Tag: St Werburghs

5366. St Werburghs tunnel (372)

Stiff, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2023
Stiff, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2023

I managed to snap this piece by Stiff just before heading off on my holiday, which I was pleased about, because, for whatever reason, his work never seems to last very long. His work tends to be on the alien theme and in this piece a red monster is sticking its toothy tongue (?) out of a very toothy mouth.

Stiff, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2023
Stiff, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2023

Stiff pretty much always paints on a black background, which tends to bring a focus on the monster/alien. Red on black works very well, and this is a striking piece. There appears to be a square speech bubble at the base of the piece, but it contains nothing – I am not too sure what that is all about. It is always great to find one of Stiff’s sporadic pieces.

5345. St Werburghs tunnel (371)

Face 1st, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2023
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.

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

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.

5323. St Werburghs tunnel (370)

Stivs, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2023
Stivs, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2023

I have missed several recent Stivs pieces (wrong place, wrong time), so it was good to find and photograph this one . The artist has returned to his calligraffiti, having spent some weeks painting portrait pieces, although this one is a little more stylised and mainstream than his typical calligraffiti style.

Stivs, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2023
Stivs, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2023

The strange orange and green colour combination  works surprisingly well, but why wouldn’t it? I guess they are colours often seen together in nature. Instead of writing STIVS, he is playing with us and has written STYVZ. This is a nice quick one from Stivs.

5244. St Werburghs tunnel (368)

Wxttsart, St Werburghs, Bristol, May 2023
Wxttsart, St Werburghs, Bristol, May 2023

I am enjoying the regular flow of MILK from Wxttsart, and this yellow and black number from a paint jam in the tunnel a little while back is another great example of his writing that is definitely crossing-over into calligraffiti.

Wxttsart, St Werburghs, Bristol, May 2023
Wxttsart, St Werburghs, Bristol, May 2023

His two-tone grey letters have a mid-line running through them and a yellow 3D shadow dropping off to the left, providing some depth to the writing. Adding a little bit of interest are some lightening strikes at the base of the letters and a few highlight spots, without which the piece might appear to be a little flat. Some nice work from Wxttsart.

5200. St Werburghs tunnel (367)

Mr Klue, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2023
Mr Klue, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2023

It must be time now to declare Mr Klue the ‘King of St Werburghs tunnel’. I am guessing that he must live locally, because you don’t get to see his work elsewhere in Bristol very often. In the days when The Bearpit was a thing, we would see Mr Klue pieces there and in the Stokes Croft area, but not now.

Mr Klue, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2023
Mr Klue, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2023

This piece spells KLUE in the artist’s preferred colouring and ephemeral abstract style. It is beautifully presented on a black background, and it is great to see one of his pieces in daylight, rather than under the tunnel lighting which distorts the colours so much. Mr Klue has certainly hit a rich vein of form and productivity, which is great news for admirers of his work.

5169. St Werburghs tunnel (366)

The Mole, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2023
The Mole, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2023

Inca the Mole, or The Mole is an artist who paints reasonably frequently in Bristol, but who I think might live in Gloucestershire. This is a lovely piece of writing in the tunnel, although this time it is not accompanied by the peace-loving mole.

The Mole, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2023
The Mole, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2023

The three nicely chosen colours run horizontally through the letters, which pop out from the wall thanks to the deep 3D drop shadow. Although the mole isn’t there, he is in spirit with all the peace symbols running across the letters. It is always good to see that the Mole has been to visit.

5150. St Werburghs tunnel (365)

Stiff, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2023
Stiff, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2023

Because Stiff paints only rarely, it is always a pleasant surprise to come across one of his pieces. Stiff is one of two Bristol artists who regularly (almost exclusively) feature alien scenes in their work, the other being Nugmoose. Their styles, however, are quite different, and they are easy to distinguish from one another.

Stiff, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2023
Stiff, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2023

Stiff always paints on a black buffed wall, which instantly marks out the piece as one of his, and also provides a clean canvass on which to work. In this scene, a man is looking at a doppelgänger of himself, which turns out not to be all that it seems. His look of horror is comical, as tentacles reach out to catch him. A lovely story piece by Stiff.

5111. St Werburghs tunnel (363)

Benjimagnetic and Hemper, St Werburghs, Bristol, March 2023
Benjimagnetic and Hemper, St Werburghs, Bristol, March 2023

Now this is a proper mash-up collaboration, a conflation of two distinct styles from two outstanding artists, Benjimagnetic and Hemper. It is rare to find something of this nature where the artists fully collaborate so that the whole piece is one, and not two.

Benjimagnetic and Hemper, St Werburghs, Bristol, March 2023
Benjimagnetic and Hemper, St Werburghs, Bristol, March 2023

Although it is one combined piece, it is possible to disentangle which artist painted which bits. Broadly speaking the letters with straight bits and geometric elements are by Benjimagnetic, and the more curvy elements are likely to be by Hemper. It doesn’t really matter who painted what, because the end result is a wonderfully complex piece of writing that is jam-packed with great artistry.

5109. St Werburghs tunnel (632)

Mr Klue, St Werburghs, Bristol, March 2023
Mr Klue, St Werburghs, Bristol, March 2023

When this piece was painted, it was the fourth by Mr Klue in a row. That sequence has now been broken, with the first piece having recently been painted over. It is something of a miracle that he had four joined pieces in the first place.

Mr Klue, St Werburghs, Bristol, March 2023
Mr Klue, St Werburghs, Bristol, March 2023

Painted in his wispy abstract style, this KLUE writing has a fabulous colour scheme, picking up like green and shades of purple and pink, with white highlights on the upper part of the word. Truly inspiring and thoughtful stuff from Mr Klue.

5098. St Werburghs tunnel (360)

Mr Klue, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2023
Mr Klue, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2023

Mr Klue has been smashing it in the tunnel this year, and at the time of writing has five pieces there, all of them intact, four of which are adjacent to one another. This is a really unusual state of affairs for the tunnel and speaks to two things; his work is respected and; he manages to paint frequently enough to gain a space advantage over other artists.

Mr Klue, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2023
Mr Klue, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2023

This wonderful abstract writing piece picks up on warm and cold colours competing for space, with the bluer colours being top lit and the warmer ones under lit. Spelling out KLUE, the piece also incorporates some floating steps, which are a favoured theme in many of his pieces and sketches. More to come from Mr Klue.