As part of the 3Dom birthday celebration paint jam down at Dean Lane Hemper painted this wonderful piece of writing on the curved wall that has played host to so many incredible pieces over the years.
The letters are bold and the colours blended from top to bottom are exceptional, but it is the texture of the piece and the drips melting down that show the true craftsmanship of this fabulous Bristol graffiti writer.
Finding a gem is always most gratifying and discovering this beautiful understated piece by Gvnly was a real treat. I had been aware of the piece via Instagram, but had no idea where it was and stumbled across it on a random lunchtime walk – often the best way to find new pieces. I have met Gvnly a couple of times, and he has been kind enough to offer tips and advice for which I am most grateful.
This little piece is so beautifully executed and almost falls into the category of micro-art. Not only is the subject really interesting and skilfully painted, it is also framed perfectly… it is as if this space was always meant to be Gvnly’s. Lovely piece.
When you see some street art that is a little weird and creative in Bristol, it is likely to be the work of 3Dom or Sled One and if you are particularly lucky it might be a collaborative effort from both of them. This is one such collaboration and weird and creative it is too.
The mash up of Mr Potato Head and a balloon is not the sort of image that comes readily to mind, but seems to come with such ease from these two. I think that the division of labour of the work was 3Dom on the left and Sled One on the right, and maybe a couple of other bits shared out equally.
This piece, together with a whole bunch of other ones was all part of a late birthday jam for 3Dom, and looking at his Instagram feed, it looks like they all had a really great day – lucky for us really.
How can this not be an enlarged photograph? Sam Art is surely playing with our eyes and deceiving us. This incredible piece was one of the first I saw at the festival and was in place early on the Friday when all the walls around were yet to be painted. I believe that he painted it off-site before installing it in Cheltenham North Place car park.
The theme for the festival was literature or books to celebrate the 70th year of the Cheltenham Literature Festival and this portrait of J.K. Rowling could hardly be more fitting.
It is way beyond my comprehension how artists produce photorealistic art like this so I prefer not to understand it but to wallow in its glory. An extraordinary piece from Sam Art.
Whether it is a large piece or a small one, Chinagirl Tile never ceases to amaze with her imaginative and often slightly subversive ceramic tiles. I think this must be one of my favourites and I loved it from the first second I saw it. Created for the Cheltenham Paint Festival 2018 this striking dinosaur piece takes centre stage in one of the town’s car parks.
The dinosaur is enormous and one of the larger pieces I have seen by Chinagirl Tile. It is genuinely a fabulous work of art and Cheltenham are lucky to have it as a piece of public artwork. I cannot imagine how long this might have taken Chinagirl to design, fashion, glaze and fire, let alone bringing it over here from Austria where she is based, but it was definitely worth it.
An additional part of the overall piece is a ceramic listing of ‘rules for girls who want to become street artists’ with the words ‘BRING A DINOSAUR’ written over the top of it. Skill, charm, wit, placement, patience, dedication… this piece has it all. Bravo.
This is an unmistakable piece by My Dog Sighs, which was one of several little ‘gifts’ left behind in Cheltenham by him at the Paint Festival in 2018. Having never been to a Cheltenham Art Festival before I was discovering so many of these beauties for the first time this year. I love this photograph… there is something about the placement of the piece on this particular wall and its immediate environment, such as the carpet and the weeds that come together to make an outstanding image.
I don’t think I’ll ever tire of these eyes, and although they are one of My Dog’s trademark pieces, each is individual and independent of the others. The most amazing thing about this one is how you can look at it and in your mind know that it is on a flat surface, but the skillful artwork has a depth and the shine on the iris makes it look aqueous, just like a real eye. Magnificent in so many ways.
What a cracker! This is an absolutely stunning piece by Dice67, AKA Andy ‘Dice’ Davies, the architect and organiser of the Cheltenham Paint Festival which was held this year on 5-8 September. This colourful piece is a portrait of Debbie Harry and I think is probably the best freehand piece I have seen from Dice67 yet.
I felt it appropriate to start my Cheltenham posts with this piece and I’ll be interweaving more of them into my regular posts over the coming weeks/months.
I have not been to Cheltenham since I was a little kid, and so on this visit I was able to catch up with some of the pieces from last year’s festival too, and they really are rather impressive. Dice67 has tried to find new walls each year of the festival so that the old ones can remain in all their glory alongside the new ones rather than being over-painted. Let’s hope he doesn’t run out of walls!
Back to this piece… it is so beautifully worked, especially the amazing reflections on the glasses, and this is all a far cry from his stencils which was my introduction to his work. There was a festival theme this year which I think was books and in this piece the link is that Debbie Harry will be atending the Cheltenham Book Festival later this year – Dice67 is rather hoping that she’ll be photographed standing next to this portrait of her. A great way to introduce the Cheltenham Paint Festival to Natural Adventures.
This piece by Haka in Stokes Croft is of course a commentary on Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, a pair of demagogues currently in charge of two great democracies doing their best to appease the far right voter and in doing so sustain their power.
I’m not sure what cartoon/game character this piece is based on although I have seen it somewhere, but the Trump figure is in the belt of the Boris character and the two are inextricably joined by both philosophical and physical characteristics. Hats off to Haka for this delightful piece lampooning these two buffoons.
FTurbo Island is a dynamic spot in Bristol. It is in the heart of Stokes Croft and attracts a spectrum of visitors, many high or drunk, who use the space to sit and while away the day. It also has a nice wall that the People’s Republic of Stokes Croft (PRSC) try to curate, but tagging is a real problem here which is a great shame.
I decided to go ahead and post this beautiful portrait by Hazard in spite of the tags because I don’t think it had been up for much more than a day when I photographed it. I spoke to Hazard about it when I met her at the Cheltenham Art Festival and she was fairly philosophical about it and said ‘well it’s Turbo Island, isn’t it?’.
The portrait is another in shades of blue and red and is really beautiful. There is something even more annoying about the tags that are indiscriminate in their destruction, can’t the DBK lot appreciate beauty? Are they incapable of leaving some beautiful things alone? Untouched it would have looked a little bit like the pieces below:
I was lucky enough to run into Mr Draws when he was painting this piece at the entrance of St Werburghs tunnel and stopped for a chat with him. We hadn’t seen each other for a while, so it was good to catch up.
The piece itself is typical of his street work at the moment. Bright and colourful, spelling out ‘draws’ and with a bit of a twist, which in this case is a mirror version of his name, and his wobbly outline which he has been favouring recently.
I do like and have always liked his work which is always full of ideas and fun. He may not have the tightness of some of Bristol’s design writers but he is full of creativity and always turns out pieces that are easy on the eye.
Natural adventures 