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.
I watched Zake as he was preparing for this piece, but, having not met him and not knowing what he looked like, I didn’t stop long enough to make introductions. Added to which he was teaching a friend how to use spray paints and I didn’t want to interfere, especially as I think it was the first time she had ever held a spray can.
Zake, St Werburghs, Bristol, May 2020
The final piece is fabulous and not unlike one that he painted at the other end of the tunnel back in November last year. The rather unusual face has a hand sprouting from the cheek, giving the whole thing a slightly more animated feel than a face on its own. I always love to see Zake’s work, and to have almost met him was an added bonus.
I managed to get out yesterday and found a few new pieces around the place, and it would seem that with some social distancing rules being relaxed artists are beginning to slowly return to walls. In the meantime, I still have a few archive pieces lined up for publication, including this fine collaboration fron Dasco and Wiflywin.
Dasco, St Werburghs, Bristol, November 2019
On the left is a nice piece of writing from Dasco. Confident and assured the fills are great and the stripy barcode effect on the 3D lettering has worked well in this instance, which is not always an easy thing to do. Set on an orange brick wall, the piece segues nicely into the wiflywin piece to the right.
Wiflywin, St Werburghs, Bristol, November 2019
Wiflywin continues the writing using a similar colour palette and the barcoded 3D letter shading, but perhaps with just a little less confidence. I am not quite sure what the letters spell out, and I will have to get to know more about the artist.
Dasco and Wiflywin, St Werburghs, Bristol, November 2019
On the right is a smashed up police car and I am uncertain whether one or the other or both artists painted it. Perhaps there was another artist involved, I am not sure, but I rather like it, and it works really well as a ‘character’ bookend to the graffiti writing. I’m not sure why I never posted this in November last year when I first photographed it.
UPDATE – On 30 May I met Wiflywin for the first time and asked him about this, he told me that he painted the police car… problem solved.
The biggest mystery to me during this rather self-indulgent trip into my street art archives imposed by the coronavirus pandmic lock down is that I find it quite hard to understand why so many great pieces got left behind on the ‘cutting room floor’, like this beauty from Elvs.
Elvs, St Werburghs, Bristol, March 2017
Painted back in March 2017 this wonderful piece of wildstyle writing incorporates an addition of a skull and intriguingly some Japanese-looking script in yellow and pink running through the ELVS lettering. I know that several pieces by Elvs incorporate some Japanese lettering, but I don’t know why… I’ll have to ask him next time I see him (which could be some considerable time). A classy piece from this exceptional artist.
Thanks to lock down, I am sharing this throwback piece from 2017 in St Werburghs tunnel by Fiva. His style is clean bold and instantly recognisable. Large letters with a character face in a cartoon style looking on.
Fiva, St Werburghs, Bristol, March 2017
It is so easy to like Fiva’s work, it has a lighthearted feel to it and somehow it always feels very welcoming and accessible. I’m not sure if that makes any sense to you, but it does to me. It is great to have the space to unearth this one from the archive.
This beautifully proportioned REZER from Rezwonk was painted alongside frequent painting buddy Nightwayss in St Werburghs tunnel about two or three weeks ago. Crikey, so much has happened since then, it is unimaginable.
Rezwonk, St Werburghs, Bristol, March 2020
Like so many of the talented street artists in Bristol, Rezwonk’s work is always on point, and even his throw ups have a touch of class to them. The overall design is great and looking closely at the letters it looks like the ER at the end might have been switched to RE or even something else. I expect there will be a creative outburst when all this is finally over.
Natural adventures 