Tag: Purdown

5542. Purdown (61)

Hiccup (Bloem), Purdown, Bristol, September 2023
Hiccup (Bloem), Purdown, Bristol, September 2023

Certain artists have a little ‘je ne sais quoi’ that makes their work exciting and interesting and compelling for me, and one of them is Hiccup (Bloem). Her work is highly original and eye-catching. She is working hard to improve and tries out new ideas with each piece she paints. If what she has produced so far is anything to go by, she will be a leading light in the city.

Hiccup (Bloem), Purdown, Bristol, September 2023
Hiccup (Bloem), Purdown, Bristol, September 2023

The Purdown walls tend to be square and reasonably small, perfect for honing your skills. In this piece Hiccup (Bloem) has painted a torso with interlocked hands bearing shiny bright red nails. Notable is the texture and depth that she has managed to achieve in the garment. Her style is still a little crude, but at the same time quite sophisticated too, as her technique improves, so will her finishing. A final touch… the rings on the fingers spell out ACAB – (All Cops Are Bastards).

Fairy ring


.

Fairy ring, Purdown, Bristol, August 2023
Fairy ring, Purdown, Bristol, August 2023

Curiosity

circular radiation

with fruiting bodies

.

by Scooj

5410. Purdown (60)

Lupa, Purdown, Bristol, May 2023
Lupa, Purdown, Bristol, May 2023

I feel that, having met Lupa for the second time recently at the Cheltenham Paint Festival, I should really start digging out some of her pieces from my archives, especially as we had a great chat and I felt most honoured that she not only remembered me, but also remembered my name, and thanked me for the recent post I wrote about her piece in Peel Street Green.

Lupa, Purdown, Bristol, May 2023
Lupa, Purdown, Bristol, May 2023

This is a lovely and enduring piece up at Purdown, which I photographed in May, but I think had been there already for a while and was still there when I walked the dog around the site last week. There is a charm and simplicity about Lupa’s work that makes it enjoyable to see, and she manages to give off good vibes – maybe it is the design of the letter ‘U’ with its smiley face, or the large block letters, or the vibrant colours – probably a combination of all these things. I look forward to seeing more of her work, and will continue to mine out old pieces from the archive.

5346. Purdown (59)

Mote, Purdown, Bristol, June 2023
Mote, Purdown, Bristol, June 2023

More from Mote, who isn’t showing any signs of slowing down at the moment. This piece is another in his series of bird monsters and fits the square concrete slab perfectly. One of the aspects of Mote’s work that I really like is the clarity and crispness. The fills are solid, with nice patterns, and his black borders and details are always sharp. I imagine that there is a perfectionist in there somewhere.

Mote, Purdown, Bristol, June 2023
Mote, Purdown, Bristol, June 2023

This bird monster has a green bill and pink eyelids, which stand out against the blues and purples of the rest of the bird. Even though it is not so long ago that I published a gallery of his work, I have to keep on my toes with updating it. The production line of pieces continues.

5302. Purdown (58)

Enn Kay (NAK), Purdown, Bristol, May 2023
Enn Kay (NAK), Purdown, Bristol, May 2023

Let’s hear it for the goats! The ruins of the Purdown Anti-Aircraft gun emplacement, commanding fine views over North Bristol, are contained within a fenced area into which goats are introduced each spring, presumably to keep the undergrowth in check. This humorous piece by Enn Kay (NAK), carries a strong message for dog owners, to make sure they are kept on a lead, as there have been several attacks by dogs on the goats. This is a sentiment I fully agree with as a responsible dog-owner, and I always have my cocker spaniel on the lead in this space.

Enn Kay (NAK), Purdown, Bristol, May 2023
Enn Kay (NAK), Purdown, Bristol, May 2023

The goat, in cartoon style, is looking pretty fed up with yet another dog passing by, mine was right in front of this piece while I photographed it. It is beautifully painted, and the look on its face is priceless. It goes to show that not all advisory notices have to be authoritative and stern, humour and kindness can have a similar impact. Nice work from Enn Kay.

5295. Purdown (57)

Full Time Ghoul, Purdown, Bristol, May 2023
Full Time Ghoul, Purdown, Bristol, May 2023

It is happening a little too frequently on Natural Adventures, but Full Time Ghoul (FTG) is another artist who is definitely underrepresented on these pages, and I might have to do a sweep of my archives and post a whole group of pieces in one go.

Full Time Ghoul, Purdown, Bristol, May 2023
Full Time Ghoul, Purdown, Bristol, May 2023

Full Time Ghoul pretty much always paints his mega-tag, either in single or multiple forms. Here we have three ghouls joined together in a pattern resembling an everlasting knot. Recently, FTG has been using these pink and red colours for his work, and I imagine he might have bought a bulk order of paint and is gradually working his way through it.

Full Time Ghoul, Purdown, Bristol, May 2023
Full Time Ghoul, Purdown, Bristol, May 2023

There was another smaller and older piece from FTG up at Purdown, so I thought I’d include it with this post to demonstrate that his distinctive pieces are easy to recognise. Watch this space for more from Full Time Ghoul.

5283. Purdown (56)

Daz Cat, Purdown, Bristol, May 2023
Daz Cat, Purdown, Bristol, May 2023

A little bit about the mechanics of Natural Adventures, which might explain why there is a bit of a time-lag between a piece being painted and that piece being posted on the blog. I would guess that on a typical day I will come across 5–10 pieces of street/graffiti art that are new to me, and all of these go into a monthly folder. I then select from the folder pieces I’d like to feature on the blog and upload them in batches, so that I usually have at least a week’s worth of images ready to go, which gives me time to write the post in the morning before work, or the evening before.

So anything appearing on Natural Adventures will be at least a week old, and often considerably more. In exceptional cases I might fast track something special to the front of the queue, but that is rare. So if you are looking for ‘breaking news’ blog posts here, you are in the wrong place.

Daz Cat, Purdown, Bristol, May 2023
Daz Cat, Purdown, Bristol, May 2023

This is an interesting piece from Daz Cat in a spot that he likes to frequent. The blue cat character, with the yellow top, appears to be casting away an abominable creature with rabbit ears, horns, cat-like claws and a dragon tail – what is that thing? There is lots of movement in the piece, aided by the cream flashes, but its meaning is a little lost on me.

Looking at it again, the creature looks like it is by GYS? And the style is rather different from Daz Cat’s. There is nothing on Instagram that would help me work this out, though.

5268. Purdown (55)

Mr Sleven, Purdown, Bristol, May 2023
Mr Sleven, Purdown, Bristol, May 2023

When I saw this piece appear on Mr Sleven’t Instagram feed, I decided to get up to Purdown at the first possible opportunity before it got tagged or damaged by the small herd of goats that live in the derelict anti-aircraft gun emplacement that protected Bristol during WWII.

Mr Sleven, Purdown, Bristol, May 2023
Mr Sleven, Purdown, Bristol, May 2023

The cartoon doodle style piece is beautifully executed, and the white/grey piece stands out so well of the deep, rich red. There is a crispness and originality that I find really compelling, and if I am honest, I’d love to have something like this hanging on my wall (less the concrete, of course). A lovely piece and great to see after quite a long absence from Mr Sleven.

5088. Purdown (54)

Sam Brentall, Purdown, Bristol, March 2023
Sam Brentnall, Purdown, Bristol, March 2023

This piece seems to benefit from being framed by the snow and the heavy grey sky. It is by an artist I haven’t come across before, Sam Brentnall, and my first impression is a good one.

Sam Brentall, Purdown, Bristol, March 2023
Sam Brentnall, Purdown, Bristol, March 2023

The stylised dog heads stacked on top of each other create a strong and colourful pattern, and the whole unusual composition is fun to look at. It looks like the black outlines have been painted using marker pens rather than spray cans, and this seems very much like the work of a studio artist who is exploring possibilities with street art. I sincerely hope to find more street work from Sam Brentnall this year.

5084. Purdown (53)

Zubieta, Purdown, Bristol, March 2023
Zubieta, Purdown, Bristol, March 2023

It does snow in Bristol once in a while, but it is quite rare, and the March cold snap left us with a couple of inches for a day or two. It was bitterly cold on this dog walk with my daughter, and I didn’t want to hang around too long taking pictures, much to my daughter’s relief.

Zubieta, Purdown, Bristol, March 2023
Zubieta, Purdown, Bristol, March 2023

The picture, by Zubieta is at odds with the snowy background, and had probably been painted a week or two before in the relative sunshine. Zubieta has painted two colourful flowers in conversation, with one telling the other “You can’t afford me”. The whole piece is nicely composed and definitely a welcome site on a cold day.