PWA – Page 5 – Natural adventures

5444. River Avon (48)

I don’t often hunt down specific pieces that I have seen on social media, preferring to come across them on my walks, as that somehow feels more authentic and retains the element of surprise. However, occasionally I see something, know where it is and actively seek it out and use the opportunity to photograph anything else that takes my fancy. This piece by Zake was one of those I had to go and look for, before it got too tagged up.

Zake has played with faces within faces, or emerging from faces before, but not quite as mesmerisingly as this. Is the bigger face consuming the smaller one, or is the smaller ne wearing the larger one? Either way, this piece has all the hallmarks of a Zake work, with definition of the features achieved through light and dark shading, creating the most wonderful 3D effect. This piece was well worth the slightly longer walk than I usually do in the area.

5442. M32 roundabout J3 (504)

Face 1st, M32 roundabout, Bristol, August 2023

Face 1st going solo, perhaps none of his PWA friends were free to paint or maybe he simply fancied painting on his own for a change. It looks like Face 1st needed to scratch an itch and managed to do just that with these two pieces on the roundabout.

The red/orange and green colours of the first piece work exceptionally well and have a rather natural feel about them. The piece takes us back to the standard form for a Face 1st piece, that is a laughing girl (with gloop) and the letters FACE making up her big hair. I suspect Face 1st could probably paint these in his sleep.

The second piece is not dissimilar in its overall form, but the smiling girl is more of a toothy girl and her hair has sprinkles and candles, which makes me wonder whether this is a quick birthday celebration piece for somebody close to the artist. Both pieces are full of fun and mischief, as we would expect from the prolific PWA man.

5396. M32 roundabout J3 (500)

Soap, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2023

I am celebrating 500 posts from the M32 roundabout J3 with this magnificent graffiti writing piece by PWA’s Soap. My eye was drawn to it immediately, and for a fraction of a second I thought that Liverpool artist Lost Hills might have been in town for a visit. I thought this because Lost Hills Features Jake the Dog from the animation series Adventure Time in all of his work. But no, this was a Soap piece for sure.

Soap has been developing his writing considerably over the last three or four years, and incorporating cartoon characters into his letters has been central to his look. The letters are usually fairly flexible, adding to the overall artwork of the piece, rather than being the central focus. Plenty going on here, lots of fill patterns and a general feel-good factor. Great colours too.

5345. St Werburghs tunnel (371)

Face 1st, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2023

Ha ha! Face 1st always cheers me up, and doubly so with this lovely piece at the farm end of the tunnel in St Werburghs. The spot is one that is often favoured by Mr Klue (who has gone a little quiet again), but Face 1st has more than done it justice.

The running girl is blowing a huge bubble with some yellow bubblegum in which another girl’s face appears as if a reflection. The greyscale piece is packed with energy, movement and fun – a pleasure to find.

5311. St Werburghs tunnel (369)

Chill and Face 1st, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2023

I have a moment on the train to draft up this post, but it is an arduous task, with zero space to type due to the chronic overcrowding and dreadful telephone signal, and I have just lost my first draft of this post going through a tunnel and had to start over.

I was only thinking recently that I hadn’t seen a new Chill piece in a while and then bang! I got slapped in the face with this beauty alongside Pirate Wall Art pall Face 1st. I have seen Chill cartoon triplets before, but this is the first one I have seen where each of the faces are replicas. I am guessing it is probably a difficult thing to do, but Chill has done a great job of it.

Next to Chill is a classic trademark piece from Face 1st in which a smiling girl is sporting a FACE haircut. The addition of green leaves by way of decoration I am guessing is influenced by Chill, who often adorns his work with flowers and leaves. this is a fine collaborative wall from the PWA duo.

5253. M32 Spot (163)

I think that the Bristol artist who has stretched the most so far this year is Zake. He has consistently been expanding his repertoire pretty much with each new piece and is becoming more original with his designs and ideas. This recent wizard piece at the M32 Spot is a great example of how varied his work is becoming.

Although it is easy to see, in this column piece, the traits for which Zake is best known, namely the use of light and dark shading to create depth, it does not scream out Zake on the surface, and had it not been signed, it would have taken me a little while to work it out. An unusual and fun piece from the Spanish face specialist.

5249. Coach and Horses

Face 1st, Coach and Horses, Bristol, May 2023

Although I regularly post pieces by Face 1st, it is probably only about half of everything I photograph. He has been a consistently prolific artist in Bristol since I started writing about this stuff back in 2015 and has brought me personally a lot of joy with his constantly evolving themes and ideas, based on a face.

This is a wonderful example of Face 1st’s work, a really tidy piece with sumptuous colours that work son well together. Some of Face 1st’s throw ups can be a little untidy, but this is crisp and sharp and beautifully finished. The smiling girl with earrings has the word FACE for hair, with not a little gloop going on. This is classic Face 1st, classily painted and presented.

5187. Hepburn Road (20)

The colourful nature of the Stokes Croft area is perhaps best represented by this little alleyway, known locally as ‘Crack Alley’. Although the drug dealing that used to be the USP of this corner of Bristol has moved on, the graffitied walls continue to be a feature, and every now and again an absolute beauty appears. This collaboration from PWA artists Face 1st and Zake is just such a beauty.

Face 1st, Hepburn Road, Bristol, April 2023

The PWA writing is by Face 1st, and is quite a rarity, as he usually writes FACE. The orange is really striking in this dark alley, and the depth to the letters really helps them to pop out from the wall. There are some nice shout-outs to Nightwayss, Soap and Chill too.

The character piece from Zake is brilliant and seems to portray a young tagger looking rather upset – maybe he got caught spraying walls. The shorts and t-shirt are a stroke of genius, and the body position suggests a lot of forward movement from the character. I absolutely love this, it makes me laugh, a lot. Altogether a superb collaboration from this pair.

5138. M32 roundabout J3 (461)

Face 1st, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2023

When I first encountered Face 1st’s work, his pieces were more commonly painted solo, with occasional PWA paint jams, particularly with Soap, but more recently he has rarely painted without some of his buddies, this piece on the M32 roundabout being an exception. Maybe all his PWA mates were busy that day.

I love the way that Face 1st constantly plays with new ideas and themes, and then adds them to his repertoire. This is a traditional Face 1st idea, a face with hair spelling FACE, but the letters are deep 3D block letters which he has been including more often recently, and there is a lot of gloopy dripping going on, something he started to include in his work about two years ago. This is a fun and eye-catching piece from the prolific Face 1st.

5101. Dean Lane skate park (577)

Zake, Chill and Face 1st, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023

The Pirate Wall Art (PWA) crew have already produced some outstanding collaborations this year, but this surely has to be the most striking so far. Zake, Chill and Face 1st have teamed up to produce this triptych of stylised faces.

To the left is a curious pair of faces which feel like they are symbolic of something, but I am not quite sure what – sun and moon or light and dark? Who knows. The flower face is something new that I haven’t seen from Zake before, but he carries it off really well.

In the middle of the triptych is a cartoon face by Chill. When Chill moved away from his black and white pieces, I wasn’t sure how long it would last, but I am pleased to say that his inclusion of several colours once again might indicate that this is a new direction of travel for the artist. I love the inclusion of some greenery and flowers in most of his pieces, showing a sensitive connection with nature.

Face 1st, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023

To the right, Face first has painted another group of faces, in which he continues to explore ways of peeling back the layers of our facades to reveal what lies beneath. In this case, the face with yellow hair has been split open to reveal a laughing girl emerging from inside. Some might see these pieces as gory or grotesque, I see them as a joyful exploration of emotions unearthed in a rather surgical, but playful way.

Plenty to think and enjoy about in this fine PWA collaboration.

	paulh121 on 7360. St Werburghs tunnel…
	paulh121 on 14 years
	hitandrun1964 on 7360. St Werburghs tunnel…
	beth on 14 years
	hitandrun1964 on 14 years

	paulh121 on 7360. St Werburghs tunnel…
	paulh121 on 14 years
	hitandrun1964 on 7360. St Werburghs tunnel…
	beth on 14 years
	hitandrun1964 on 14 years

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