This portrait is a highly memorable and unusual piece by Mazcan. The artist is from Brighton and she is known for painting portraits of women about the place. She is perhaps equally well-known for her crochet work, which she appears to enjoy very much judging from her Facebook feed.
Mazcan, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
There is a lot of mystery in this piece, and it seems to be as much about what you can’t see as what you can. Certainly, this was a piece that I couldn’t take my eyes off. I’m not sure I like it as much as some of the pieces on her Facebook pages, but it is a great introduction to her work.
Oh my oh my. This utterly outstanding piece by Elafil was the biggest head turner of the festival. I had to revisit it several times, just to enjoy the bold brash colours and expression knock me over. I seriously rate this piece as a brilliant piece of street art. The bottle green and copper tones work so well together and create something that assault your eyes – ‘hey look at me’ the piece is saying.
Elafil, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Another thing about this particular piece is that it is unquestionably photogenic, which is great for someone like me who likes to present great pictures of street art in my posts. The only downside is that when I got to see it, the artist had already finished and fled the scene. Next time!
Elafil, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Elafil is from Spain although I’m not sure which part. He clearly has ambition to join the international circuit and on this evidence shouldn’t have any problem at all. He has a website which showcases some of his great work, but alas no ‘about me’ tab.
I might have mentioned before that there were a lot of shutter pieces at this year’s Upfest and this mysterious piece is by French artist Kaldea Nakajima. I don’t know too much about her or her work, but have found her creative website that hosts some of her work.
Kaldea, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
I rather like this female portrait with octopus-like tentacles for hair, and a wonderful halo signifying what I’m not quite sure. The lips are very Japanese, and I wonder if there is some influence there, judging from her surname. Altiogether an unusual and calming piece.
Wowzer, a staggering work in blue from Ketones6000 in South Street park at this year’s Upfest. A piece as striking as this is hard to overlook…it simply draws you in to get a better look. The artist, AKA Jerome Davenport is an Australian who has been working out of London during 2017 and 2018, and Upfest was just one of several festivals he painted at this year.
Ketones6000, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
This photorealistic vision in blue is rather haunting and clearly has a maritime theme going on. The face is the first and most obvious component that you see in this piece, but when you get up close, some other interesting details emerge.
Ketones6000, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
On the right hand side of the portrait you can see a tall ship emerging from the fog, so I am guessing the hero is probably a sailor of some kind. I love this piece and the atmosphere it creates – it would be great to get Ketones6000 back for next year.
I always enjoy seeing the evolution of a piece of artwork, and Upfest affords the perfect opportunity to see artists at work and follow progress from cradle to grave. Of course this does depend on being in the right place at the right times, and I got lucky with this outstanding piece by Ant Carver.
Ant Carver, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
The first stage of this work was to give the wall a splash of colour and texture…the first layer. A mask was then applied to create a draft of the eyes, nose and mouth in isolation from the rest of the work, a little bit like a stencil.
Ant Carver, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Once the draft of the eyes, nose and mouth had been added, Ant Carver got to work on the detail, using greyscale for these features. The skill of the piece is in blending all these layers to create a wonderful effect of the separateness and togetherness of greyscale and colour and the strength of detail in the features and vagueness with the rest of the face…very clever work.
Ant Carver, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
I managed to get a couple of slightly poor pictures of his work at Upfest 2017, so it was nice to be able to get this series of slightly better pictures this time round. A memorable and unusual piece.
There is one artist in Bristol whose work manages to attain higher levels each and every time I see it. It is of course Voyder who I have raved about many times in this blog before. At Upfest 2018 he really pulled out all the stops and painted this outstanding piece. Is there no end to his talent?
Voyder, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
This new wall for Upfest was in my view an unquestionable success and gave some bigger ‘permanent’ space for artists who can go big. The cars in the picture above give you a feeling for how big these pieces are.
Voyder, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Voyder is probably best known for writing his name in a variety of styles, but always utterly recognisable as his work, which reminds me I must do a gallery of his work when I have a bit of spare time.
Voyder, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
It is difficult to get across how good this piece is, both technically and in its clever subject material. I would take a long shot and guess that this is a self-portrait composed of three main elements: his faceless upper torso; a brown brush stroke of paint across his face; his familiar signature. This makes for at least three very different textures to the piece, each of which would be able to exist alone.
Voyder, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
The hands are beautifully worked and full of expression – I have not seen much of this kind of work from Voyder before although I know he has painted portraits before. The brown brush stroke is something he has been playing with for the last couple of years and appears in many of his pieces these days. I am told that the fill in the Voyder signature is a backdrop to a design screen. To cap the whole thing off nicely we have one of his trademark neon lines running through his name. A heavenly piece from this master of Bristol street art.
Unconscious bias is a curious beast, but it lurks in each of us in one form or another. One expression of it in me is the assumption that street artists are male unless they are not…if you see what I mean. I have made some terrible gender assumptions in the past with T-Rex, Skor85 to name just two, and so it was with Zabou. I have seen her work in London, but automatically thought she was a he. How glad I was to actually see Zabou at work during Upfest and to be able to write this post without falling in to the trap of gender assumption.
Zabou, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
To their credit, the organisers of Upfest do not ask for the artist’s gender on the application forms for entry and so never quite know what the gender mix will be at the festival…this year it was about 35% female artists, which, in what we consider to be a male dominated arena, is very encouraging indeed.
Zabou, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
This piece by Zabou, originally from France, but now operating out of London, is a stunning portrait beautifully executed, and it is really interesting to see from these pictures how the layers build up to give the final whole.
Zabou, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
I love the little sprays of colour on the hand, fingers and face of the subject – it is these little details that bring works like this to life. I really love the portrait, and wish I had been able to find a little bit of time to speak to Zabou, but the festival is large and the days short. Maybe next time.
The quality of Stencil work at this year’s Upfest was once again really high, and this beautiful piece from Neverender Design is just one of many examples of this. The portrait is a six layer stencil piece which looks rather tribal to me and is full of atmosphere and mystery and well as being technically excellent.
Neverender Design, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Neverender Design is a huge inspiration to any wannabe artists because he was inspired to start his own work at Upfest 2013 and he decided he would like to return to the festival as an artist rather than as a spectator. Well, here he is, and in my view he has absolutely smashed it. There’s hope for me yet.
This is an outstanding large mural by Sicilian duo Rosk and Loste and one of the finest of the larger pieces at this year’s festival. Unfortunately I am unable to tell you anything more about the artists, because I can’t find anything about them on the Interweb.
Rosk and Loste, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
This massive wall is slightly set apart from the main concentration of Upfest artwork, and probably receives fewer visitors during the festival weekend which is highly unfortunate, because this piece is really impressive.
Rosk and Loste, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
I didn’t actually get to see it until a few weeks after Upfest, because it is in a part of town I rarely visit and I had to wait until I was passing by to get these pictures. The photorealistic style is so impressive as is the scale. Worth the journey.
This is a magnificent new wall for Upfest 2018, just off East Street and pretty much perfect for large ‘permanent’ pieces by some well known artists. First up is this magnificent portrait by Koeone.
Koeone, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
I am not sure I have come across the artist before, which is a bit of a surprise because he lives and works in North Devon, not a million miles from Bristol. This is typical of his work which features greyscale photorealistic portraits of women with pink and blue lettering and icons on the top of the head.
Koeone, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
The final product is really classy and all the better coming from a self-taught artist. Koeone shares this wall with Nol, Hull Graffiti, and Voyder amongst others. Real high quality stuff. Definitely worth a visit.
Natural adventures 