Tag: Street art

2526. North Street

With a name like Zoe Power, you are never going to be easily forgotten. Marry that up with great talent and you get stunning memorable pieces like this one in North Street. Painted above Zara’s Chocolates in North Street, next door to the Upfest shop and Gemma Compton’s outstanding mural, this piece was created as part of Upfest’s Summer Editions and for me is one of the highlights.

Zoe Power, North Street, Bristol, October 2019
Zoe Power, North Street, Bristol, October 2019

I met Zoe Power at the Cheltenham Paint Festival, and I fear I may have bored her rigid, but she was polite and humoured me and my barrage of questions and natterings. I am an enormous fan of her work and love this Matisse-inspired mural (he is one of my all time favourite artists). There is a lot to like here, the female figures symmetrically placed around the windows of the building holding up symbols of the solar system, set on a plant-patterned background. I love, love, love it. I want to see a lot more of her stuff.

2524. St Werburghs tunnel (104)

It tends to be fits and starts with Mr Klue’s street pieces these days. You can wait for an age for something new, and then suddenly there is a rush of them – let’s hope tghat this is the beginning of such a rush.

Mr Klue, St Werburghs, Bristol, October 2019
Mr Klue, St Werburghs, Bristol, October 2019

In one of his favoured spots at the Farm end of St Werburghs tunnel, this abstract street artist has given us another of his magical pieces of writing, which usually spell out KLUE, but I am not sdo sure about this one. He has used colours that I would most associate with Mr Klue, that is, purple with white accents and a touch of green. Great to see a new piece from him.

2523. M32 Spot (50)

I may have said this before, but Zake really ‘owns’ these columns at the southern end of the M32 spot, and over time the pieces have grown in sophistication. This most recent piece is rather more elaborate and detailed than some of his work and is a great measure of his development.

Zake, M32 Spot, Bristol, October 2019
Zake, M32 Spot, Bristol, October 2019

There would appear to be a bit of a story happening – it is difficult to determine the gender of the central character, and with the prayer pose and barbed wire in the hair, this could easily be a representation of Jesus. It could equally be a female character praying for something. It would be good to know what thestory is, but not knowing does not detract from the quality of the piece.

2522. M32 roundabout J3 (173)

This is quite a rare piece by the mild-mannered Face 1st, because he doesn’t very often get political, but this piece has been painted to show the artist’s despair over Brexit. It is a sentiment that will chime for the majority of Bristol citizens who voted overwhelmingly to remain in Europe.

Face 1st, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2019
Face 1st, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2019

I share the tears being shed by Face 1st’s subject and they are tears that reflect a sadness that our country is so divided, more so than at any time in living memory. The UK is shattered, and we can be pretty sure that the outcome of leaving Europe will be several more years of austerity (haven’t we had enough? – as a public sector worker, I’ve not had a more than 1% pay rise for a decade), the break up of the Union, with Scotland the first to go, and a vast and costly new domestic bureaucracy (replacing the one in Europe) just to manage our trade relationships and regulations that will be required for each nation we trade with. I wish I could wake up from this nightmare. Face 1st’s piece says it all really.

Bacon Street, Shoreditch, London

There are some streets that are so heavily festooned with street art, graffiti art, bombing and tags that it can become easy to overlook some gems in amongst all the noise. One such piece is this gorgeous stencil by C215.

C215, Bacon Street, Shoreditch, London, April 2019
C215, Bacon Street, Shoreditch, London, April 2019

The occupiers of 21 Bacon Street may not appreciate it, but they are privileged that their door has been chosen for such a magnificent and technically brilliant stencil. For me, finding small pieces like this is what makes the effort I put into seeking out art on walls so utterly worth it. Great work from C215.

2520. Shoreditch, London (34)

Having recently met Thisone at the Cheltenham Paint Festival I now feel that I can go through my archives and unlock a whole bunch of his pieces that have been loitering with intent to be published on Natural Adventures.

Thisone, Shoreditch, London, April 2019
Thisone, Shoreditch, London, April 2019

Using his trademark black and white two-tone style, and wildlife subject matter, Thisone has produced this beautiful fox – a street art favourite. The fox is decked out with a string of beads, as many of his pieces are, and I asked him what his fascination with jewellery is. The answer, which I was not expecting, was that he started decorating his pieces with jewellery to cover up little mistakes, and that it became a thing. Well there’s honesty for you.

2519. Shoreditch, London (33)

Tizer is possibly the best known and most respected graffiti writer in London. Quite a claim I know, but that is how it looks from the outside. This picture was taken earlier in the year on one of my visits to London, but has remained in my archive for far too long.

Tizer, Shoreditch, London, April 2019
Tizer, Shoreditch, London, April 2019

Tizer is one of those graffiti writers who is gifted both in his letters and in his characters too and there is so much to admire in his work. This piece just has a feel of effortlessness about it, but there is quite a lot of complexity there too. There is an obvious ‘TIZER’ making up the piece but along the bottom half I can see ‘EXODUS’ – now I might be seeing things or making it up but that is what it looks like to me. Whatever it says (if anything) this is a cracking piece.

2518. Bedminster

Another one from my archive, but the piece, by Kin Dose is somewhat older than my photograph of it. Positioned in a bricked up gateway this stencil is perfectly framed, and is sited in an area without much street art itself, but the surrounding areas are awash with it.

Kin Dose, Bedminster, Bristol, April 2019
Kin Dose, Bedminster, Bristol, April 2019

I have seen this owl stencil a few times in Bristol, but each one has a different background of colours and swirls, this one with a big bright hunter’s moon. This is what Kin Dose brings to his stencil work, each piece is distinct and different even though at it’s heart is the same core piece. A nice find.

Kin Dose, Redcliffe Way, Bristol, August 2019
Kin Dose, M32 Spot, Bristol, February 2018

2517. St Werburghs tunnel (103)

I love my little trips through my archives every now and again, and the recent weather has dictated that fewer new pieces are being painted and this has given me the tiniest bit of space to dig up some gems. This is one from Lobe from April this year before I knew who the artist was.

Lobe, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2019
Lobe, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2019

Regular readers will know that I am going through a bit of a Lobe ‘period’ in Natural Adventures, and am very much enjoying her work. Adopting her usual style of a stylised portrait filled with bold solid colours, this is typical of her work. There is a lot more to come from Lobe, I am sure of it and I am looking forward to watching her work develop.

2516. St Werburghs tunnel (102)

One of the most welcome sights on any wall in Bristol has to be the beautiful form and colours of a Tasha Bee stylised face. Distinctive and full of serene character, her work, to me at least, feels like it is very ‘Bristol’ if that makes any sense at all, even though I think, like me, Tasha Bee is not a native Bristolian.

Tasha Bee, St Werburghs, Bristol, September 2019
Tasha Bee, St Werburghs, Bristol, September 2019

It would be easy just to focus on the face of this piece at the entrance to St Werburghs tunnel, but that would ignore the fine hair ornament with joyful colours radiating out from a central circle. Unfortunately the piece had been tagged by the time I got to see it… I just don’t understand the point of tagging something as beautiful as this, is it some kind of assertion of dominance from people who are natural undear-achievers? It is difficult to know.