I am a little bit short on time for today’s posts, so this is going to be a quick one. I think that this might be the last piece in a delightful display of stencils painted by RA on a visit to Bristol, probably in July, on the columns under Brunel Way.
This incredible spider piece might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it has style and impact through its design and powerful red and black colour selection. It would be great to welcome RA back to Bristol sometime.
RA, if that is indeed his/her name, came to Bristol and left behind four or five beautiful insect stencil pieces, which are right up my street combining my love of nature with my interest in street art.
I am not quite sure if this particular beast is a beetle (I can’t see any wing covers) or something like an ant. It certainly has the right components; six legs, a head, abdomen and thorax and what I imagine to be a compound eye, of an insect. The colours RA has used to decorate the insect are striking and help the piece to stand out on the grey-buffed column. Lovely work.
This is a gorgeous column piece under Brunel Way, from visiting artist RA. Several wonderful pieces were deposited by the artist, all in the same area, and each of which really appeal to me. Anything to do with nature, and in particular insects, is going to grab my attention.
In this strip, RA has used a stencil of an insect and overlaid it three times on a tall rectangle of lime green, which works perfectly for the dimensions of a column. The detail within each of the insects has been hand painted, probably using a Posca pen for the finer detail. The pink and green colours draw attention to the piece on a grey background. Very effective and quite different.
I must’ve walked past this little beauty by Lis several time before I noticed it. It is heavily disguised, sitting on a larger piece, and easy to miss (obviously). I felt rather clever when I spotted it, but later realised, when looking at her Instagram feed, that it had been there for weeks.
The heart with a sword running through it and a snake is a stunning motif, and looks like a tattoo sample. The fine work is a combination of spray paint and she used it as an opportunity to try out some small stencils. This is so typical of Lis, expanding her portfolio and improving her technique and skills.
Since developers moved into the area around Moon Street, I don’t visit all that often, and driving around there is a bit of a nightmare, so I generally only visit when I am on foot. I had a lovely surprise on my last visit, finding this stencil piece by Cartoonneros.
I don’t know if the piece is new or old, but the artist does seem to visit Bristol sporadically – maybe he has friends here. Furthermore, I don’t know who the character portrayed in the stencil is, but it has all the hallmarks of a Cartoonneros piece. The black lines of the stencil are sprayed over a patchwork of orange and yellow paint, creating the unique look that the artist has perfected. A reward for keeping my eyes open.
Part of my work involves a bit of travel around the country supporting the establishment of new National Nature Reserves. I took a trip last month to Godalming in Surrey, where I was running a partnership workshop. Naturally I took the opportunity to wander round town in the evening and early in the morning to photograph the architecture, and doors in particular. I was not expecting to find any street art (it is not that kind of place), but my in-build radar and trained eye brought me to this piece by Hendog, lurking behind some bins. I think it might be the only piece of street art in town.
Hendog is a stencil artist, who seems to paint around the south-east area of England, from what I could make out, and I haven’t come across before, although I think he might have a piece in Bristol which I will need to hunt down.
There are hints or references to Banksy’s famous ‘mild, mild west’ piece as he features an urban teddy bear up to a bit of mischief with a traffic cone on his head and a beer bottle in each hand. The stencil work has plenty of depth, aided by the clever shadow work. I have no idea what the locals think of it, but it has been there for a while, so I imagine they might be quite fond of it. A pleasurable and unexpected find.
Argentinian artist Cartoonneros has made a few appearances on these pages over the years, and it is always fun to find his diminutive stencil pieces. I think that I might have a bunch of unpublished pictures of his work from trips to London a few years ago too, which I ought to dig out of my archive.
This piece features a black stencil portrait of Lionel Messi (I think), augmented with an underlayer of rainbow colours. This is decent, simple and impactful work that instantly catches the eye. It is the only recent piece I have found by the artist, but I will be keeping my eyes open, because I find it hard to believe that he would visit Bristol and only drop one piece during his visit. I don’t quite yet have enough pieces to make a gallery, but when I do…
Sometimes I have no idea who painted a particular piece but like to post it, because it is simply too good not to post. This is an unusual stencil and writing combination piece that I am assuming is by a single artist, but it is quite possible that this is the work of two people.
Of course, the point of the piece is to write a one-liner gag, which I have to admit I haven’t heard before, and it made me laugh when I saw it. There are a lot of words in this piece of writing and each of the letters has a 3D shadow, so I would say it is the work of an accomplished writer. The writing is accompanied by a stencil of a woman holding a spray can, implying that she sprayed the writing.
I have seen better single-layer stencils, but there is a charm about this one, and the whole combination, that I have slightly fallen for. My guess is that this wall was painted some time ago… I say that, because I rarely visit this area. A bit of fun for Tuesday morning.
It feels odd posting this Banksy piece from the comfort of a Marrakesh hotel room only a couple of weeks after photographing it. I took the pictures in the dark on a cold night walking to a football match with my son after seven hours of driving. It was my son who spotted the famous piece painted last year, and in the spirit of taking pictures, no matter what the conditions, I managed to get these unusual snaps.
I had wondered where this piece was, but love the fact that we accidentally walked past it rather than sought it out. The misty night scene adds a different perspective on the piece, which was a clever work by Banksy, who replaced the foliage of a tree on the wall behind it, after it had been heavily cut back.
In the bottom left of the piece is a stencil figure with a spray gun in his hands who presumably had been spraying the foliage on the walls. The figure is now behind Perspex. Last year was a good year for the Bristol born artist, and maybe on future trips to the old smoke I’ll find some of his animals from 2024. Arsenal won a tricky match against Ipswich 1-0, so overall a good day out.
The last stencil piece I saw by Man-X was a rather cute west highland terrier painted at the entrance to Leonard Lane, so it was somewhat surprising to see this irreverent portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II sitting on a different kind of throne.
The portrait piece is a nicely worked five or six colour stencil, set within an oval frame, and is really rather unusual in many ways. The colours incorporate gold, which I guess is in part to represent the royal setting (golden throne). There is some extra fun in the detail, with the Queen reading a magazine entitled ‘Corgi’. Edgy and offensive to some, this piece is nicely executed, on a tricky stone surface.
Natural adventures 