6268. Cheltenham Paint Festival 2024 (3)

Epod 3000, Cheltenham Paint Festival 2024, Dunalley Street, Cheltenham, July 2024
Epod 3000, Cheltenham Paint Festival 2024, Dunalley Street, Cheltenham, July 2024

Good morning and welcome to another brand-new week. What better way to kick off than with the third trio of pieces photographed at this year’s Cheltenham Paint Festival? One of the notable things about the festival, which I am sure I will return to at some point, is that Andy ‘Dice’ Davies and his organising team are constantly finding new walls to decorate, meaning that existing murals get to stay where they are, constantly growing the outdoor gallery, which becomes an increasing draw for visitors and inward investment. If only the festival was able to gain more confidence from funders, which I know was a real struggle this year.

Epod 3000, Cheltenham Paint Festival 2024, Dunalley Street, Cheltenham, July 2024
Epod 3000, Cheltenham Paint Festival 2024, Dunalley Street, Cheltenham, July 2024

Fresh from his appearance at Upfest in Bristol, Epod, who is firmly on the festival circuit, produced this beauty on the side of the Holiday Inn Express, enhancing the visual value of the building tenfold at least. A stunning portrait of a beautiful woman with a sound system in her hair… and why not?

Fark, Cheltenham Paint Festival 2024, North Place car park, Cheltenham, July 2024
Fark, Cheltenham Paint Festival 2024, North Place car park, Cheltenham, July 2024

Next up is this very neat and tidy piece from Fark, who has become a CPF favourite and who managed to wheatpaste up his name pretty much everywhere I went in the town. A view, a rainbow and a bird – you cannot go wrong.

Wolfskulljack, Cheltenham Paint Festival 2024, Two Pigs, Cheltenham, July 2024
Wolfskulljack, Cheltenham Paint Festival 2024, Two Pigs, Cheltenham, July 2024

Finally, another favourite at the CPF is Wolfskulljack whose Gothic-style Posca pen sketches are utterly captivating and technically brilliant. Her study of animals and their form is a joy to behold, and there is always a sense of menace or threat about her work.

I’ll be posting more from Cheltenham in due course.

6267. Cheltenham Paint Festival 2024 (2)

Roo, Cheltenham Paint Festival 2024, North Place car park, Cheltenham, July 2024
Roo, Cheltenham Paint Festival 2024, North Place car park, Cheltenham, July 2024

So this is the second of the first three posts from the Cheltenham Paint Festival 2024. I have had to pull together three pieces in each post, simply so that I can fit them in with my regular posts of Bristol street art. Things have never been so busy, and at the end of each month I still have dozens of unposted pieces, because there is so much great art being produced out there. I can’t get close to posting it all.

Roo, Cheltenham Paint Festival 2024, North Place car park, Cheltenham, July 2024
Roo, Cheltenham Paint Festival 2024, North Place car park, Cheltenham, July 2024

It was a pleasure to watch as Roo finished off this wonderful piece, and catch up with her in the Two Pigs where she was selling her merch. This is a great piece that tells a fun story of a frog and a ‘no swimming’ sign. I think it might just be one of my favourite Roo piece ever.

Apparan, Cheltenham Paint Festival 2024, East car park, Cheltenham, July 2024
Apparan, Cheltenham Paint Festival 2024, East car park, Cheltenham, July 2024

In the car park is this outstanding portrait piece by Apparan, who is not a stranger to Natural Adventures, having posted an Upfest piece and one from Stratford in London in the past.

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The portrait is beautifully accompanied with a flower and a beguiling background, which certainly brightens up an otherwise ordinary concrete car park wall.

Codo, Cheltenham Paint Festival 2024, North Place car park, Cheltenham, July 2024
Codo, Cheltenham Paint Festival 2024, North Place car park, Cheltenham, July 2024

Rounding off this small selection of three pieces from the CPF is this excellent piece by Codo, who I met at last year’s festival and who was very kind to me, giving me some caps and paint. His intricate doodle work is superb, and brings out the best in the central character which is a large version of the smaller background symbols and characters. Some very nice pieces from Cheltenham. Three more to come tomorrow.

6265. Purdown (65)

Hardie, Purdown, Bristol, July 2024
Hardie, Purdown, Bristol, July 2024

I met Hardie while he was painting at Upfest, and what a friendly fellow he is. Although I think I have only ever posted one or two of his pieces on Natural Adventures, he seemed to know who I was and was familiar with my blog, which was most encouraging.

Hardie, Purdown, Bristol, July 2024
Hardie, Purdown, Bristol, July 2024

The Bristol-based artist doesn’t tend to paint the streets all that often the odd shutter or wall here or there but rarely in the popular hotspots, so it was a super surprise to find two of his pieces side by side in the wartime gun emplacement. His characteristic character portraits are made up of a patchwork of crosshatches, creating a really interesting effect. As you can see from these two pieces, Hardie uses a stencil to create his faces, and it also demonstrates how using different colours can create a different look from essentially the same template. What a pleasure to come across these rarities.

6264. M32 roundabout J3 (613)

Zake, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2024
Zake, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2024

Well this is a bit weird, even by Zake standards, and I am not entirely sure what to make of it. To me the piece looks a bit like a cross between an aristocrat and a spaniel, and once seen, I can’t unsee it. There is something about that pointy nose that I find quite unsettling.

Zake, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2024
Zake, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2024

Zake has been on fire for a very long time and continues to push boundaries, but also reverts from time to time to his basic round face characters. His USP is working with light and shade to create depth and texture, great example of which can be seen in the eyes and cheeks of this character. Both bizarre and wonderful work from Zake.

6262. Ashton Road

The Art of Sok, Ashton Road, Bristol, July 2024
The Art of Sok, Ashton Road, Bristol, July 2024

I think that this piece by The Art of Sok has been around for a little while, but I was pointed in the direction of it by the artist himself, which was lucky, because I don’t visit this spot as a matter of routine. It was painted as part of a collaboration with Smak, which makes sense because they are friends and share a Welsh heritage.

The Art of Sok, Ashton Road, Bristol, July 2024
The Art of Sok, Ashton Road, Bristol, July 2024

The Art of Sok has done here what he does so well; he has created an outstanding comic-book style cartoon of a young man wearing a baseball cap and smoking. The piece is perfectly clean and tight as a nut. Even the smoke coming from the cigarette is stylised, and you can see the two styles meeting where the much more wispy smoke drifts across from Smak’s adjacent piece. Wonderful work from The Art of Sok.

6254. Brunel Way (283)

Abbie Laura Smith, Brunel Way, Bristol, June 2024
Abbie Laura Smith, Brunel Way, Bristol, June 2024

I think that this is the last in my recent series of wonderful paste-ups by Abbie Laura Smith – some I found, all of which I have now posted, and some I didn’t. The good news is that I believe Abbie is going to be ‘out and about’ in her words, soon, so that will be a lot of fun trying to hunt them down.

Abbie Laura Smith, Brunel Way, Bristol, June 2024
Abbie Laura Smith, Brunel Way, Bristol, June 2024

This portrait paste-up is notable for its inclusion of a pink/blue/purple colour wash in the subject’s hair. I have a feeling that there might be some concealed writing in the girl’s hair, although I can’t be sure. The portrait is beautifully drawn, and the girl has the faintest sultry look about her. This is a nicely crafted piece, well placed on one of the concrete columns underneath Brunel Way. I have a feeling it might still be there.

6245. Cumberland Basin

Unknown artist, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2024
Unknown artist, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2024

It is rare for me to post pieces by unknown artists, although it is something I should do more often, because there are many unattributed beauties in my archives that are waiting to be shared. I guess that sometimes artists are experimenting with painting walls and perhaps a little wary or lacking in confidence to leave a signature behind.

Unknown artist, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2024
Unknown artist, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2024

I love this portrait piece and have felt compelled to post it. All the elements are there and the proportions pretty good. The lines for the neck and collar bones, look very studied to me and I would guess that the artist is probably studying or has studied art. The hair curl is reminiscent of Inkie’s work, which is a compliment of high order. I would love to see more from this anonymous artist and will be keeping an eye out.

6244. Purdown (74)

The Art of Sok, Purdown, Bristol, July 2024
The Art of Sok, Purdown, Bristol, July 2024

After a little teaser in Bristol last year at the M32 Spot and on the cycle path with Rusk, The Art of Sok has had something of a bonanza in the city this summer, and even better than that, I have managed to catch up with the artist twice in the space of a month, and what a lovely fellow he is too.

The Art of Sok, Purdown, Bristol, July 2024
The Art of Sok, Purdown, Bristol, July 2024

This beautifully framed piece, on one of the concrete slabs in the old anti-aircraft gun emplacement, breathes new life into this historic monument, and reflects the freedoms that the nation fought the second world war for.  The Art of Sok manages to paint flawless pieces, and takes great care to ensure every detail is exactly how he planned it. I believe this could be described as a Manga-style portrait, and is one that definitely ticks all my boxes.

6234. Purdown (72)

Peanutsdeli, Purdown, Bristol, July 2024
Peanutsdeli, Purdown, Bristol, July 2024

The Purdown Anti Aircraft gun emplacement is a wartime relic which these days doubles up as a goat enclosure and graffiti spot, giving this monument a second life of sorts. Visiting this spot is always a bit of a lottery because turnover is usually pretty slow, and sometimes there is nothing new to look at, and other times (because visits tend to be infrequent) pieces can be quite badly tagged, or damaged by the goats!

Peanutsdeli, Purdown, Bristol, July 2024
Peanutsdeli, Purdown, Bristol, July 2024

On my last trip, a couple of weeks ago, I his the jackpot though, with several new pieces all in pretty good condition, including this beauty by Peanutsdeli. I have to say that he is probably the last artist I would expect to find up here, so this manga-style cartoon portrait came as a very pleasant surprise indeed. The yelling face fits the rectangular slab perfectly, and I was even able to give the character a little bit of extra hair from the tree behind. More to come from this Purdown visit soon.

6230. Upfest 2024 (45)

Epod, Upfest 2024, Pantiles, Bristol, May 2024
Epod, Upfest 2024, Pantiles, Bristol, May 2024

There are some pieces, especially during street art festivals, which simply have the ‘wow’ factor, where you stand before them in admiration, and in my view, this stunner by Epod3000 is one of those. Firstly, this wall is one of the most striking in Bedminster, and although not the easiest to photograph, it certainly has impact when it reveals itself to those walking along West Street.

Epod, Upfest 2024, Pantiles, Bristol, May 2024
Epod, Upfest 2024, Pantiles, Bristol, May 2024

The piece, called ‘Side.E’, a reference to the vinyl LP and deck at the top features a beautiful portrait of a woman (with lots of drips). The clever bit is that Epod has apinted the portrait in a way that makes it look like a poster that is peeling off from the wall – you know… the way advertising posters do after a while. It is a device used quite a lot in street art, and done well, like this, is wonderful.

Epod, Upfest 2024, Pantiles, Bristol, May 2024
Epod, Upfest 2024, Pantiles, Bristol, May 2024

Because of the wall opposite the piece, it is quite difficult to take a decent photograph from directly in front of it, without it looking a little distorted, but I have done my best here. I was lucky enough to see another of his pieces yesterday in Cheltenham, which I will post in due course. All great stuff from Epod.