A gallery of wonderful paste-ups from Abbie Laura Smith, one of Bristol’s only wheatpasters. Thoughtful and full of emotion.
Instagram: @abbielaurasmith.art
All photographs by Scooj
Abbie Laura Smith
Tag: Street art
7223. M32 roundabout J3 (721)
One of the very best character portrait artists in Bristol, who doesn’t paint as often as I’d like is Shade One. Fortunately the draw of joining a Ulow birthday celebration was enough to bring him out to create this absolute beauty.
Shade One is a specialist at painting caricature portraits, where the subjects are completely on point, but don’t fall into the realm of photorealism. The girl, wearing a bucket hat, painted in greyscale, is absolutely beautiful. Her expression somewhat moody as she glances to her right. Shade One is surely an artist at the very top of his game.
7222. Lucky Lane (14)
The Lucky Lane Bristol Mural Collective paint jam last month, is a gift that keeps on giving. Although I missed the pieces being painted because I was out of the country, I have been able to enjoy them completely and utterly. This is a wonderful shutter piece by Yoliws.
I love Yoliws’ characters that have a sense of freedom and joy about them, and the colours she selects have an upbeat feel. Unfortunately, I think that the shutter is working against Yoliws in this instance, and perhaps some stronger colours might have brought out a bit more contrast. There is a lovely message here for all who care to look at it… ‘Feelin’ lucky to have met you’. Fabulous stuff.
7221. Frome Side (57)
I am thrilled to introduce you to an artist who is gently emerging from the bowels under the M32. I believe he signs his work ‘Sketch’ and although I have met him one time, holding a discussion over a fence, he said he didn’t really have a name as such as he was building up his profile and his work.
This is a really strong column piece that has overtones of the work of Picasso, and both the cubist and surrealist art movements. There is a portrait here with lots of eyes and a strong presence of colours beautifully worked together. There is a ‘black book’ quality to the work, like a sketch (for example the cross-hatches and white space), which I guess is how his name has come about. Lots more to come from this talented young artist.
7220. River Avon (96)
This door, at the back of a light industrial estate alongside the River Avon, has to be one of the most decorated in Bristol, although most of the time the quality of work is fairly poor. This superb cat by Daz Cat is an exception, and just shows what a good piece of artwork can do to a scruffy door.
Daz Cat has filled the space expertly with a blue faced cat wearing a white-collared orange top. Although the piece looks like it might have been painted quickly, the detail in the face of the cat is neat and tidy. There is lots of depth and contours on this three-quarter profile portrait… great work.
7219. Brunel Way (337)
The DoorDie club have painted a few collaborative walls this year of which, this might be the best. We are familiar with Kid Crayon and Tera’s work but perhaps less so with the remaining collaborating artists, Umbrelle, Emchoux and El Ruby Tatoo.
We start with an eye-catching black and white vampire portrait from Umbrelle, which includes a fine pair of bat wings. Alongside this character piece is a smaller vampire by Emchoux. Both artists are tattoo artists, which explains their work as resembling tattoo flash sheets.
Next up are two pieces of writing from Kid Crayon in a Gothic style, resonating with the vampire theme, which spell out ‘do’ and ‘die’, he didn’t have room to paint the ‘or’. It is unusual for Kid Crayon to write letters like this, but he has done a great job.
Taking up centre stage is a satanic piece by Tera. It is worth noting that Tera has only been spray painting for a few months, and is already turning out epic pieces like this one. There is a bit of glare in the photograph which is a little unfortunate.
The final piece in this collaboration is by El Ruby Tattoo, featuring a character who looks like a female fawn, complete with horns and pointy elf-like ears. A perfect end piece to this impressive collaboration.
7218. Lucky Lane (13)
This is another gorgeous piece from the Bristol Mural Collective paint jam in Lucky Lane. It is by Zubieta, who is no stranger to Natural Adventures. There is a door in this wall that gives a sense of scale to the piece, which is quite large really.
Zubieta has painted a Japanese lucky cat (maneki neko), one of two in the Lane, the other one was by Paper Walls. This particular cat is sending out love to some rats and a caterpillar, I’m not too sure why, but it makes for a nice scene. A night sky with stellar objects and a flower complete the composition. I love the door in this piece, and Thursday Door lovers will see this photograph again in due course.
7217. St Werburghs tunnel (528)
Fishing calls. Very quick one.
Mr Crawls and Mote have been at it again with these tunnel-end pieces on each side of the archway. The pigeon by Mr Crawls is his latest character favourite, and is getting better with each rendition.
On the other side, Mote has painted this unusual moustachioed character. I haven’t seen too many people portrait pieces by Mote, and it is interesting to see how his style comes through. Looking forward to seeing more of these sophisticated pieces from him.
7216. Stapleton Road.
It has been great to see a small burst of activity from Zase in recent weeks. Zase is arguably Bristol’s best anamorphic graffiti writer and here he has collaborated with friends, Real143 and Mysobastarts.
To the left Real143 and Zase have painted two extraordinary anamorphic pieces that are set on a red background, both with extraordinary detail and elements that deceive the eye into thinking the letters are popping from the wall. Both anamorphic, each in a different style.
To the right, Mysobastarts has written some flatter letters filled with three horizontal colour tones and decorated with magnificent splashes of red and blue colour, consistent with the other half of the collaboration. I am not certain what the letters spell, but it looks like ‘mic hag’. All in all, the whole collaboration is as tight as it is possible to be. Fabulous.
7215. M32 roundabout J3 (720)
Another fabulous piece from the ‘high-end’ paint jam honouring Ulow’s birthday a little while back. This one is by Rusk, a graffiti writer whose work I love, but who has been rather quiet over the last couple of years. I expect he is bus6 in other areas of his life, but he still has the skill and patience to turnout superb pieces like this one.
The letters spell out Ulow, and are set on the grey-blue buffed wall, which was the same for all of the artists. This is a very special and technically brilliant piece in which the letters appear to be like a hollow framework, into which the colours have been ‘poured’. The two halves in different colours have been separated by a black horizon line, making a landscape effect. Shading on the letter edges provides depth. What an outstanding piece of graffiti writing. Bravo!
Natural adventures 