Tag: Ramp

6873. Dean Lane skate park (823)

Zake, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2025
Zake, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2025

In the Dean Lane skate park there are a lot of ramps and slopes that provide a perfect canvass for street artists. There are two drawbacks: the first is that they are a challenge to paint and the second is that they get scuffed up pretty quickly by the skating, scootering and biking activity.

Zake, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2025
Zake, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2025

I think I got to this cheeky Zake portrait piece reasonably soon after it was painted, because it is in quite good condition. This is a classic Zake portrait, with lots of expression, and plenty of contours and depth. A fine small piece from the cartoon character specialist.

6732. St George skate park (23)

Mind 49, St George skate park, Bristol, January 2025
Mind 49, St George skate park, Bristol, January 2025

I missed this piece by Mind 49 last year, so it is looking a little worse for wear, although, given that it is in a skate park, it has worn well. I love the way that it has been painted onto a cracked ramp, which makes it feel like an organic part of the park, that it has always been there, kind of.

Mind 49, St George skate park, Bristol, January 2025
Mind 49, St George skate park, Bristol, January 2025

Mind 49 has been one of the great talents to emerge from the Bristol scene and has developed from a precocious talent, via an activist, into a fine painter of photorealistic portraits. Here, the beautiful profile with soft tones marking out light and shade of the face contrasts with the half-finished look of the shirt and hat. A truly fabulous piece.

4962. Dean Lane skate park (599)

Face 1st, Dean Lane, Bristol, January 2022
Face 1st, Dean Lane, Bristol, January 2022

I had a great catch up with Face 1st as he was assessing where to paint this stunning little design. He had thought about using one of the flat walls on the buildings, but instead chose this curved wall instead, and what a great choice he made.

Face 1st, Dean Lane, Bristol, January 2022
Face 1st, Dean Lane, Bristol, January 2022

Any piece on the ramps of a skate park get scuffed up pretty quickly, naturally, and when I photographed this it was only a day old, and you can see immediately how worn parts of it have become. Face 1st has painted a laughing girl’s face sliced through vertically, exposing the letters F, A and E, with the C sitting proudly on the girl’s pink bow. A wonderful piece from a lovely artist.

2973. St George skate park (9)

In St George skate park, at the far end from the car park, is a tombstone of a skate ramp, looking more like the monolith in 2001: a Space Odyssey than a piece of skating architecture. This is a favourite spot for some artists in Bristol, and recently it was the turn of 3Dom to decorate this wall.

3Dom, St George skate park, Bristol, May 2020
3Dom, St George skate park, Bristol, May 2020

I think the story here is putting urban civilisation under the microscope, but to what end I am not so sure. The microscope has been brilliantly observed and painted well and reminds me of the days when I used to do some real science rather than whatever it is I do these days.

3Dom, St George skate park, Bristol, May 2020
3Dom, St George skate park, Bristol, May 2020

This is a simple and striking piece that is brilliantly suited to the wall it has been sprayed on and offers us another aspect of this fabulous artist’s talents. I feared that with the sun behind the wall I wouldn’t get any decent pictures, but I think they turned out ok.