Tag: Stencil

1909. Upfest 2018 (105)

Regular readers of Natural Adventures may recall posts about the ephemeral work of Annika Pixie who is a Bristol artist and regular at Upfest. Annika is a vibrant and colourful member of the local art community, who appears to spend her winters in Thailand teaching before returning to her adopted city.

Annika Pixie, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Annika Pixie, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018

This portrait carries all the hallmarks of an Annika Pixie piece. The face is partly obscured by a thin veil as if peering through a net curtain and there is a sadness in the girl’s expression. on her chest are some little ballet dancer stencils…I wonder what the story is here. It is always great to see Annika’s work although I was disappointed to have missed talking to her this year.

Thursday doors

Door 54

At the far east end of North Street, Bristol, is the colourful Steam Crane pub, which during Upfest plays host to several walls in its beer garden/back yard. There is a little side passage just to the right of the pub which leads you directly into the yard, and the wall on the right is always crammed with great street art.

On entering into the yard, the far left-hand wall is also given over to a large piece for Upfest. Along the back brick wall however, there is no street art, except for this cheeky little red squirrel by Bristol’s Stewy, whose stencils can be found all over the city.

Thursday doors, The Steam Crane, Stewy squirrel, Bristol
Thursday doors, The Steam Crane, Stewy squirrel, Bristol

The door is plain, but the whole scene – the grey timbered facade, white door and squirrel – seem to come together in a pleasing way.

Squirrel by Stewy on a door in the back yard of The Steam Crane
Squirrel by Stewy on a door in the back yard of The Steam Crane

The squirrel is a stencil that Stewy has used many times about the place but it doesn’t matter how many times you see it, it always charms.

Here are some Upfest pieces from the walls of The Steam Crane:

Pakone, the Steam Crane, Bristol, January 2016
Pakone, the Steam Crane, Bristol, January 2016
Lost Souls, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Lost Souls, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Gemma Compton and Copyright, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
Gemma Compton and Copyright, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
John Curtis, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
John Curtis, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Id-iom, Upfest, Bristol, July2016
Id-iom, Upfest, Bristol, July2016
Hannah Adamaszek and Saroj, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
Hannah Adamaszek and Saroj, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017

by Scooj

Loads more amazing doors at: Thursday Doors – Norm 2.0

 

1879. Upfest 2018 (98)

This gateway is a particular favourite of mine and has played host to some lovely pieces by 3rdeye and Aspire in previous Upfests. This year it was the turn of Dr Love, an artist from Tbilisi in Georgia.

Dr. Love, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Dr. Love, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018

The piece is a large stencil, and you can see just how tricky it is to put together a stencil of this size from the picture above. Looking at this stencil, I can’t quite work out the layering, but that is why I write about these things rather than try to do them myself.

Dr. Love, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Dr. Love, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018

Dr Love likes to spread love with his work and I think with this piece you can sense the tenderness of a skeleton holding a butterfly on his finger and the message is conveyed loud and clear with the large word LOVE across the middle of the piece. Sadly the work only lasted a few months before it was tagged, and I believe that a Muckrock piece is there now, but I’ve not managed to get down to see it yet.

1849. Upfest 2018 (90)

Kin Dose is a Bristol artist who doesn’t hit the streets too often, but at Upfest 2018 he really excelled himself, spraying several wildlife stencils along the North Street area. This is the second one I have featured in Natural Adventures.

Kin Dose, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Kin Dose, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018

This piece, a bat of some description, is perfectly fitted to the utility box on which it appears, and kind of blends in a little so as almost to be invisible to the passer-by. You can tell, at Upfest, the difference between general visitors and street art ‘hunters’ as the latter are always looking at every wall, every door, every side street, every lamp-post, every utility box, in fact pretty much everything, whereas the former tend to stroll along chatting and seeing art almost passively.

Lost my thread a bit there…anyhow, this piece, along with its partners is something really special, which is what Kin Dose does so well. Special.

 

 

1848. Upfest 2018 (89)

Bart says “reach for the stars” and Lemak has done just that with this fabulous space stencil. Some of you might remember that I have already posted this stencil, in a slightly different format from Park Street a few weeks back.

Lemak, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Lemak, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018

There is little more for me to say than I have already said about Lemak and his superb artwork. His stencils are always precisely presented and always have some original thinking behind them. Checking out his Instagram account also gives you some real insight into the kind of works he is producing. Always good, never sub-standard.

Lemak, Park Street, Bristol, October 2018
Lemak, Park Street, Bristol, October 2018

1844. Upfest 2018 (85)

About Ponny is an artist I had not come across before Upfest 2018 and what a wonderful set of wheatpastes he left for us to admire this year. This is the second one I have posted, and like the first it best described as poignant.

About Ponny, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
About Ponny, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018

There is a sadness, but also a really touching humanity about this piece, and the tones used for the stencil work give the whole wheatpaste a sombre and yet very powerful presence. I can honestly say that About Ponny was probably my favourite discovery of Upfest 2018 – now I just need to travel around a bit to find more of his great work.

1835. Prince Street

Mystery solved. Regular readers will know that I am really quite uncomfortable with posting pieces if I don’t know who created them. Occasionally I post them anyway because I don’t think I’ll ever find out who did them. In this case, I have held on in with the firm conviction that I would find the artist. And I have.

John D'oh, Princes Street, Bristol, October 2018
John D’oh, Princes Street, Bristol, October 2018

I recently bought John D’oh’s excellent book ‘Street Art and Graffiti‘ and there on pages 40 and 41 is this wonderful stencil piece. These photographs were taken this October, but I have some much older ones somewhere in my archive. The original installation had a little red word ‘why’ to the left of the piece and it was placed on 16 November 2015 as a tribute to those who lost their lives in the Paris terror attacks of 13 November that same month.

There is a little shelf beneath the piece which had little battery operated flickering candle lights to give the piece a shrine appearance. Beautifully conceived and executed. This is a poignant and touching piece from a great Bristol artist who puts a lot of thought, time, energy, passion and effort in to his work.

I was thrilled to find out it was by John D’oh. Good things come to those who wait (and buy books).

1817. Upfest 2018 (77)

I love this striking stencil work by Paintily. The concept of a mask hiding another mask beneath it is a good one, and the ancient look adds to the mystery of the piece. The whole thing is worked really beautifully with great care and attention being paid to the shadows cast by the outer mask on the inner one.

Paintily, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Paintily, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018

This piece is all the more remarkable for being a stencil, which must have taken an eternity to prepare. The standard of stencils at Upfest 2018 has really been quite staggering and we are lucky to have seen so many over the course of the festival. Below is a little reminder of Paintily’s piece from last year.

Paintily, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
Paintily, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017

1790. Upfest 2018 (66)

Often humorous and always tinged with a bit of edge, John D’oh’s stencils can be found on walls all around Bristol (and Cheltenham) and of course at Upfest. This year’s ‘official’ piece was a double-header, the first part of which was a witty corruption of the Infinite Monkey Theory.

John D'oh, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
John D’oh, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018

The second board is another pithy pop at Brexit, featuring Noel Edmond’s Deal or no Deal as its headline. I absolutely love these topical political stencils, and look forward to his injects about the place.

Street art and Graffiti, John D'oh, Bristol, October 2018
Street art and Graffiti, John D’oh, Bristol, October 2018

Coincidentally, his new book arrived yesterday and I can’t recommend highly it enough, it is one of the best graffiti/street art books that I have read in a while, intelligently written and full of photographs and commentary on his own work. Brilliant.

1787. Upfest 2018 (63)

My oh my this is a very fancy stencil indeed by the incredible RTC from Cheltenham. You would have been hiding under a rock not to know that the subject of this piece is film director Tim Burton surrounded by some of his creations – besides which, just in case we didn’t know, attributes a quote to Burton at the bottom of the piece. “One person’s craziness is another person’s reality“.

RTC, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
RTC, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018

I cannot imagine just how long it must take to prepare this multi-layered stencil, which has such amazing fine detail, but it is all utterly worth it. I can only gaze on in disbelief. Bravo! champion of the art of stencilling.

I had a go at spotting all the films in the piece…

Batman – Mars Attacks – Edward Scissorhands – The Nightmare Before Christmas – Sleepy Hollow – Alice in Wonderland – Beetlejuice.