6630. Dean Lane skate park (793)

Haka, Dean Lane, Bristol, December 2024
Haka, Dean Lane, Bristol, December 2024

This looks like it might be my last street art post of 2024, a year in which I have published 897 street/graffiti posts and 22 artist galleries, not a bad haul really, and there have been some corkers in amongst that lot. I tend not to do annual reviews or ‘top tens’, but I am sorely tempted to do so this year. Time, of course, is my enemy (and my friend).

Haka, Dean Lane, Bristol, December 2024
Haka, Dean Lane, Bristol, December 2024

It somehow feels good to round off the year with a piece by Haka, a true Bristol combination graffiti writer/character illustrator, who has been presenting children’s picture book and cartoon characters for a long while. In this piece he has painted one of my favourite walls with his characteristic writing and included a faithfully recreated BFG – Big Friendly Giant by Roald Dahl, illustrated by Quentin Blake. Be safe seeing the old year out and New Year in.

2498. Cheltenham 2019 (9)

Well here’s a familiar sight for Bristolians, the wonderful, weird, quirky world of Guts. There is a lot of fun that goes on in Guts’ pieces, but the fun is juxtaposed with a slightly sinister or gruesome scene. I am not too sure of the story here, but there is a man with a smoking shot gun and a fox missing its tail… Oh my, literally as I am writing this the penny has dropped. This is the Roald Dahl story, ‘The Fantastic Mr Fox’ and Guts has stuck to the literature theme brief perfectly.

Guts, Paint Festival 2019, Cheltenham, September 2019
Guts, Paint Festival 2019, Cheltenham, September 2019

That moment of clarity has just elevated this piece because I can now completely ‘get’ the evil characters, so brilliantly portrayed and the unfortunate fox who loses his tail. A perfect illustration and one that I’m sure Roald himself would have approved of.