6293. Upfest 2024 (48)

Billy, Upfest 2024, Myrtle Street, Bristol, May 2024
Billy, Upfest 2024, Myrtle Street, Bristol, May 2024

Being a young parent can be tough for anyone, but Billy and Merny managed admirably while Billy was painting this wonderful mural at Upfest this year. Merny was on dad duty around the corner selling merchandise, allowing mum to complete her work. Merny completed his piece a few days later.

Billy, Upfest 2024, Myrtle Street, Bristol, May 2024
Billy, Upfest 2024, Myrtle Street, Bristol, May 2024

Billy has painted a repeating puffin mural on this car park wall, which is difficult to photograph without obstructions (cars). Each puffin has a different and uplifting symbol in its middle, and each is painted in a different colour palette. A really nice piece adjacent to a school, so age appropriate too. Great work from Billy.

3188. St Werburghs tunnel (188)

No signature, but who needs a signature when your work screams out Fiva? It feels like an eternity since Fiva hit any walls, but this is quite some comeback. I don’t need to tell you what it spells, but I am probably as curious as you are as to why he decided upon the word Puffin.

Fiva, St Werburghs, Bristol, September 2020
Fiva, St Werburghs, Bristol, September 2020

The piece is dedicated to Josie and perhaps the word puffin means something to her. The writing is big and bold, but I can assure you that just because it looks simple does not mean it is simple to do. For a start there are all those straight lines and the correct spacing between letters etc. There is an extremely nice touch with the grey shadows to the left and bottom of each letter. A magnificent piece. I tried to emulate one of his letters last year, with a rather disappointing result… very difficult to do.

Scooj, H in the style of Fiva, Bristol, June 2019
Scooj, H in the style of Fiva, Bristol, June 2019

2590. Upfest 2018 (161)

This is the kind of fantastic work that we are missing ever since Aspire left Bristol for London. How lucky we are that he returned to us for Upfest 2018 and painted this new wall with these magnificent puffins.

Aspire, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Aspire, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018

Aspire specialises in painting birds and he seems to be improving with every new piece he creates, it is just a pity that I don’t get to see much of his work ‘in the flesh’ any more, and have to rely on Instagram for my fix.

Aspire, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Aspire, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018

This particular piece is quite unusual for two main reasons. Firstly I can’t recall seeing any sea birds from Aspire before and secondly there are lots of birds in the one scene, where more commonly he will paint only one. Love this piece.