Tag: North Street

342. Upfest 2016 (1)

What a busy couple of days it has been – a lot of walking and looking at hundreds of new pieces in South Bristol. Many of the works created are temporary and will be removed after the festival, some have been allocated prime sites and will remain for at least a year, others have been surreptitiously slapped up in interesting places and will have variable lifespans.

Phoebe New York, Upfest 2016, Bristol, July 2016
Phoebe New York, Upfest 2016, Bristol, July 2016

I will start my posts of Upfest with some wonderful pasteups by Phoebe New York (aka artist Libby Schoettle). I was especially pleased to see her work here in Bristol as I have only recently become aware of her and how brilliantly refreshing she is. A simple idea really well executed.

Phoebe New York, Upfest 2016, Bristol, July 2016
Phoebe New York, Upfest 2016, Bristol, July 2016

I particularly like the edge of her work, both in the content and statements, but also in the locations she chooses. I am a fan, and I expect there are more than just these two examples from Upfest in Bristol. I will be hunting for more.

Phoebe New York, Upfest 2016, Bristol, July 2016
Phoebe New York, Upfest 2016, Bristol, July 2016

Upfest is a truly spectacular festival and I feel honoured as an adopted Bristolian that people have come from all over the world to participate over the last two days. There is still one more day to go, but it is a working day and I suspect things will be a lot quieter. I have no idea how I am going to post all the amazinf things I have seen this weekend – I’ll just have to see how it goes.

334. North Street, 188

This is an absolute gem recently stenciled on a rather obliging white wall by one of Bristol’s finest street artists, Stewy. What make this piece extra special for me is that it is a picture of one of my favourite musicians, Robert Wyatt, whose version of ‘ship building’ is in my top ten personal hit list.

Stewy (Robert Wyatt), North Street, Bristol, July 2016
Stewy (Robert Wyatt), North Street, Bristol, July 2016

Stewy, when he is not stenciling animals, is creating images of well known people. Other works I have posted on include Cary Grant and DJ Derek. I love his work and was really excited to come across this one. I knew he had done it, but just didn’t know where. I expect It’ll get loads of attention at Upfest 2016.

Stewy (Robert Wyatt), North Street, Bristol, July 2016
Stewy (Robert Wyatt), North Street, Bristol, July 2016

328. North Street Green (3)

The last time I posted about this spot, it was decorated with a collaboration between E.Lee and Copyright. Shortly after I blogged about the piece, it had been replaced by this Soker piece.

Soker, North Street, Bristol, June 2016
Soker, North Street, Bristol, June 2016

I rather like this simple burner by Soker. It is colourful, beautifully crafted and in some way humorous…I can’t quite put my finger on why though. Maybe it is the light fixture in the middle. I don’t know. I know that I like it though. I expect it has been over-painted by now though.

Soker, North Street, Bristol, June 2016
Soker, North Street, Bristol, June 2016

319. North Street, Coop Pharmacy

This is the first of many posts I will be making from an artist known as RIP. This is a ‘cheeky little one’ that RIP seems to be very fond of. He is a stencil artist based in Stoke-on-Trent, but obviously a frequent visitor to Bristol, and in particular North Street. The stencils are often, but not always, political and are sprayed in the ‘tolerated’ illegal spots.

RIP, North Street, Bristol, January 2016
RIP, North Street, Bristol, January 2016

RIP is an active member of SSOSVA (the Secret Society of Super Villain Artists) (or not so secret now…) an international collective of artists founded in 1921 by Silent Bill – or so it says on their website. Other members I have featured include Dice 67 and John D’oh.

I don’t know why I haven’t posted RIP’s work before because there is a lot of it around. Don’t be surprised to see a rash of posts in the coming weeks.

314, North Street, Standard (2)

A little while ago, Jody created this beautiful detailed piece, which was very quickly adopted as the Upfest Twitter icon, only recently replaced by Cheo’s design. Jody’s work has an incredible realism and then tosses the realism into a surreal setting.

Jody, North Street, Bristol, April 2016
Jody, North Street, Bristol, April 2016

At last year’s Upfest he produced an incredible work of fingers dripping with oil, and here we have this delicate image of two hands making a heart shape, and encompassing a moth. Full of symbolism? Maybe.

Jody, North Street, Bristol, April 2016
Jody, North Street, Bristol, April 2016

This work is very memorable and located at the heart of North Street, where its predecessor was this Christmas piece by Cheo. I guess the wall will be repainted at this year’s festival, but as I discovered recently with the Inkie piece (Best thing since sliced bread), not all the street art in the area will be over-painted.

307, North Street hoarding (4)

John D’oh is a political stencil artist, and he has been oh so very busy recently. This recent piece, in a little alcove on North Street, really chimes with me. It is a promotional piece for the upcoming Upfest event and in fact there are two of the stencils side by side in this location. Technically, this piece is excellent.

John D'oh, North Street, Bristol, June 2016
John D’oh, North Street, Bristol, June 2016

The best bit about this piece is that it features a guy called Jeff, who sells ‘The Big Issue’, a magazine I have referred to previously in my posts. He is my local seller, and I like to buy my copies from him. He can usually be found in Stokes Croft, in North Bristol, but this stencil is in North Street (rather confusingly) in South Bristol.

John D'oh, North Street, Bristol, June 2016
John D’oh, North Street, Bristol, June 2016

There was a nice feature in the Bristol Post (I cannot find a link) about the stencil and how pleased Jeff was to be the subject of it. I’ll have to talk to Jeff about it next time I see him. Great work, with a great subject promoting a great event.

302. North Street, Hennesseys

I have talked before about how street art appears and disappears…it is the ephemeral nature of it that drives me to capture and record it so that it should not be entirely lost forever. There is another aspect to the appearance and disappearance of street art that manifests itself in the shape of shutter art.

One can stroll up and down a street countless times and never see half of the art on offer, unless you do it on a Sunday, late in the evening or when shops are closed for some other reason.

Copyright, North Street, Bristol, May 2016
Copyright, North Street, Bristol, May 2016

This beautiful Copyright piece is a case in point. I cannot think how many times I have walked up and down North Street, but only once have I seen this piece. Of course I photographed it immediately. Street art in most of its forms, is not just about the art itself, but also about place and time, which I guess is part of the fascination.

Copyright, North Street, Bristol, May 2016
Copyright, North Street, Bristol, May 2016

There are similarities between this piece and the collaboration recently featured between Copyright and E. Lee.

273. North Street Green (2)

This lovely wall seems to have an orderly rotation and large bags of respect. Rarely is anything here tagged, and the pieces appear to remain for several weeks before being painted over. The piece before this one was the Cheo gorilla, and it has since been replaced by a recent Mr Draws work.

Copyright and E.Lee, North Street, Bristol, May 2016
Copyright and E.Lee, North Street, Bristol, May 2016

This is a lovely collaboration by Copyright and E.Lee (who is from Chicago, and spent a little time in Bristol recently). The two figures are characteristic of Copyright’s work, so I am assuming that the frames are by E.Lee, who I think has the most distinctive signature of any street artist – a red stamped seal with the letters EL merged together.

Copyright and E.Lee, North Street, Bristol, May 2016
Copyright and E.Lee, North Street, Bristol, May 2016

I am really loving copyright’s work at the moment, both sprayed and pasted. He is gifted.

259. North Street, Workout (2)

It recently occurred to me that I am going to have to work through my backlog of Upfest 2015 pieces, because it will not be too long before they get replaced during the 2016 extravaganza and appear a little out of date. July 23-25 will see an influx of 300 artists showing off their talent, and I have to say I can’t wait. Among them will be Louis Masai, a London based artist who is renowned for his beautiful animal works.

Louis Masai, North Street, Bristol, January 2016
Louis Masai, North Street, Bristol, January 2016

Louis Masai gained an art degree from Falmouth in Cornwall, and has been living in London since 2010. More about him from his own website. This is a beautiful picture of two macaws (I seem to have posted a lot of these lately) and a clear and simple message that they belong in the wild and not in cages. I can go with that. His work is outstanding and his presence in Bristol this year will be a real bonus.

 

233. North Street, the Masonic Pub

I have taken many photographs of this magnificent parrot since it was created at last year’s Upfest (2015), but somehow I just haven’t made time to put together a post. It is a difficult piece to photograph because of the white space on the wall and from the sky, which tends to bleach the picture out a bit.

Luis Seven Martins (L7M), North Street, Bristol, May 2016
Luis Seven Martins (L7M), North Street, Bristol, May 2016

The magnificent piece is by Luis Seven Martins, also known as L7M. He is another artist from Sao Paolo in Brazil (a hotbed of street art talent). Born in 1988, he has been working on street art from the age of 13. He specialises in drawing birds using a mix of spray paint and acrylics. This parrot is a beauty and one of the outstanding pieces of Upfest 2015. His Facebook page is here.

Luis Seven Martins (L7M), North Street, Bristol, May 2016
Luis Seven Martins (L7M), North Street, Bristol, May 2016