This is an absolute corker from Zake, placing one of his iconic characters into a space suit helmet, adding layers of interest and perspective to this piece on the long wall in Cumberland Basin.
I think that the piece was painted for a celebratory paint jam, but I forget now which one it was, there have been so many in the latter part of this year. Great work from Zake, always adding new and interesting ideas to his base characters.
A gallery of outstanding stencil art from the Bristol artist Lemak
Instagram: @lemak_art
all photographs by Scooj
There was a time when Lemak, a Bristol-based artist used to paint his stencils reasonably regularly on the streets. These days he concentrates on his studio pieces and electronic art installations and only occasionally paints outdoors, however, an invitation to Upfest is usually enough to winkle him out of his studio work.
This is an utterly outstanding multi-layered stencil of a woman in a space suit, a theme that Lemak has returned to for this piece. To add depth, quite literally, Lemak has added a couple of free standing pillars in front of the piece as bookends to help frame it. Goodness only knows how many hundreds of hours it would take to prepare all the layers for this piece, but the end product is overwhelmingly brilliant. It was noticeable that there weren’t too many stencil artists at this year’s Upfest, perhaps because they tend to work smaller walls, and the focus this year was on large feature walls that suit muralists more. It is so good to see Lemak’s work like this, and I hope that maybe he will treat us to another street piece before too long.
A west of England paint festival somehow wouldn’t quite feel right without a stencil piece from Bristol’s Stephen Quick. In this piece we have a dog in a space suit, and I have a feeling that the dog ‘Gryffin’ might be A portrait of Stephen Quick’s own dog, which I am sure I have seen somewhere, perhaps on social media. I read that the piece was inspired by a poster advertising the new Buzz Lightyear film. I also read on Stephen Quick’s Instagram post that he was recovering from Covid whilst painting the piece and was very fatigued, not that it shows in the final product.
I must admit that the piece has grown on me somewhat. When I first saw it, something just didn’t feel quite right, maybe the grey space to the left, I don’t know, but it is a rare thing that I don’t immediately click with one of his pieces. I am glad to say though that on reflection it has grown on me and it is yet another great stencil from the artist, which reminds me, I still haven’t posted his Upfest piece from earlier in the summer yet.
Bart says “reach for the stars” and Lemak has done just that with this fabulous space stencil. Some of you might remember that I have already posted this stencil, in a slightly different format from Park Street a few weeks back.
There is little more for me to say than I have already said about Lemak and his superb artwork. His stencils are always precisely presented and always have some original thinking behind them. Checking out his Instagram account also gives you some real insight into the kind of works he is producing. Always good, never sub-standard.
Natural adventures 