Inkie is back in town and has been painting a little. This is a rather nice little piece of classic Art Nouveau/funky graffiti writing, and what makes it a little unusual is that he appears to have painted it alone.
when you see a quick piece like this, you know just by looking at it that you are in safe hands and looking at the work of a master craftsman. The red fills of the letters are brought to life with the application of a thin white border. Classy.
I guess that it was fairly inevitable that tribute pieces to the late Ozzy Osbourne would start to emerge, although in Bristol, I have only found two, of which this impressive piece by Tera is one. I see how much the musician meant to so many people, but I’m afraid I don’t count myself amongst them. I always thought he was a bit of an arse, and I was less than captivated by the puerile ‘fly on the wall’ documentary series about the Osbournes, but each to their own.
What is incredible about this large portrait is just how quickly Tera has adapted to upscaling his tattoo skills to large walls, literally in a mater of months. There is some great use of positioning bright colours against the greyscale portrait, which creates a certain dynamism. This piece captures the mood of Ozzy perfectly, and I rather like the epitaph ‘Rest in Darkness’.
I am assuming that Smak has slowed on his graffiti writing due to demands on his commercial work, or at least I hope it is something positive like that. He hasn’t lost his touch in the slightest, and this is a complete banger painted during a paint jam for Frazzled Magazine.
The beautifully disguised letters spell out SMAK, and it is the architecture and design of the letters that is so admirable. Every element and shape, colour sequence and detail is meticulously thought out and skilfully painted. Smak really is one of the very best graffiti writers around and can turn out exquisite work like this with apparent ease. An outstanding example.
A short while back, Kid Crayon organised a paint jam for Frazzled magazine and assembled a fine line-up of artists, including Ejits. There is something very charming about her stylised cartoon characters, which tend to have a cheeky side to their personality.
This is a wonderful eye-catching cat, beautifully illustrated and perfectly finished. There is two-tone texture in the cat’s face and a strong dark pink border to keep everything neat and tidy. I am an admirer of her work, and would love to see (find) more of it on our streets.
One of the highlights of the year so far has been the return of Subtle. I have managed to photograph some of his pieces, but still haven’t located a wall that he has painted a couple of times, which is a pity, but I will persevere.
This is a gorgeous piece of writing that picks up Subtle’s unique lettering style and combines it with a rich and varied colour palette as well as some decorative spotty background, which is beginning to feature in his work. Bristol streets and walls are quieter without his presence.
Tera has exploded onto the Bristol street art scene in a matter of only weeks. The tattooist (by trade) has only recently picked up spray cans under the watchful eye of Kid Crayon and is already creating some impressive productions, that are not only ambitious, but also really well executed. Some people are born naturals, and Tera is definitely one of them.
At the entrance to St Werburghs tunnel, this is an awesome ‘horror’ piece that has so much to admire about it. The greyscale central character and hooded figures are brought to life with the green glow, which works exceptionally on the skull’s face as part of the overall shading. Tera describes this as a toxic medieval zombie fella – well, it works for me.
There seems to be a direct correlation between the days and locations that Kid Crayon paints, and the longevity of his pieces. More than any other artist I can think of, his work gets painted over really quickly, and I have missed several of his pieces this year, arriving a day late.
Most recently, a piece in Cumberland Basin lasted a day maybe, and worse still it was only half painted over, which is rude, and not in the spirit of the unwritten graffiti code of etiquette. I rushed to photograph this one, and of course, it has bucked the trend and lasted a while, and was still intact yesterday.
This is a superb example of Kid Crayon’s playful style, with a great combination of letters and characters throughout the piece. The piece formed a part of a Frazzled Magazine paint jam, which included the artists Mind 49, Ejits, and Smak amongst others. There is so much to enjoy in this piece with so many little details to admire, for example, the munching maggot carving pieces out of the letter ‘C’at the start of the piece. Fabulous work.
Mind 49 has always been an activist, and although his art has mellowed in recent years, his principles are still very much intact. This anti-war piece is striking, poignant and beautifully presented.
Skulls are a common motif/subject in street art and this is one of the very best examples I have ever seen. Mind 49 has captured the tones, shading and depth perfectly. Strangely, the helmet almost seems as though it is painted by a completely different artist. It is lacking in detail, the perspective is slightly out and the flags a bit untidy. I don’t know why this is, whether it is a deliberate device or that Mind 49 has absolutely cracked the skull and needs to work on helmets. It is a mystery.
The message to take home is clear. ‘Destroy the war machine’, which is directed at the UK, the USA and Israel. I could go into a long and thoughtful essay about the war in Palestine, and the impotence of voices that want an end to the killing and suffering. History will not look favourably on the genocide and the parallels with WWII concentration camps and justifications for extermination. Can’t people see the paradox? I’ll stop there. It upsets me too much.
The emphasis of this post will walk through how augmentation works. In street art circles, augmentation (adding to an existing piece) is relatively rare and can be considered as a little insulting to the original artist, or lacking in creativity. On the other hand, it can be seen as flattering and complementary to the original work. Here is a wonderful example of a piece by Mr Klue that has been augmented by Posh.
This rather nice purple ‘KLUE’ abstract writing has been hanging around at the entrance to the tunnel for quite a while, which doesn’t really come as much of a surprise as he kind of ‘owns’ this spot, by occupation at least. The purple is beautifully picked out with white and yellow highlights that create wonderful depth to the piece. Now all is just fine and dandy, and then along comes Posh!
Quite a while after this piece was painted by Mr Klue, Posh came along and added into it three posh characters, in yellow, picking out some of the colour in the original piece. These ‘toffs’ have a strong political message, one that picked up a lot of coverage at the Glastonbury Festival, ‘Death 2 the IDF’. Once again, street art acts as a wonderful commentary on contemporary issues, and has an important role to play in free speech and expression. This is a great example of how augmentation can work really well, and Mr Klue thought it was rather funny.
I was rather hoping that this lovely turtle piece by Lis was going to last a while at the entrance to St Werburghs tunnel, but alas it was painted over after about a week. I was surprised, because it was painted on a bit of wall which has had a rather low turnover in recent years, and it was a fine and rather iconic piece, very much in keeping with the zeitgeist of the area.
I would say, with a touch of bias as a former marine biologist, that this is one of her best pieces to date. The Turtle itself is accurately represented, and the lines pretty clean and decorations tidily done. Lis’ inexorable progress continues apace.
Natural adventures 