Inkie, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2023
You can be pretty certain that Inkie will have a presence at the Cheltenham Paint Festival, which is great. What is even better is that although this piece was from the 2022 Festival, I managed to find it this time round… only a year late, but better than nothing I suppose.
Inkie, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2023
The character/writing combination is along the lines that you would expect to see. A beautiful girl with long flowing hair alongside some large block writing. I am not too sure what the ‘St Pauls’ refers to. There is a St Paul’s church very near where this was painted, but it could I suppose be a reference to Bristol’s St Paul’s district. Unmistakably Inkie, the piece is still looking fresh as a daisy. Nice Tribute to Julian too.
SkyHigh, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2023
Each time I think that SkyHigh can’t possibly up his game, he manages to do so with what appears to be ease. I can’t imagine he has too much headroom for improvement, but hey, this is SkyHigh we’re talking about (no pun intended).
SkyHigh, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2023
This large piece is a perfect mash-up of characters, letter fonts and styles, seamlessly joined together to spell out SkyHigh in several combinations. The inclusion of Mickey Mouse, Pluto and Donald Duck add a sense of fun to the piece as well as being a bit weird with some additional eyes thrown in for good measure.
SkyHigh, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2023
One of the awesome things about the piece is how SkyHigh manages to compartmentalise each element as tight as tight can be, and yet there is a fluidity that makes sense of each of the components into an impressive whole. This is as close to graffiti writing perfection as you can get.
Smerk, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2023
UPDATE (2 November 2023): On posting this piece on Instagram I am informed by Smak that this piece is not by him and that the content of this post should be ignored. This happens from time to time. The piece is by Smerk, and the letters indeed spell SMERK. A forgivable mistake on my part.
I haven’t seen too much work by Smak in Bristol recently, so it was great to see this piece on the multi-story car park in Cheltenham at this year’s Paint Festival. The first thing to notice about this Smak piece is that it is really rather different from the usual style of his writing. That isn’t to say he isn’t incredibly versatile, simply that this is a small departure, and one I rather like.
Smerk, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2023
The letters in this piece have a slight 1920s/30s feel to them, like a modern version of something you might see at a lido or cinema, if you know what I mean. Perhaps it is the colour palette or the deep 3D shadows in red, combined with the letter shapes, I don’t know, but the overall effect is most pleasing and very easy on the eye. Unfortunately, by the time I got to the car park, Smak had already finished, but there were plenty of other artists up there to catch up with.
Elno, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2023
One of the highlights of my trip to Cheltenham for this year’s Paint Festival was the opportunity to meet and chat with Elno, a lovely, lovely person who made plenty of time to talk about her work, and a piece that I photographed earlier in the year from the Lighthouse Community Gardens. I caught up with her just as she was completing the piece, only the sword handle was incomplete and, of course, her signature.
Elno, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2023
I made a bit of a mistake asking Elno if her character had any links to Avatar (the film), and she swiftly put that one to bed. I gather that she has been painting characters like this for a while, and it is purely coincidental that this one resembles any kind of animation film characters, and if I am honest, I feel a bit of a fool for even asking as the resemblance is tenuous at best.
Elno, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2023
There is so much to like in this piece from the composition with its very strong Japanese influence. Characters with large eyes are always beguiling and beautiful, and the red hair, complete with flower, complements the blue skin perfectly. I love the touch of patterned material on the woman’s shoulder, adding some extra class to the piece. I suggested that she try to make it to Bristol for Upfest, a suggestion that didn’t fall on deaf ears. Let’s hope.
Elno, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
Creative Ginger, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2023
I have only once before posted anything by Creative Ginger, and that was at last year’s Cheltenham Paint Festival, also in the Honeybourne Line tunnels, and featured a young woman cuddling a fawn. This year it was the turn of a young woman cuddling a fox, and what a fantastic piece it is too.
Creative Ginger, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2023
This kind of work contains a lot of emotion and warmth and the style stops just short of photorealistic, while being accurate, calming and soft. Foxes play a very large part in street art (note to self: do a special gallery of foxes) and Creative Ginger has done a great job with this one, and plays with the girls hair colour and texture alongside the foxes. A perfect mural, and one which I am sure appealed to the many families visiting for the festival. It would be great to see Creative Ginger at Upfest.
Creative Ginger, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2022
I would have to say that seeing new artwork pretty much every day of my life fills me with deep pleasure, but there are some artists that max out that feeling and one of them is Sled One. Possibly better known for his wild and surreal character pieces, Sled One is a fantastically accomplished graffiti writer too, as this piece on the roundabout demonstrates.
Sled One, M32 roundbout, Bristol, August 2023
I guess the thing that stands out in this beautifully crafted piece is the fill in the letters SLED1. To me the fill looks like an old stone wall with a choppy sea alongside. Whatever it is meant to be, what is remarkable is that it is contiguous throughout the letters, creating a scene to be viewed through the letters. Some mint-green flashes add further interest. This is a masterful piece of writing from one of Bristol’s best.
You can view a gallery of Sled One’s extraordinary work here
The sun wasn’t being kind when I took these pictures of Mind 49’s wonderful car piece recently, and these photographs really don’t do justice to the vibrant green paint used for the car. This amazing piece I find a little paradoxical, but I have got my head around it. There are elements that are a little ‘off’, for example the tyres are a little out of shape, and yet the reflections in the glass and panels of the car are nothing short of brilliant. The windows in particular give the impression that the car has been parked under some trees. An amazing effect.
Mind 49, Greenbank, Bristol, August 2023
Sitting over the car is a huge number 49, a number that plays a significant part in Mind 49’s life, having changed his moniker from Mind Control a year or two back. If you look carefully, he has also written the letters MIND in tiny little letters over the side of the car. This piece is a real treat and one of my favourite of the year so far. Note to self: isn’t it about time we had a Mind gallery?
Absolutely brilliant! It feels like a long time since Mr Underbite last hit the streets and here he is on a wall that he has occupied at least twice before now. Looking splendid on a lavender background, this black and white version of our hero looks very fine.
Mr Underbite, Brunel Way, Bristol, August 2023
There are a number of similarities between the look and feel of Mr Underbite, and Asre’s character portraits from a year or two back, but I think I have come to the conclusion that they are not the same artist. In this piece our hapless friend is wearing a flat beanie, the best kind, which we used to call a Bennie hat, after the character in Crossroads. Indeed, the rather unflattering name that the squaddies in the Falkland Islands bestowed upon the Falklanders was ‘Bennies’ a term that had become naturalised by the time I arrived there in 1987.
It was while he was finishing off this writing/character piece that I first met Bean, and what a decent bloke he is too. We chatted for a while, and I was impressed by his knowledge of other artists in the city, which believe me, isn’t always the case with graffiti writers or street artists, who can sometimes be locked into their own work or crew and immediate friends.
Bean, Brunel Way, Bristol, August 2023
I don’t know where Bean refined his skills before coming to Bristol, but he has definitely hit the ground running with immaculately finished work. This piece combines his character skills with a lovely piece of writing in great colours. The whole thing might have benefited from buffing the wall, to help it stand out a little from the fairly busy wall beneath it. There is an awful lot to like about this piece, and indeed the others that are adjacent to it. For a short while, this stretch of wall was ‘owned’ by Bean. I am definitely enjoying what he has to offer, and look forward to more from him.
Noise has only recently come into my consciousness, but I don’t know whether that is because he is reasonably new to Bristol or whether I simply had a blind spot. Whatever the reason, I seem to see his pieces on a reasonably regular basis, which is great, because I like his rather big brash letters.
Noise, Dean Lane, Bristol, August 2023
This piece on the recently bricked up wall under one of the large Dean Lane skate park ramps spells out NOISE in great big chunky letters that take no prisoners. There is plenty of room for fills, which are beautifully done in turquoise and white, bounded by tidy black borders and drop shadow and a red outline. This is another attractive piece from Noise.
Natural adventures 