This pair of rabbits from Nevergiveup in Dean Lane appeared alongside at least two other bunny pieces by the artist at the end of May just as lock down restrictions were easing.
With every new rabbit, Nevergiveup is improving and fine-tuning his technique and adding subtle decorative motifs. If you take a look back at some of his work from two years ago, it is possible to see the dramatic improvement. These are a lovely pair.
In the previous post I was talking about a large piece by Taboo that I never got to see. Well, a tiny little bit of that piece, the ‘B’ I think, lies behind this delightful three-way collaboration from Laic217, Soge and Nevergiveup (Followmyrabbits).
On the left of the three pieces is a rather dark and menacing face-masked face from Laic217, wearing a hat with the letters ACAB emblazoned on it. You might notice that many pieces in Bristol carry those letters at the moment, which resonate with the Black Lives Matters movement and the acronym stands for ‘All Cops are Bastards’. Bristol has lately become famous across the world for its rather revolutionary support for BLF.
In the middle is a bright and vibrant pink piece by soge, who like his two Polish buddies here has been extremely busy since the end of May. Clean and tight writing spelling out the letters of his name SOGE. The yellow stars and weave in the centre of the piece add nice touches.
On the right is a very long-eared rabbit by Nevergiveup, beautifully filled and perfectly executed. This artist is tireless it would seem and I have utterly lostcount of how many of these bunnies I have photographed, and that probably only accounts for about half of the total. Gallery soon? A very tidy collaboration from three top artists.
As the lock down restrictions have eased, the street/graffiti artists in Bristol have started to get busy, and Dean Lane in particular has been a destination of choice. This colourful collaboration is from Crem, Nevergiveup and Kity.
First up is Crem and a confession that I don’t really know this artist at all and this is the first Crem post in Natural Adventures, although not the last I am sure. Crem’s letter shapes are unusual and nicely finished and the piece sets the tone for the whole collaboration with its attractive fills.
No need to introduce the creator of the rabbit in the centre of the piece as he is the most featured artist on Natural Adventures, and even then I have loads of unpublished pieces of his in my archive. I am of course talking about Nevergiveup. This bunny adopts the colour scheme and offers one of the best bunnies I have seen.
Finally we move on to Kity, who like Crem I know absolutely nothing about. It would seem that I need to do a little bit of homework here. What I can’t be sure of is whether these two are new on the scene or whether they have just been off my radar. Probably the latter… it happens a lot. Kity continues the colour scheme to give what is in its entirety a really pleasing collaboration.
Well, after a few weeks of riffling through my photograph archives due to the impacts of the coronavirus which slowed output of street art, I am pleased to say that things are improving. Artists are returning to walls being miindful of social distancing and over the last few days I have managed to take photographs of contemporary pieces, and where better to start than with a rabbit from Nevergiveup (@followmyrabbits).
This particular fellow is a Cabbit ot Rarrot and is a bit of a reshaping of the usual rabbit character into a carrot. Why? I have no idea, but probably becausee he can. This piece was one of several from the artist in a Dean Lane session recently and how refreshing it is to see new vibrant art happening again on the streets of Bristol.
Just in case anyone is suffering from withdrawal symptoms from a regular dose of Nevergiveup’s (#followmyrabbits) rabbits, I thought I’d throw in one of dozens still unpublished on Natural Adventures.
This beauty was sprayed on one of the doors at the eastern end of Leonard Lane, and I think I must have photographed it fairly soon after it had been painted because it is very crisp and clean without any tags. This one is notable for the use of lots of colours, maybe he was using up dregs. Lovely rabbit this one, and a great location.
The great thing about looking back is that you get to see what artist’s work looked like some time ago and how they might have developed over time. This fabulous pair of rabbits from Nevergiveup (#followmyrabbits) is from April 2018 and is notably different from more recent incarnations of the characters in two respects: the amount of decoration on the torso is much more limited, and the ears much smaller than on the 2020 versions.
We have to remember that the artist has only been in Bristol for about three years, it feels much longer because of the abundance and spread of rabbits, but in street art terms it is a relatively short time. The image below is a more recent incarnation pf a Nevergiveup rabbit, can you see the differences?
I often talk about how lazy I am in these posts, and I am not proud of it at all, and a fine demonstration of my condition is that I took these pictures from my car without even bothering to get out. Shame on me.
It is another fabulous rabbit from Nevergiveup or NGU or #followmyrabbits or whatever else you want to call him. Now resident in Bath, the artist still pops over to Bristol from time to time, so there is still a constant flow of new material to hunt down. The fine designs on these rabbits is getting ever more intricate, which will be a great mechanism for dating them in the future.
Here he is again, this time half way up a fire escape on the recently disused building at Dean Lane. I speak of yet another rabbit from Nevergiveup (@followmyrabbits), this particular one is painted as a balloon drifting up into the sky.
I think that the artist’s name is a self-fulfilling prophesy. I just wonder if he will ever tire of painting these things. When he first came to Bristol, he used to paint monsters but he seems to have given up on them now. Naturally, many more to come from my archives.
I don’t need to write too much about this – regular readers will know the form. It is a rabbit by Nevergiveup or #followmyrabbits. This one is on the roof of the Bedminster swimming baths which is on Dean Lane, a popular graffiti spot but it has to be said that this rabbit stands out from all the graffiti writing around it.
I’m not too sure how old this rabbit is – it looks quite fresh, and I have a feeling that there might have been a different one here before it, but then again I might be imagining things. So, so many more rabbits to share…
Those of you who read my Thursday Doors post this week will have already seen this wonderfully colourful rabbit accompanied by a whole bunch (is that a collective term for rabbits?) of his mates lurking in various doorways around Bristol.
Nevergiveup or Followmyrabbits, the artist is relentless in his persuit to paint every square inch of Bristol (and Bath) with these cute creatures. I have completely given up trying to capture all of them, and I imagine Bristol City Council and others feel much the same. It is becomig a bit of a thing as people are becoming rabbit hunters – there is a father and son in Bristol who have photographs of well in excess of 100 of these creatures. And still they breed.
Natural adventures 