There is something about the work of Elvs that I find rather compelling. His letters are so very distinct and always easy to identify. I love what he has done in this piece, using a little spaceship to create a ray of light over his writing and offer the opportunity to show off two discrete colour variants, one within the arc of light and the other outside it.
Elvs, Dean Lane, Bristol, December 2019
The piece is really clever and I’m not sure I have seen this kind of idea on a wall very often. As always, Elvs has turned out some really tight graffiti writing that speaks volumes to his great talent.
It is only a few months ago that The Bearpit was a street art hub, and very much a ‘go to’ destination for street art tours and hunting in Bristol. But then the Council stepped in, painted all the walls with anti-graffiti paint, cleared out all the containers and a double decker bus that had been a cafe, but once closed became a squat.
It was as if the graffiti and street art was symbolic of the squallor and so it had to go. In my view it was the chronic homelessness problem in Bristol that was responsible for the decline in amenity value and increase in anti-social behaviour, but the Council know best and have created a sterile space.
Nothing happens there any more. No more artists, no more skateboarders, no more gardeners – it is a joyless place. I wonder where they have shifted the homeless people to. I know a bunch of them live in the underground car park near my work.
Tian, The Bearpit, Bristol, May 2019
One of the last pieces I photographed there was this wonderful wheatpaste by French artist Tian, which was one of a series of wheatpastes he left us in and around the Stokes Croft area last spring. I guess on his next trip to Bristol he’ll have to give The Bearpit a wide berth.
There is a great problem with street art, and that is that there is simply too much of it. I would think that for every piece I feature in Natural Adventures, there are probably two others I have photographed that never make it. That is why going back through my archives is such fun, bringing dormant pieces back to life.
Jaune, Shoreditch, London, April 2019
This is a small piece from a trip I made to Shoreditch back in April this year painted by the artist Jaune, who specialises in pictures of waste disposal workers often in miniature like this one. It is great going to London occasionally hunting for street art, because there are many more internaional artists who visit there, compared with the provinces. Jaune I believe is from Brussels in Belgium, but I have never seen any of his work in Bristol.
Continuing with the late release of prisoners from my archive, I bring you this extraordinary piece from April this year by Zase. The commission was one of two pieces that he painted and is at the back of Marlborough House, a student accommodation. Bristol has two universities and a whole ton of students, which is part of what makes Bristol so mixed and interesting, but the expansion of UWE in particular has led to a massive growth in student accommodation and many of the recent developments in the centre have been built by the universities.
Zase, Barton Road, Bristol, April 2019
I guess it is great to see the university promoting Bristol’s artists with a commmission like this, so I can’t really complain. Zase is a truly gifted artist who seems to be able to turn his hand to pretty much anything and here he has painted a fabulous seascape with racing yachts. I particularly like the pixellated effect of leaving a few bricks unpainted at the top of the piece.
I cannot for the life of me remember where this lovely framed philosophical offering from #DFTE actually is. I know it is in town, and probably on a wall that doesn’t have too many other street/graffiti art pieces, as #DFTE tends to stay away from the regular spots. I took the picture way back in March, and my brain is so useless that I struggle to remember what happened yesterday, let alone back in March.
#DFTE, Town, Bristol, March 2019
The guidance presented here says ‘Love in such a way that the person you love feels free’. I’m not too sure I am on the same page as this one, because it might be making the assumption that love could be a form of imprisonment and I am not sure that that is what love is. Smothering love maybe, and perhaps that is what this is about.
I am annoyed that I can’t remember where this is, because one of the great skills of installation artists like #DFTE is that placement is a key element of the work.
My search through the archives continues with this lovely piece from February 2019 by Warp. I found this one on the back of research that I was doing for the piece I posted by him a couple of days ago, I hadn’t been able to read the letters or signature and so it was languishing forlornly in my March 2019 folder.
Warp, M32 roundabout, Bristol, February 2019
This is another classy piece of graffiti writing from Warp, clean, crisp and in the company of the fabulous Smak (left) and Jaksta (right). I wonder if I have any more of his pieces in my folders…
As you can probably guess from the last post, I have been having a bit of a rummage around in my archive of 2019. Regrettably there are so many great pieces that haven’t made it into Natural Adventures, many of them because at the time of taking the photograph the artist was unknown to me and I try not to post too many ‘unknown’ pieces.
Conrico, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2019
From back in February 2019 this might be one of the earliest works I have from Conrico but it is a really cracking piece of writing, beautifully designed in a cartoon style and nicely set in a coastal scene with the sea, a beach and palm trees – it is details like these that mark it out as a Conrico piece. Nice to see a reference to ‘the Monday Club’ a loose crew that is now well established in Bristol.
On one of the ramps of the M32 DIY skatepark is this rather sombre looking face, unmistakably the work of Slakarts. This picture was taken way back in January, before I knew who the artist was, and it has been languishing in my archive ever since. This is liberation day. It is also election day and the results will map out our national journey for the next five years… I fear the worst.
Slakarts, M32 Spot, Bristol, January 2019
Slakarts paints using broad black outlines with solid fills to create his trademark faces which are often coloured with muted tones. The works are modest, both in creation and design and there is often a sadness or strangeness in the faces – this piece in particular feels peculiar without an iris or pupil in the eye. More to come from Slakarts.
Anyone who knows a little bit about street art might recognise this wonderful mosaic piece in Lambeth, London as the work of the French artist Space Invader. Finding this piece a couple of weeks ago was absolutely accidental. I was walking from Westminster to Lambeth with my manager for an early Christmas lunch and informal team meeting. On the walk we were chatting and I was talking about street art (inevitably) and how you can stumble across pieces just by keeping your eyes open. I had barely finished the point when we looked left, and there down Lambeth High Street was this magnificent beast. She was really chuffed that we had found something and seemed impressed that I knew who the artist was and other stuff. I had no idea that there was anything here, and had also been saying that the area looked a bit barren in street art terms.
Space Invader, Lambeth High Street, London, November 2019
I believe that this is quite an old piece dating back to 2013, but it is on a road I have never been to before and being in London it was utterly off my radar. I must say that I got a pretty warm glow finding it, especially as I haven’t seen all that many Space Invader pieces. I think that this is a Pac Man piece made with large tiles and you can see the scale from the bricks just to the right. A gratifying find.
Meeting artists is pretty much always a real pleasure, and a couple of weeks back I got lucky when I met Warp for the first time while he was painting this piece. During the course of our conversation he explained that he has two street personas, Warp (his more commercial tag) and another name that he writes under. He explained that he had been somewhat forgetful and sprayed this Warp piece, when he had actualy intended to paint a different piece under his other name.
Warp, M32 roundabout, Bristol, November 2019
The writing here is seriously good. All the elements have been executed with care and precision. The fills in the letters, the deep 3D red fill, superb slim black lines outlining the letters and a clean yellow surround, all of it neat and crisp. I haven’t seen too many pieces by Warp, but those that I have seen are all of the highest quality. I hope to bump into him again sometime.
Natural adventures 