I got lucky taking the dog for a walk a few days ago because I just caught Ryder as he was putting the final touches on this wonderful piece of graffiti writing. In the car opposite was T-Rex and their new baby… they start them young in the graffiti way in Bristol. He stopped for a chat and it was really nice to catch up – I always feel rather surprised and touched when these guys remember who I am, but I remind myself that they are all really decent folk.
Ryder, St Werburghs, Bristol, July 2020
The piece itself is a big bold chrome on pink piece of writing and is shit hot in my view. Proper writing from a proper writer painted with confidence and class. It was this piece that prompted me to publish a gallery of his work last week. Keep ‘em coming.
Last week I met Phour for the first time, and what a pleasure it was. I had had my suspicions that he was another writer that had changed his letters, but I was quite wrong. Phour told me that he did a bit of spraying as a youngster, but had stopped until a couple of years ago when he picked up his cans and started up again. I must confess that I have only noticed his writing this year, but what I have seen I like and he is, on first impressions, a genuinely decent guy who was more than happy to stop and talk for a while.
Phour, St Werburghs, Bristol, July 2020
This is one of a few slightly older pieces that I have had on archive waiting to be posted until I knew a little bit more about the artist. His letter shapes are clean and clear and he seems to enjoy lots of colour in his work. All the right ingredients are there for Phour to move up the ranks of Bristol graffiti writers. I look forward to following him along the way.
Corupt is an artist whose work is horribly underrepresented in Natural Adventures, and over the coming weeks I will attempt to correct this. His work can be found in all the main spots in Bristol, but he definitely favours the tunnel and M32 roundabout.
Corupt, St Werburghs, Bristol, July 2020
The letters in his work have a unique style that makes his writing quite easy to spot, especially as he writes under other names from time to time. This one is a real gem with some clever colour combinations and a cornucopia of fills. So often his pieces in the tunnel don’t photograph very well due to the awful light conditions, but this one has come out really well. Great work.
Since I started writing about street art some five years ago or so I have seen many established artists, but I have also seen the emergence of a great many artists new to Bristol. Of course some artists have jumped off the conveyor belt or moved out of the city, but I would say that there are more street/graffiti artists in Bristol now than there have been at any time in history.
Pl8o, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2020
An artist I am starting to notice more around the place is Pl8o (Plato-geddit?). I imagine that Pl8o is new to the city rather than new to street art, because the work I have seen is all really good and not the work of a novice (I should know). There is a lot to like about this piece – the shape of the letters, the fill designs such as bricks, stars and drips and the overall clean and tidy lines. More to come from Pl8o soon.
At the south entrance to St Werburghs tunnel is this wonderful piece from Decay that just kind of appeared under the radar in a modest and quiet way. I love it when that happens, no fanfare, just an appearance… as if by magic.
Decay, St Werburghs, Bristtol, June 2020
Decay has managed to introduce a gentle and light summery feel to this piece, and a really clever touch is the light grey shadings at the lower half of the letters that give the piece body and lift it out from the wall a little. The more observant of you might notice that this is a BLM piece and the ‘Chuck’ character makes a second appearance on the left hand side wall with BLM speech bubble.
One of the great pleasures for a street art photographer is when a particular artist wakes up from a long slumber. Having seen very little from Angry Face over the last couple of years, we have seen two new pieces of late, of which this one in St Werburghs tunnel is the most recent.
Angry Face, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2020
Not only has Angry Face returned, but his work seems altogether a bit more colourful and considered and although the basic angry face motif is largely unchanged, the patterns and fills are intricate and nicely done. I am really enjoying this reawakening and look forward to more appearances.
This is one of those few occasions where a photograph actually does do justice to the artwork. I was in St Werburghs tunnel yesterday and revisited this piece (it is still there), but was struck by how the colours were dulled by the lack of good lighting. Somehow the photographs I took have auto-compensated for the poor light conditions and the piece looks amazing. It is of course by Elvs.
Elvs, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2020
The letter shapes and style are familiar, as are the exquisitely masterful graded fills, but what I really like about this piece is something rarely seen. Elvs has added a 3D shadow that fades from purple on the lower edges to pink on the upper ones. Another highly accomplished piece.
It should come as a rather refreshing change that this week’s doors are not from my street art archives, but doors I photographed during lock down on my walks with the dog. I know that the street art doors are popular, and will return to them in due course.
This week’s selection of doors are mainly from the Montpelier and St Werburghs area on what were sleepy streets back in March, but have now resumed almost normal levels of traffic.
An ordinary door with an extraordinary tile surround, Montpelier, Bristol, March 2020Fancy pants door, Montpelier, Bristol, March 2020Great colours, a mask and a wall built into the door surround, St Werburghs, Bristol, March 2020Former door bricked up, Montpelier, Bristol, March 2020Garden door, St Werburghs, Bristol, March 2020Back yard door (note the tagged wheely bin), St Werburghs, Bristol, March 2020Tagged door (that tag again), St Werburghs, Bristol, March 2020
So a little canter around the streets of Sy Werburghs an Montpelier in Bristol, I hope you enjoyed looking at the dors as much as I enjoyed finding and photographing the. That’s it for another week, so I hope you all keep well until next time.
If you have made it this far, you probably like doors and you really ought to take a look at the Norm 2.0 blog – the originator of Thursday Doors where there are links to yet more doors in the comments section at the end.
I am told that Rezwonk doesn’t like this piece so much so that he didn’t share it on his Instagram account. Well the great thing about writing about other people’s artwork is that I am not in a position to be self-critical, instead I critique what I see and how it makes me feel. I think this is a fabulous piece of writing and the colour selection alone is worthy of praise.
Rezwonk, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2020
Whether he was short of space or whether he was simply switching things up I don’t know, but the usual REZER has been replaced with REZR. The orange/copper tones bordered by beautifully worked alternate black and white fringes leave us with a tight piece that the artist is turning out with almost alarming regularity. Great to find this one.
The easing of lock down (and I know I have flogged this particular horse to death) has seen the arrival of an ultra busy, ultra inspired period of street art in Bristol. It seems that all the artists that have been hitting the walls hard have been doing some creative thinking while they have been at home.
Rapt, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2020
This lovely piece in St Werburghs tunnel from Rapt is neat and tidy and has the addition of a little character to the left, looking a lot like Snoopy. The dog is smoking a cigarette and wearing a hat with the words ‘Doggy Style’ written across it. This piece was part of a collaborative effort, with Elvs making up the other half (coming soon). Giants awaking from their slumbers.
