Having broken the ice with a recent Lobe piece under Brunel Way, I said that I would trawl up some slightly older pieces by her from my archive and true to my word…
Lobe, M32 roundabout, Bristol, June 2019
The piece from June this year I have a feeling didn’t last very long, so I was pleased to have managed to capture it. I am a huge fan of her style, a lovely design kept simple using nine colours and shading to die for. The use of orange and pink on the shirt and hat to highlight light and shade is to my mind really clever. Bold and unique, her work is yet another fabulous addition to the vast Bristol spectrum.
It is great to be able to post this piece knowing that I don’t have to credit it with ‘unknown artist’ because thanks to the great investigative powers of Paulh121 I know it to be by Lobe (@lobe_ita). This is one of at least three pieces that I have photographed by Lobe (look out for the others coming soon) and each one of them is a cracker.
Lobe, Brunel Way, Bristol, August 2019
Lobe tends to use only a few colours in her work and creates these styalised faces which are typified by the solid bold fills and shadowing. If I were to describe her work I’d probably say that it is like a fusion of Tasha Bee and Kool Hand. I really like this piece, and it is the details I am drawn to, such as the little spike on the white outline to the left of the left eyebrow. I really hope that what we are seeing from Lobe is just the beginning and that there is more to come.
Although I can’t be sure, I think this ephemeral portrait might be the work of Annika Pixie… it certainly has many of the ingredients that are common to her work, the lightness of touch and delicate nature of the subject, but I have not seen her paint many walls like this one.
Annika Pixie, Brunel Way bridge, Bristol, August 2019
As I write this, my curiosity got the better of me and I had a look at Annika’s Instagram feed, and sure enough there is a little video of this piece, filmed in only the way she can do such things. I love her touch, which is full of subtlety and magic and in such stark contrast to the macho work one is used to seeing. Nice one Annika.
Wowzer… this is quite the best piece I have seen by Pekoe yet. It is beautiful and I truly believe that in this piece we are witnessing an artist reaching a new level, I see it as a really significant piece. The blue-faced portrait has something very special about it, the expression, the tone, the confidence and of course that amazing hair.
Pekoe, Brunel Way bridge, Bristol, August 2019
In this piece I feel that Pekoe’s naive style has transformed into something altogether more sophisticated and mature, and I love it. I would like to think that a lot of thought, care and effort went into this piece, it certainly looks really tight.
Pekoe, Brunel Way bridge, Bristol, August 2019
The patterns in the hair are so typically Pekoe, but the addition of three layers of base colour add an extra dimension. The eyes too work well with several dots in each creating a glassy effect, very clever. There is so much to like about this work. Bravo Pekoe!
This is a favourite spot for small pieces under one of the ramps at Dean Lane skatepark and has recently been painted by Pekoe. I have an awful lot of time for her work and am really enjoying seeing the journey she is on and the improvements she is making.
Pekoe, Dean Lane, Bristol, August 2019
This piece demonstrates so well her naive art style which is in fact more complex than might first meet the eye. She is known for producing female portraits with ‘big hair’ which is always carefully thought out and beautifully executed. There is obvious emotion in this piece too with the word ‘cry’ written over the top and tears on the girl’s face. All good, although the location merans that its longevity will be very limited. Glad to haver captured it.
Everything about this magnificent piece by Dale Grimshaw is awesome except for one thing… the wall. I don’t like this wall. It is the most difficult Upfest wall to photograph, and the only time I have seen it done properly is from a drone looking down. All other photographs are a complete fail.
Dale Grimshaw, North Street, Bristol, July 2019
Dale Grimshaw was invited to do this piece as part of Upfest’s Summer Editions project (in lieu of the festival taking a year out). It is another tribal piece in his campaign to fight for Papua New Guinea. His amazing portraits all have a theme, which is to present ‘the people’ with pride and dignity in where they come from, and he does this with such depth and emotion. I am very, very drawn to his work and am thrilled that he was invited to Bristol to paint here (shame about the wall).
Dale Grimshaw, North Street, Bristol, July 2019
It is possible to get reasonable pictures from the roof of the NatWest bank, but I have never been lucky enough or brave enough to climb the fire escape to do it.
Dale Grimshaw, North Street, Bristol, July 2019
Face paint is a big part of what Dale Grimshaw does with his portraits, which I always feel is a bit like doubling up… a painting of people with paint on their faces… does that make sense? Whether it does or not is immaterial, in my view Dale Grimshaw can do no wrong and I am privileged to have seen this. I only wish I could have seen him working on it and perhaps stopped for a chat.
I don’t often venture too far down Hepburn Road, but am very glad indeed that I did so on this occasion, because I was greeted by this wonderful protrait by Pekoe. The observant among you will also notice the oil drum has been decorated by Ryder.
Pekoe, Hepburn Road, Bristol, July 2019
Pekoe seems to be producing quite a lot of work at the moment and with each piece there are surprises and improvements. In this one she has made a great effort with decorating the hair in a style that resembles a nimber of PWA artists. I like what she has done with the lips and the eye, using white to create the effect of reflections. A little gem from this Bristol artist.
It somehow always feels special finding an Inkie piece, probably because his work is so well known and sought after, and yet here he is creating something magical in Dean Land skate park.
Inkie, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2019
This beautiful piece features one of Inkie’s trademark profile portraits of a girl with long flowing locks of hair and some block writing INK. When I look at this, I can’t make up my mind which way her body is facing, towards us or away from us, I think the latter.
Inkie, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2019
It is not all that long ago when this wall lost a whole ton of its render and years of paint layers. I thought the wall might be doomed, but somehow looking at it now, you wouldn’t eve know it had happened. Lovely work from Inkie.
So it has been a while, and since there isn’t an Upfest festival this year, I am going to have to post another series of pictures from Upfest 2018 (there are still so many more waiting) starting with this utterly awesome piece by Insane51.
Insane51, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
This extraordinary artist from Greece specialises in 3D street art and has created dozens of huge pieces which look fuzzy because they are double images, but when viewed through the red and blue specs stand out from the wall in good old-fashioned 3D.
Insane51, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
This particular piece went up over about three or four days and was impressive enough in its halfway stage when the female portrait was complete. Insane51 then added the blue skeleton layer to the piece. The magic really happens when you view the whole thing through 3D specs one eye at a time. Rather helpfully, Insane51 did the job for us on his Instagram feed.
Insane51, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Definitely one of the finest walls at last year’s festival and a real crowd-pleaser. I got rather lucky and managed to grab a few words with him and during the course of our conversation he gave me a little goody bag of some stickers and the essential cardboard specs. It would be great to see him return again and wow us with his extraordinary talents.
In a small alley off Stokes Croft called Hepburn Road (former drug dealing centre of Bristol) is (was) this intriguing piece by Nightways who seems to have cast off the winter doldrums and has become very active in recent weeks.
Nightwayss, Hepburn Road, Bristol, May 2019
Unfortunately this two-tone piece was bombed fairly quickly, so I was lucky to get a clean picture of it. The painting is of a woman holding a strand of her hair from which a tiny little monkey is dangling, thus ensuring that there is some ‘monkeyness’ in the piece, which is what we have come to expect from Nightways. I met him last weekend, painting with Laic217 in Moon Street, and there is another of his pieces that I can’t wait to share with you. Nice work.
Natural adventures 