A gallery of outstanding murals from Bristol artist and designer Zase
All photographs by Scooj
Zase
Tag: Street art
3220. Cheltenham 2020 (9)
This year’s Cheltenham Paint Festival felt a little strange because of the far-reaching impacts of the coronavirus epidemic. In a way the Festival lends itself to social distancing because of the dispersed nature of the pieces across the town, but keeping one’s distance while talking to the artists, or the emptiness of some of the venues added a surreal layer to the whole experience.
I found this piece in the Two Pigs, and had to don a facemask to walk through the gaming pub to get to the back yard where a few pieces had been painted. I was there completely alone, which felt odd. I was however rewarded with this outstanding small piece by Sam Art, which is clearly a commentary on the state of our planet at this time. Some of you might remember his extraordinary photorealistic piece from last year’s festival. A fabulous artist.
3219. Cheltenham 2020 (8)
The Agent is well known in Bristol not only for his Minion stencils, but also for being the father of another significant street artist in Bristol, Angus. At the Cheltenham Paint Festival this September he knocked himself out with this sequence of stencils on the inner panels of an iron railway bridge, along the course of the old Honeybourne Line.
In his single layered stencils The Agent appears to get most of his inspiration from TV or movie cartoons. There don’t appear to be any hidden messages or politics in his pieces, just a whole lot of fun.
Even creating these ‘simple’ stencils is not quite as easy as it might seem, and taking that step from ‘I could do that’ to actually doing it is the key to achieving many things in life. I am not preaching, far from it, I am perhaps reminding myself to pull my finger out and do stuff.
No The Agent wall would be complete without a minions piece, and here he delights us with a fine ‘bananas’ piece. And finally a rainbow flag…
3218. Cheltenham 2020 (7)
John D’oh always has a strong presence in Cheltenham and his “gallery” of stencils this year was quite outstanding. With his razor sharp commentaries on the state of the nation and beautifully cut stencils, there is no mistaking his work.
This stencil I think dates back a little while and references the Sincura Group who held a Banksy collection exhibition of street art pieces and then contraversially sold them off in a sealed bid auction. Not really the point of street art and willful profiteering. Very nice stencil… any bids?
3217. Cheltenham 2020 (6)
Cheltenham is home to a small number of artists, but thanks in large part to Dice67 and his Cheltenham Paint Festival, it is firmly on the street art map of the UK. One of those local artists (although he might be from Gloucester, I can never quite remember) is Flava136 whose piece for this year’s festival was simply beautiful.
It is just such a pity that we don’t see more of his work in Bristol. His monster character is becoming more and more stylised and the design elements becoming more prominent. This piece is so clean and tidy and is a great showcase of his fine work. Flava136 is an artist I’ve yet to meet, but I’m sure it will happen soon enough.
3216. Brunel Way bridge (58)
I have seen a few pieces by Remko in Bristol over the last few years, but this is the first (and will not the last) that I have posted on Natural Adventures. Remko is a Bristol artist who does both studio and street art work and indeed, while researching for this post I realise that one of my ‘unknown’ posts from a while back was actually by Remko (see below). Most of Remko’s art is stencil work and I have seen this particular character in a few places in Bristol.
The stencil is witty and slightly macabre showing Disney’s Mickey Mouse squished in a mousetrap with the hashtag #mickeydeadmouse. I rather like the use of bold colours in this stencil which makes a change from the more common graded multi-layer stencils we see. Fun and well hidden. More to come from Remko soon.
3215. John Street (4)
Kosc is and artist whose black and white portraits are in complete contrast with his other street art work that goes under a different name. He keeps these personas separate and I respect that and will do the same. This is the fourth archway piece that I have posted from this amazing street gallery in John Street. If you live in Bristol, it really is worth seeking out.
The portrait (thank you Paul) is of an Australian gangster called De Gracy who was picked up by police in Sydney and his mugshot photograph taken, alongside another gangster called Edward Dalton. I guess Kosc chose this portrait because it works well with light and dark shades and shows off his skills. This is a striking addition to the Archways in John Street.
3214. Brunel Way bridge (57)
Daz Cat seems to be a very social artist. A great many of his pieces are painted with friends such as Kool Hand and more recently Varo. This piece was one of several in a loose collaboration, more of a paint jam really.
I am quite enjoying Daz Cat’s writing/character combinations and in this one the cat on the right is holding up the letters on the left spelling out D CAT. His writing style is unusual, quite organic and irregular but somehow similar to his cat style.
The cat is a good one, and like so many of his cats seems to be wearing a woolly jumper. All in all another nice contribution from Daz Cat.
3213. Moon Street (85)
I have been aware of Nathan Bowen’s work from my trips to London where he seems to have quite a presence, but I have only once before seen a piece by him in Bristol, and that was some time ago. Imagine my surprise at finding three small pieces, of which this is one, in some of our streets recently.
This portrait piece is on a piece of board in Moon Street, at a site that is starting to undergo some development (boo hiss). The builder depicted in the piece is typical of Nathan Bowen’s scribble-sketch style which reminds me a little of the cartoon drawings of Gerald Scarfe. Builders at work (gentrification in motion).
Thursday doors – 1 October 2020
Doors 122 – busy week doors, a bit of recycling
I am totally maxed out at work at the moment, so this will be short and sweet. Some more graffiti/street art doors from my archive. I am beginning to fret about what will happen when I have exhausted my archive.
Enjoy:
Have a great weekend folks.
If you have made it this far, you probably like doors and you really ought to take a look at the Norm 2.0 blog – the originator of Thursday Doors where there are links to yet more doors in the comments section at the end.
by Scooj
Natural adventures 