.
Sunlight through the blinds
and a pigeon’s hearty coos
tell me to get up
.
by Scooj
Tag: Pigeon
7178. Peel Street Green (50)
The ‘dynamic duo’, Mote and Mr Crawls, are back in a spot that they have painted together before in Peel Street Green. It is a smaller bit of wall at the right-hand end of the spot, and is the prefect size and shape for one of their collaborations. The pair of birds are painted in their own unique styles, but there are some obvious ideas that read-across both artists.
Mr Crawls has been developing his pigeon character and here he is in all his resplendent glory. The colours of pigeon plumage lend themselves to street art (note to self: do a pigeon special gallery) and are present here – I wonder if he will start to work in more of the iridescent greens and purples in future pieces. Mote presents a rather weird looking bird monster, which those of you with a natural history interest will appreciate can’t possibly be a bird due to the presence of nipples, a mammalian characteristic. In Mote’s defence, it is a monster and from his imagination so it can be whatever he wants it to be – that is the joy of character pieces. Great to see these two collaborating again.
7162. Brunel Way (334)
It has been a little while, but I think I can safely say that the painting duo of Mr Crawls and Mote are back, and painting together again, which in my book is a great thing. The pair have painted a few collaborations lately, but I have struggled to keep up with them.
On the left, Mr Crawls has painted a bird, looking rather startled, in his stylised cartoon form, in which he has incorporated a couple of Mote design ideas, such as the line through the beak and the horizontal lines on the eyes. I think the bird might be a pigeon.
To the right, Mote has gone to town with his portrait piece of a moustachioed man. The composite style isn’t one I have seen before, and I rather like it. A nice purple theme is rounded off with a chrome background, something of a signature for this pair.
Up above
.
Affirming their love
a pair of storks clap their bills
nonchalant pigeon
.
by Scooj
5913. Cumberland Basin
Andy Council and Acer One are having a productive 2024, which is so good to see, and this is one of several collaborations that they have painted recently. This one is a bit of a play on words, altering the well known cliché ‘one love’ to ‘one dove’ and illustrating it accordingly.
The dove (rock pigeon), rather hidden behind a bush, is beautifully painted by Andy Council, and has beautifully captured the colouring of the bird, and represented the iridescence of the collar with greens, reds, oranges and yellows. The typical style that Andy Council uses includes the ‘stitching together’ of component parts with threaded lines. Great pink feet.
The writing is by Acer One, and deliberately or otherwise reflects the raining above the piece, with the vertical lines dominating. The stylised letters are beautifully picked out with the use of a dark shadow dropped behind them, giving them a bit of a lift. This is another wonderful collaboration and continuation of this purple patch the artists seem to be enjoying.
5572. John Street, Exeter
On our way home from Cornwall to Bristol, we stopped off in Exeter for a couple of hours while my friend had to deal with a flea crisis in his daughter’s student flat. I took the opportunity to wander about the city and using my street art sixth sense managed to find quite a few pieces, completely accidentally – no maps, no street art websites, nothing other than intuition and exploration.
Walking up Fore Street, which becomes Exeter High Street, I spotted a narrow lane on the right (a must for psychogeographers) which I turned in to, and was rewarded with a spectacular wall curated by ‘Enhance in Exeter’, and this magnificent piece by My Dog Sighs. To say that it was unexpected is an understatement, but I was rather pleased with myself for sniffing it out. The piece must be relatively recent, painted within the last couple of years or so, because it features his pigeon characters, which are newish in his portfolio. The expressions on the pigeon’s faces are wonderful, and the subtle touch of the breast plumage colours is a special touch.
These are the best pictures I could get. The street is very narrow, and there was some reflected light pollution, but was nonetheless chuffed to bits. More to come from this two-hour meander.
Pigeon pair
.
Privileged access
a new life begins, one waits
birds-eye view of nest
.
by Scooj
5023. Cumberland Basin
It has been a pure joy to see the recent collaborative walls from Mommynature and Nugmoose and to see how their contrasting styles sit comfortably side by side. As seems typical when artists paint together, Mommynature is usually on the left and Nugmoose on the right.
The beautiful pigeon in front of a yellow sun is by Mommynature and clearly demonstrates her growing confidence with painting walls and owning her space. The stencil-effect of the piece is cleverly executed, too. To the right, Nugmoose has painted another avant-garde piece, the explanation of which is deeply rooted in his own imagination. There is some alien writing and alien forms, all presented in a rather trippy fashion. I am loving these two and look forward to their next creative collaboration.
4845. Coach and Horses
Visiting artists are always welcome in Bristol, as they bring fresh perspectives and often glorious artwork to the city. On his visit to Bristol in September this year, Qwynto left us with at least two, and I think a third piece. This one is on the far right-hand side of the Coach and Horses wall.
I believe Qwynto is based in London, but I have struggled to find out much more about the artist. There are some similarities with Kid Crayon’s style of portraits, perhaps more to do with the colourful approach. This is a fine portrait, which has managed to remain intact for a couple of months, which is pretty good going really.
4461. Upfest 2022 (3)
This year, Upfest is in two parts. The first part, which has been running for about three weeks now, has been to paint as many of the feature semi-permanent walls as possible before the festival weekend (May 28-29). The second part will be the remaining 350 or so artists painting on boards ‘live’ at various venues. This piece from My Dog Sighs falls into the former category.
There are positives and negatives to this new approach (change is never easy). On the upside, there will be plenty of completed new works for visitors to enjoy, without the eyesore of scaffolding on the other hand, that wonderful interaction with some of the greatest artists on the circuit is lost. It can feel a little bit like ‘rent an artist’, without the opportunity to watch them at work. On balance I can see that it makes sense, and as a resident of Bristol I have been able to meet a lot of artists over the last week or two.
Unfortunately I missed My Dog Sighs this time, which is a pity. I think he was in and out very quickly. Such are the demands on some of the bigger names during festival season. This piece is one of his pigeon pieces, similar to the one he painted for the Cheltenham festival last year. The characters and colours are magnificent, and his work so totally on point. It might have been nice to see another one of his eyes for this festival, but I might just be being picky.
Pigeons are something of a favourite theme for street artists, and I guess that perhaps there is something unconscious going on, in that these artists being on the streets probably see a great many of these urban birds. A fine addition to the Upfest 22 collection.
Natural adventures 