m sure, much appreciated by Mena and her family/friends.
After his slightly controversial topless piece, entitled Norks, a few weeks back, Stivs has followed it up with this fantasy piece, only this time the character has a hint of clothing in an effort to avoid the piece being scribbled over.
Whilst this piece won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, it clearly demonstrates Stivs’ talent as a cartoon character artist as well as the best Calligraffiti artist in Bristol. I was lucky enough to catch up with him, and Corupt, as he was finishing off the piece, adding touches to the writing with such ease and complete competence. Another great piece by Stivs.
This is the last archive round up for the time being, and a few wonderful pieces of graffiti writing that missed the boat back in March 2020, just around the time of the first Covid lockdown in England – what strange times those were. First up is this fabulous STICK piece by Corupt, complete with ‘panels’ and ‘rivets’.
Another piece by the same artist, this time using his KORUPT letters. In this chrome lettering, there is more than immediately meets the eye, with some patterning in the fills, with two very subtle colour variants. Nicely done.
It is always great to find Trafficity pieces, but to find an unpublished picture in my archive is extra rewarding. The letters ZIOM are filled with chrome, but unlike Corupt’s piece above, the patterning in this one is created by the piece beneath coming through (I think). Unusually, Trafficity has gone with a single tone, when I am more accustomed to seeing two or three horizontal colours through the piece.
It is very unlike me not to post Rusk pieces as and when I find them, so this one from the archive is a rare gem. Great graded fill, nice orange border and green drop shadow… what’s not to like?
Rounding off this selection of ‘lost’ pieces from March 2020 is this bright and cheerful piece by Phour, whose writing is consistently neat and tidy. He has gone with some interesting colour choices in the fill, which work really well and feel quite joyful.
That’s it from the archive for a while. Back to normal with my next post.
Ooh, it looks like we have another writer on the streets in Bristol, possibly two, and the subject of this post is Fudge. I think I may have spotted her getting ready to paint this piece (slightly controversially covering up Haka’s wonderful Pooh Bear piece, but I think she is new in town, so that is ok), with a friend (Mare?), but as they didn’t have any paints out of their bags, I didn’t approach them, because that might have seemed a bit weird (one of the challenges of being a white male of a certain age, I’m afraid).
I have to say that this combination piece ticks a lot of my boxes. Full of fun and joy a large-eyed character appears to be blowing a bubble gum FUDGE, or at least pursing her lips are pursed in the direction of the letters. The character is well drawn and the letters, fills and borders indicate a certain amount of experience. I am very much looking forward to seeing more from Fudge, and have at least one other piece ready to post.
Oof! what a belter of a collaboration. Sometimes fortune smiles upon you, and on the day I found this outstanding piece, the artists, Saor and Kosc had literally just finished and were packing up their stuff and saying their goodbyes. Just looking at this collaboration, you can see that it oozes class.
Saor, to my mind, is the perfect antidote to losing Epok, an artist who no longer paints in Bristol (alas), because his style is similar, crafting pieces of such precision and disguising his letters, SAOR, perfectly. The colour palette is beautifully thought out and parts of this piece remind me of the work of the great Miro conflated with the Cubist movement. Wonderful stuff.
Kosc opted for a skull on this occasion, and told me that he finds it easier to paint skulls than fully-fleshed portraits, because the viewer is less familiar with the anatomy of a skull than of a face, which allows for more wiggle room regarding accuracy. Funnily I found that slightly counterintuitive, but maybe that is my naturalist background. Anyhow it is a great piece and such a contrast with Saor’s piece. Chalk and cheese.
It is becoming a most welcome and wonderful thing, finding new pieces by Grimes, and this recent wildstyle writing on the M32 roundabout is an absolute belter. His bright and vibrant style is becoming established as a regular sight in the Bristol scene.
In this piece Grimes has written his letters and filled them with kind of fruits of the forest colours, bordered with yellow, and featuring an electric blue plasma spark running through the whole piece. There is a rather curious and slightly off-topic background of blue spheres, which, if I am honest, I am not sure add anything extra to the piece. More to come from this rising star.
It can be a little confusing when one artist writes the name of another artist, but in this case Kosc writing Mudra was unlikely to cause misidentification due to their very different styles. I think that Mudra had been expected to join Kosc and Stivs painting this wall, but he didn’t make it, so Kosc gave him a rather large shout-out.
Kosc’s writing style is so cleverly done, with a midline through the letters, and shading either side of it, creating an amazing 3D effect, a device used by many graffiti writers, but mastered only by a few. The grey tones create an almost metallic sheen to the letters and the starbursts around the outside add to the shiny effect. A very nice piece of writing from Kosc.
Natural adventures 