Tag: Street art

2920. Dean Lane skate park (308)

Anyone who reads Natural Adventures regularly will know that I have a soft spot for Polish artist Hire, whose Gothic writing and spiky rabbits regularly adorn the walls of Dean Lane skate park. This piece from July last year treats us to both central elements of his work.

Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2019
Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2019

The writing part of the piece is expertly done and I particularly like the way that two tones of orange are used and blended to great effect. The 3D shading is very distinct, but I fear slightly dominates the brittle nature of the letters.

Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2019
Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2019

The rabbit, although menacing, is perhaps a little kinder than some of his spikier cousins… it looks like it has had a bit of a shampoo and set. How on earth I allowed this one to sit in my archive until now, I’ll never know.

2919. Dean Lane skate park (307)

When a large wall like this one at Dean Lane skate park is prepped along its full length, you know you are going to be in for a treat. This piece is a collaboration between Dasco and Apnea.

There are three basic types of collaboration. One is where two or more artists contribute to a single piece of work and it can be difficult to be sure which artist painted which bit; another is when two artists paint together at the same time, but their pieces are discrete. The third type of collaboration is amply demonstrated here where artists paint alongside each other, but the theme or colour scheme used join the pieces up in some way. There are other types of collaboration of course, but I’ll not go into those here.

Dasco, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2019
Dasco, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2019

On the left is a super piece of writing from Dasco, who in recent months has made his presence known in Bristol with a series of outstanding productions. His work is assured and clean and he changes his design and style with each new piece, where some artists such as Elvs or Slim Pickings tend to stick to a basic formula that they play with.

Apnea, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2019
Apnea, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2019

On the right of the wall is a piece from Apnea, and I have to confess that I know nothing about the artist and don’t recall seeing much of their work. I am guessing that Apnea may have bee a visitor who hooked up with Dasco for a while, but I could be quite wrong (I usually am). This too is a nice piece, although not quite as tight as Dasco’s.

2918. Leonard Lane (26)

Just in case anyone is suffering from withdrawal symptoms from a regular dose of Nevergiveup’s (#followmyrabbits) rabbits, I thought I’d throw in one of dozens still unpublished on Natural Adventures.

Nevergiveup, Leonard Lane, Bristol, July 2019
Nevergiveup, Leonard Lane, Bristol, July 2019

This beauty was sprayed on one of the doors at the eastern end of Leonard Lane, and I think I must have photographed it fairly soon after it had been painted because it is very crisp and clean without any tags. This one is notable for the use of lots of colours, maybe he was using up dregs. Lovely rabbit this one, and a great location.

2917. The Bearpit (188)

I miss The Bearpit street art so very much, particularly when I find pictures like this one of a Tian wheatpaste in my archive. Using his favoured sepia tones, Tian presents us with another glamorous lady… possibly famous, possibly not. All of his work is designed to get us thinking about the central character, even if we can’t help ourselves.

Tian, The Bearpit, Bristol, May 2019
Tian, The Bearpit, Bristol, May 2019

I am a very big fan of paste ups, and finding them in Bristol is a bit of a treat, because unlike other parts of the country/other countries, the scene is pretty small here, and most wheatpastes are from visitors like Tian or qWerT or Upfest artists. It was Kid Crayon’s wheatpastes that drew me in to being more curious about street art some five or six years ago, and I haven’t looked back.

2916. Sandbed Road

Here is another of those old ones, that inexplicably ended up on the cutting room floor. It is hidden away in St Werburghs and is by the hugely talented 3Dom. I think that I might have held back on posting it because the light is all wrong in the photographs and in my mind may have considered returning to take some better pictures. Of course, that never happened. The piece is much older than the pictures.

3Dom, Sandbed Road, Bristol, May 2019
3Dom, Sandbed Road, Bristol, May 2019

I envy the owners of this house having a lovely clean 3Dom piece on their wall and it certainly is a bit of a landmark in this quiet backwater. I’m not at all sure I know what the story is here, but there is a definite connection with nature going on, which is a very topical subject just at the moment. It is a beautiful piece with tranquility and menace in equal measure.

2915. Hereford Street (1)

What an absolutely gorgeous sunny morning it is in Bristol today, deep blue skies and optimism in the air. This is an old photograph (consistent with all my recent lock down posts) of an even older piece by Smak. It is on a curious hoarding on the southern edge of Bedminster that leads to a tunnel under the railway.

Smak, Hereford Street, Bristol, April 2019
Smak, Hereford Street, Bristol, April 2019

It is all too easy to run out of superlatives when describing Smak’s work, and it is a rare thing indeed to find anything to be critical of. This is a thing of beauty, and I rather like the juxtaposition of urban graffiti writing set against greenery on the other side of the hoarding, like a scene from the Terry Gilliam film Brazil. Did I ever mention that my dad was the stage manager for Monty Python during their Drury Lane shows?

2914. Stokes Croft

Another archive piece, this time from #DFTE, on the famous wall on the corner of Stokes Croft and City Road. This is one of #DFTE’s framed pieces, and if I am honest, I’m not entirely certain that it is still there.

#DFTE, Stokes Croft, Bristol, April 2019
#DFTE, Stokes Croft, Bristol, April 2019

The words ‘We are all in this together‘ have a certain poignancy about them today as we sit in the midst of a global pandemic. I like the sentiment, but I dislike the way our government have rolled out this slogan (as if it was their invention) to try and inject some patriotism and collective responsibility for the fallout of coronavirus. I feel a monumental rant cominng on, so I will end the post now before I bore the living daylights out of you. In cheerier times I would appreciate the words more. I am a big fan of the artist and his alternative style.

2913. M32 cycle path (58)

This is a gorgeous piece of block lettering on the M32 cycle path from Dott Rotten. I took the photograph on 30 March 2019, and the photo label is ‘Brexit Day’. How my heart still bleeds about the unbelievably bad decision our country has taken, now amplified by the need to work together following the coronavirus outbreak. I suspect our folly (or otherwise) will be scrutinised by our grandchildren, by which time we might have recovered from the economic shock.

Dot Rotten, M32 cycle path, Bristol, March 2019
Dot Rotten, M32 cycle path, Bristol, March 2019

Meanwhile, this beautiful piece is expertly sprayed and demonstrates the crossover between graphic design and spray painting. Dott Rotten has used the brick lines to get the proportions of his letters correct, but this piece excels in its 3D letter depth off to the bottom right and the block letter shadow off to the bottom left. Take a good long look to see how this works. A nice clean piece and something a little different.

2912. The Bearpit (187)

Looking back to May last year when The Bearpit was nearing its end as a street art spot, (shame on Bristol City Council) and the visiting French wheatpaster Tian, left us several fabulous pieces in Stokes Croft and the roundabout.

Tian, The Bearpit, Bristol, May 2019
Tian, The Bearpit, Bristol, May 2019

This fabulous piece, printed from a stencil, is of a boxer, I have no idea who, and is one of his larger paste ups at about three-quarters life size. The yellow tones work really well on the red background and the piece is full of life and movement. If and when Tian returns to Bristol he may struggle to find as many spots to paste his work as he has been used to on previous visits as the pace of gentrification accelerates.

2911. Dean Lane skate park (306)

There is no order or plan with which I am going through my archive (during lock down) I am simply skipping from monthly folder to folder, spotting something and thinking, ‘ah yes, this needs posting’. This exact process has happened several times with Slim Pickings (TES) and each time I put the moment back to be returned to another time. Well, enough is enough. Here is a rather lovely TES from March last year, that didn’t get posted first time round.

Slim Pickings, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2019
Slim Pickings, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2019

As I would always expect from Slim Pickings, this is a really tight and clean piece, painted in pillar box red set on a dull bronze background with some green gunge and drips for good measure. The white highlight lines are just enough to give the letters a 3D feel. Clever and consistent. Note to self… high time I did a gallery.