Regular readers might recognise this orange orangutan as the second piece I have posted by Kool Hand, this time in the tunnel at St Werburghs. There is a third one to come still from these sessions.
Looking forward to seeing more from Kool Hand, and maybe I can try and find out a little bit more about him. For now, simply enjoy those crisp clean lines and fun design.
One of the things I love about hunting for and writing about street/graffiti art is when I come across new artists and find out a little bit more about them. I have seen the burner ‘ONER’ for a few months now, but as many readers will know, I don’t like to post about artists until I know a little more about them.
Well I got lucky recently and met Oner when he was spraying a burner in one of the tunnels of the M32 roundabout (see above). What an incredibly nice man. I started to chat with him, which has become a bit of a thing for me (before I started all this malarkey, I never struck up conversations with complete strangers, least of all spray-can-toting ones) and rarely have I met such an enthisiastic person, and so easy going.
Now he told me where he was from, and I think he said Exeter, but it might have been Taunton, whichever it was (and I really should have listened better) he now lives in Bristol. This piece in St Werburghs tunnel is typical of his work, which is nice and tidy (can you spot the small error at the bottom right?) and colourful. I expect to see a lot more from Oner and look forward to seeing how his work develops.
Well here is a piece by an artist I haven’t seen in an absolute age. It is a stencil of a street character by Hoax. I’m not sure if he hasn’t been doing much street art for a while or if I just haven’t been where he usually sprays. Whatever, it is really great to see a new piece by him.
Unfortunately, the piece is quite high on the entrance to the tunnel in St Werburghs (which must have been a challenge to work on) and the light is reflecting off the brickwork, making it a bit difficult to appreciate the detail of the stencil, such as the check pattern on the shirt. This is a nice piece from Hoax…looking forward to seeing more.
It is always great to find another Epok piece, especially when not expecting it. I don’t often get to St Werburghs tunnel, so when I do pretty much everything is new to me. I hadn’t seen this piece on social media, and although it is a fresh piece, I obviously didn’t get here in time to see it clean.
One day I would live to get into the mind of taggers and bombers to understand their thinking. Are there any protocols? Is everything a fair target for their graffiti? What do they respect/disrespect? Do they care about anything? My guess is that they have little conscience and genuinely don’t care what they do. Wreckless anarchy, which is probably quite an attractive option for some people. The class and quality of Epok’s work shines through though – this is a really good piece by him. Hats off.
Photograps taken in St Werburghs tunnel are a real challenge. The colours are yellowed out if you don’t use a flash, and when you do use a flash (a non-sophisticated one like I use) you get horrible reflections obscuring the art. This piece by Fiver (Fiva) looks a bit dreary, but it was far from that in the flesh.
Fiver is an artist I have featured a couple of times this winter, having not seen much from him for quite a long while. This is an old one, full of charm. I believe the character is Donkey Kong of Nintendo fame. A fun piece.
I think I said it quite recently that I don’t often get down to St Werburghs tunnel, which is a pity really because I miss out on a lot of gems like this one from Whysayit. I am beginning to think that he might simply be whysay or YSAE, because his Instagram handle which used to be Whysayit has changed to Whysissy and again to Whydot. However, I am not retrospectively going to correct all my posts. I shall call him Whysayit.
Once again we such great quality of ideas and shading from this graffiti artist. When I see great writing, I often wonder whether the artists could do characters or something other than writing. There is something of a split between graff writers and street artists, but some have crossed the divide and others, such as Deamze and Voyder seem to be equally comfortable with both.
Having recently posted about Elvs, I thought I would dig out more of his work from my files, and this beautiful piece was in St Werburghs tunnel back in May 2016. He really does have a wonderfully ornate style, but he keeps his lettering even in height, so the whole piece could fit into a rectangular surround.
I really like the way that he has replicated the pattern in the top part of the ‘e’ and the top part of the ‘s’, which I think is a trademark feature of his work. There is also a cheeky little one-eyed pyramid poking out of the top of the piece. This is really superb wildstyle writing.
I took this picture way back in June 2016 before I knew who it was by. I liked it at the time – I don’t photograph everything I see, and many pieces don’t make it into this blog…I have a little bit of editorial control. It is of course by Hire, and shows his trademark jagged Gothic form.
There is a symmetry to this piece, and if you look closely, you will be able to make out the letters HIRE. Nice one.
It seems that street/graffiti artists tend to have peaks and troughs in their activity. I suppose that, like the rest of us, life, jobs, family and so on just get in the way a bit. I introduce this piece with this observation because Sled One, who was extremely productive last year, seems to be a little quieter. This may just be a false perception, and I am not seeing his stuff as much as I used to – I might be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
This is of the usual high standard that Sled One attains, it appears, with such ease. This wildstyle writing is so very easy on the eye, like much of his work. I particularly like the ‘accent’ lines he uses to emphasise the letters or that wisp around the piece giving it a sense of animation. I will not tire of his outstanding work.
I’ll let you into a little secret. I tend to write my posts in batches, and usually in advance by about a week, which is why there is always a bit of a time delay between the appearance of a recent piece and my posting of it. I do this out of necessity, because of my full time job and finding pockets of ‘me time’ to do some writing. I mention this because yesterday (my realtime – Sunday 9 April) I met Laic217 in Moon Street, working on a piece that I will post in a week or two. He is as enigmatic in person as he is in his street art.
This piece appeared a few weeks back in St Werburghs tunnel alongside the great work of Silent Hobo. An alien face, bucket hat and gold chain with a planet pendant mark this out as an obvious Laic217 piece, irrespective of the fact that he has signed it Laic on the arm.
I am still enjoying finding and writing about Laic217’s work, it almost feels like a game of hide and seek. I would point out that he is a better painter than I am a writer and he is more prolific than I could ever be. On to the next one.
Natural adventures 