Tag: St Werburghs

2310. St Werburghs tunnel (86)

I took this picture back in June, and when I last visited St Werburghs tunnel, This piece by Dusk was still there. The more I see of Dusk’s work, the more I am warming to it. I caught up with Oner recently, and we were talking about the pieces in the tunnel, and he told me that the name ‘DUSK’ comes from ‘Don’t Use Skinny Kaps’. A skinny cap is a cap that you use on a spray can that gives a slightly narrower arc of spray and so tighter lines. The more skilled at spray painting you are, the less need for skinny caps. For me, as a learner, skinny caps are essential.

Sunday graff 0002 9 June 2019

What is notable about this piece is that I don’t recall seeing Dusk including a character before – that doesn’t mean he hasn’t, it just means I haven’t seen one. The character is rather fun, and appears to be smoking a reefer, although what would I know?

 

 

2307. St Werburghs tunnel (85)

In one of his favourite spots, Fiva (Fiver, Henry Barnes) has painted another of his lovely block capital pieces using the longer version of his name and overpainting it with the word ‘forever!’ in a kind of stone effect.

Fiva, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2019
Fiva, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2019

This time he has gone for the bevelled edge look to his large letters and included a 3D shadow in green to the left. In teaching myself to spray paint, I used his general style to create the letter H (in my series A-Z) and all was going well, in fact it was looking rather good, until I put a black and white outline around it. So the point is that to get straight outlines requires real skill to avoid wobbles and varying thickness of lines. Fiva has done a great job here with his yellow and black outline. I need to practice a lot.

2272. St Werburghs tunnel (85)

A view of St Werburghs tunnel that I haven’t shared before, seen from the city farm end. The entrance to the tunnel is guarded by a pair of ‘monolithic’ gurning faces by Atchue, one on either side.

Atchue, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2019
Atchue, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2019

I haven’t seen much from Atchue lately, so to be presented with these two-for-the-price-of-one faces is definitely a bit of a bonus. On the left is one of his more familiar pink pieces, but the one on the right is in magnificent chrome.

Atchue, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2019
Atchue, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2019

The chrome face appears to be in mid gurn and you can almost hear him making a groaning noise. A lovely idea executed brilliantly by Atchue.

2261. St Werburghs tunnel (84)

Sandwiched between Eraze and Rusk (quite some sandwich) is this rather small and understated piece by Laic217, all the more unusual for the lack of a signature. The piece was painted back in May during what must have been quite some paint jam, during which at least ten artists converged on St Werburghs tunnel.

Laic217, St Werburghs, Bristol, May 2019
Laic217, St Werburghs, Bristol, May 2019

Laic217 had gone for a minimum of colours in the portrait but jazzed up the whole thing with a bright gold chain. The elements that link this piece to Laic217 are the zip fastener, the style of clothes and the dripping/melting effect. I’m not too sure about the ear on this piece, which appears to be a little high and large and almost blended into the cap.

2231. St Werburghs tunnel (83)

It has been rather a long time since I saw anything from Eraze. There was a period when he used to do the odd piece in Dean Lane, but I can’t recall anything there for ages, so it was a nice surprise to see this in St Werburghs tunnel recently.

Eraze, St Werburghs, Bristol, May 2019
Eraze, St Werburghs, Bristol, May 2019

I am more familiar with his character pieces, but this is a fine bit of writing with bright colours on a black background. I rather like the white edging and the way it cuts into the letters. Altogether a rather uplifting and happy piece.

2215. St Werburghs tunnel (83)

This was one of so many pieces created during a paint-jam in St Werburghs tunnel a couple of weeks ago. Happily I can report that they are all still there, but with the turnover in the tunnel being quite high I expect that they won’d last much longer. This piece is by Rusk, a RAW stalwart.

Rusk, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2019
Rusk, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2019

I must confess to being slightly troubled by this piece, because there is something about it that just isn’t quite right for me. I hold Rusk in very high regard indeed and in fact in my view he is the most conscientious graffiti writer I have met. I think my problem (and I am really nit-picking here) is with the grey lines across the bottom of the letters, they just don’t appear to match up across the piece. Having said that, I am using Rusk’s own work as a very high benchmark against which to measure. It would take me a hundred years to get this good.

2212. St Werburghs tunnel (82)

Well here we are again with another colourful piece by Diced Mango in St Werburghs tunnel. I said there would be more from him and I am true to my word. The ends of the tunnel are always hard to photograph because of the encroaching bright light from outside which bleaches half of the picture. I hope that you get a good idea of this in any case.

Diced Mango, St Werburghs, Bristol, May 2019
Diced Mango, St Werburghs, Bristol, May 2019

What I really like about Diced Mango is that I think he is relatively new to painting on street walls and his work is getting better with each outing and he seems to be experimenting a lot with letter shapes and colours/patterns. It gives me great inspiration and I hope to be doing this kind of thing in a year or two.

2205. St Werburghs tunnel (81)

Diced Mango is an artist reasonably new to me, having only been aware of his street pieces for about six months or so. He has become rather busy lately and his letters are appearing in various spots around the city.

Diced Mango, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2019
Diced Mango, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2019

This piece, from January this year was in St Werburghs tunnel and shows how the artist plays with shapes and shadings to make the letters look like they are twisted a little. Clever stuff and it gives me ideas for things that I can try out at home. Several more to come from Diced Mango soon.

2203. St Werburghs tunnel (80)

It is not often that you see a nicely painted van in Bristol, even though there are a great many vans with spray paint on them… sadly most of these are fairly rubbish throw ups or tags that frankly are untidy.

Rusk, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2019
Rusk, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2019

This is a lovely piece of 3D writing from Rusk which appeared near the entrance of St Werburghs tunnel recently. Since I took this picture, the other side has been sprayed by Soker, so this is one classy van. I have not seen writing like this from Rusk before, nor have I seen any kind of scenery work like this, so this is a bit of a collector’s item. Nice to witness the versatility of this great Bristol writer.

2202. St Werburghs tunnel (79)

A couple of weeks back there was a large paint jam in St Werburghs tunnel, and it would seem that it was something of a RAW (Read and Weep) get together. This collaborative piece included the T-Rex burner that I featured a few days ago, which was just to the right. These two are Ryder and Jaksta.

Ryder, St Werburghs, Bristol, May 2019
Ryder, St Werburghs, Bristol, May 2019

I don’t need to repeat myself, although I constantly find myself doing so, by telling you that Ryder is an incredibly accomplished writer, and here he has created something rather special in shades of gray with blue highlights. Having started trying to paint a little in the garden I realise how much I have to study what these guys do to understand tricks and techniques. Paint big was an important piece of advice I was given – smaller pieces are more difficult.

Jaksta, St Werburghs, Bristol, May 2019
Jaksta, St Werburghs, Bristol, May 2019

When I have been in the tunnel, it seems everyone notices the pig – he really stands out and the kids that walk past love him. Jaksta is a master of the character piece and his work often joins up pieces of writing like it does here. It is the details I love in this piece, the black shading and white highlights that give a 3D feel to the whole thing, and the two shades of pink that make it look like the light is coming from the right (which in this part of the tunnel it actually does). Great work.