Tag: Street art

2308. Dean Lane skate park (228)

I said in a post a few days ago that Hire had come out of hibernation, and this, as if to prove it, is the second piece from him in the space of a week or so. This is an incredible work, which I am guessing spells HIRE, although I don’t quite know how it can, bevause of its bilateral symmetry. If I look at it hard, I can convince myself I can read HIRE, but I can also read AVA, so it could probably be anything.

Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2019
Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2019

I have always liked Hire’s work, but I can never really understand why it gets painted over so quickly most of the time. Maybe it is the walls he chooses to paint that limits the lifespan of his work, or maybe there is a respect thing going on. I don’t know, but he certainly gets my respect and lots of it.

2307. St Werburghs tunnel (85)

In one of his favourite spots, Fiva (Fiver, Henry Barnes) has painted another of his lovely block capital pieces using the longer version of his name and overpainting it with the word ‘forever!’ in a kind of stone effect.

Fiva, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2019
Fiva, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2019

This time he has gone for the bevelled edge look to his large letters and included a 3D shadow in green to the left. In teaching myself to spray paint, I used his general style to create the letter H (in my series A-Z) and all was going well, in fact it was looking rather good, until I put a black and white outline around it. So the point is that to get straight outlines requires real skill to avoid wobbles and varying thickness of lines. Fiva has done a great job here with his yellow and black outline. I need to practice a lot.

2306. Waterloo Place (4)

This wall at the back of Sofa Project has played host to some of the tightest street art in Bristol, and it is most pleasing to see that tradition continuing with this new collaboration between Paul Monsters and Soker.

Paul Monsters and Soker, Waterloo Place, Bristol, June 2019
Paul Monsters and Soker, Waterloo Place, Bristol, June 2019

when I spoke to Paul Monsters about it, he was full of compliments for his collaboration partner and explained how Soker had worked the horizontal shade in his writing to match up with Paul’s geometric design with complete ease. Looking at it knowing this adds context and insight into the strength and thoughtfulness of this piece.

Paul Monsters and Soker, Waterloo Place, Bristol, June 2019
Paul Monsters and Soker, Waterloo Place, Bristol, June 2019

The geometric backdrop by Paul Monsters is in my view masterful work and creates a most extraordinary illusion that the wall is made of coloured blocks that have bevelled peaks that jut out, and no matter how hard you look at it it is difficult to see it as flat.

Genuinely, this is one of the most enjoyable collaborations I have seen in quite a while. Classy and diverse.

2305. New Stadium Road (15)

I think that Ugar is a much unrecognised and perhaps underrated graffiti writer in Bristol. His work is always neat and tidy and his fills usually imaginative and skilfully painted, but I rarely see photographs of his work in the digital ‘datasphere’. One reason may be that he is probably just less well known than other more established artists, or my perception might simply be wrong.

Ugar, New Stadium Road, Bristol, June 2019
Ugar, New Stadium Road, Bristol, June 2019

This little pedestrian underpass is one of my least favourite places to take pictures because of the uneven light conditions, but this one hasn’t turned out too badly. Ugar’s writing is always unsymmetrical but nonetheless recognisable, his letters being of various sizes and not conforming to a grid. But it is his decorations and fills that really set this artist apart from others, he seems to have a talent for nailing this element of his work. Keep it up Ugar.

2304. M32 roundabout J3 (151)

This is the second angry mouse/rat character I have posted by Saik One, and it is great to see more work from this relative newcomer to the streets of Bristol. It was painted on the southern M32 roundabout wall and happened to be adjacent to another street art rat whose creator is unknown to me.

Saik One, M32 roundabout, Bristol, June 2019
Saik One, M32 roundabout, Bristol, June 2019

I think that Saik One has hit upon a winning formula in terms of a clean piece and highly identifiable character, I am interested however to see where this starting point takes us. I have a piece of writing by Saik One somewhere, so I know there is some range there. More to come from this emerging talent.

2303. North Street Standard

Shutters are the pits. I must have walked past this beautiful piece by Shab hundreds of times, but only when the shutter was up, so have never seen it before. I understand it has been there for some years, but I only saw it early on a Sunday morning a couple of weeks ago.

Shab, North Street, Bristol, June 2019
Shab, North Street, Bristol, June 2019

I haven’t seen anything from Shab in absolutely ages, so to find this was actually most gratifying. I have always loved his outlined abstract figures and his trademark eyes are always so beautifully done. There were some other shutter pieces here on the front of the North Street restaurant and I will post these in due course. This was like meeting an old friend.

2302. Dean Lane skate park (227)

Recently on the long wall at Dean Lane skate park was this No Frills extravaganza from Biers, Slim Pickings and Bags. It seems that these guys, and they are not alone, are well and truly out of hibernation and painting furiously at every opportunity.

Biers, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2019
Biers, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2019

On the left is a wonderful ‘creature from the wack (sic) lagoon’ by Biers set in his ‘O Yeah’ writing. I do like his character-writing work and the shapes of his letter style is pretty unique, and I know how hard he works on drafting these pieces because he shares his sketches regularly on Instagram. It is great to see them come to fruition.

Slim Pickings, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2019
Slim Pickings, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2019

In the middle of this collaboration is the distinctive ‘Tes’ of Slim Pickings forever reaching out for perfection in this form of writing. I don’t think I have ever knowingly seen anything by him that isn’t a version of this. A master of consistency and colour combinations.

Bags, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2019
Bags, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2019

Finally on the right is a piece by an artist I still know nothing about other than that he is in the No Frills crew/movement, Bags. His letters are large, clean and bold. You can see how he has used the brick-line to fade between the two shades of filling, a great technique for getting straight lines. Looking forward to seeing more from Bags and maybe if I get lucky coming across this lot when they are out painting.

2301. Sparke Evans Park (1)

I found this wall quite by accident a couple of weeks back. I had spotted a whole ton of graffiti (nothing much to write home about) along the bank of the River Avon, but to access it I had to go through Sparke Evans Park. I had never been here before and didn’t even know it existed. On the outer boundary wall of the park I spotted some bright colours behind the trees and it turned out that there were several rather nice pieces here, including this collaboration between Face 1st and Tasha Bee from some time in 2018.

Face 1st and Tasha Bee, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, June 2019
Face 1st and Tasha Bee, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, June 2019

I had seen this piece on Instagram, but had no idea where it was, so it was good to get closure on it. I don’t really need to tell you how much I like the work of these two artists, and they have a style and preference for soft colours that makes their collaborations so easy on the eye. The two central figures are by Tasha Bee and the faces on either side by Face 1st. To have found this alone would have been reward enough, but on this particular walk I managed to find a bunch of other stuff too. I think the turnover on this wall is very slow, so I don’t think I’ll be returning too often, it is a bit out of the way.

Thursday doors – 4 July 2019

Door 77 – Same door, different faces.

Happy 4 July to all those for whom it is a holiday. Here in the UK it is just another day, but it is Thursday, and that means doors.

I am being a little lazy this week using archive material to bring you the same door in Moon Street, one of my favourite street/graffiti art spots, but with different looks over the last few years – I might do this with a few more graffiti doors when I am pushed for new content.

With apologies to regulars who might have seen most of these images before.

Face 1st, Moon Street, Bristol, May 2019
Face 1st, Moon Street, Bristol, May 2019
Panskaribas, Moon Street, Bristol, March 2019
Panskaribas, Moon Street, Bristol, March 2019
Run Z, Moon Street, Bristol, January 2019
Run Z, Moon Street, Bristol, January 2019
Laic217, Moon Street, Bristol, August 2018
Laic217, Moon Street, Bristol, August 2018
Laic217, Moon Street, Bristol, June 2018
Laic217, Moon Street, Bristol, June 2018
Coloquix, Moon Street, Bristol, August 2016
Coloquix, Moon Street, Bristol, August 2016
Laic217, Moon Street, Bristol, February 2017
Laic217, Moon Street, Bristol, February 2017

That just about wraps it up for this week, maybe some more Dorchester doors next time. Please go 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.

All the best

Scooj

2300. Brunel Way Bridge (14)

This column piece under Brunel Way bridge is unmistakably by Pekoe, and what a pleasant surprise it was to find it on a recent trip to the whole Cumberland Basin area. The last work from Pekoe that I saw was a collaboration with Mr Sleven at the M32 roundabout, which was rather splendid as I recall.

Pekoe, Brunel Way Bridge, Bristol, June 2019
Pekoe, Brunel Way Bridge, Bristol, June 2019

This small piece, which is typically bright and colourful, includes a theme that Pekoe is very fond of, a third eye. I don’t know what these columns are like to paint, but I can tell you that they are a devil to photograph because of the variable light, and because cameras can’t take pictures round corners, or at least mine can’t. Nice work from Pekoe.