Tag: Street art

1623. St Werburghs tunnel (33)

I think I am in love with Tasha Bee’s work…there I’ve said it. I don’t know what it is about her style that presses all of my buttons, but there is something. Maybe it is the slightly 60s look and feel, maybe it is the colour palettes she uses, maybe it is the simplicity of expressions on her subjects or maybe it is that she does awesome collaborations with Face 1st. It is probably all of these and more.

Tasha Bee, St Werburghs, Bristol, July 2018
Tasha Bee, St Werburghs, Bristol, July 2018

This was one of two pieces I recently photographed in St Werburghs tunnel, lucky me, and each of them is equally good. The only dowenside is their location in the tunnel – the lighting is always so tricky. I think I might have got away with it this time…just.

1622. Park Street

We used to eat at Jamie’s Italian on Park Street reasonably often as it was a restaurant that the whole family liked. Sadly his business overstretched itself and had to close a whole ton of branches, including this one in Bristol. On the upside though, the hoarding on the outside has been beautifully decorated with a Cheba and Inkie collaboration.

Inkie and Cheba, Park Street, Bristol, July 2018
Inkie and Cheba, Park Street, Bristol, July 2018

This piece speaks volumes about the independent and individual culture of Bristol – that street art is sanctioned and even encouraged onto one of the most iconic shopping streets in the city and that the piece itself is bright and cheery and a bold statement of pride about the street itself. The work was sponsored by the Bristol Buisness Improvement District (BID) and was painted at the start of July.

Looking at the artwork itself, it is quite difficult to see an Inkie piece and not read the word Inkie in it. I swear I read Inkie whenever I see it. Cheba dose what Cheba does and provides a splendid cosmic backdrop for the letters. A fine collaboration and ‘in your face’ (in a nice way) piece of Bristol street art.

1621. Moon Street (51)

An old collaboration, the remnants of which can still be seen in Moon Street. The writing on the left obviously belongs to Ryder and the rather scary voodoo-like character is by the elusive 2Keen, both of RAW.

Ryder and 2Keen, Moon Street, Bristol, May 2016
Ryder and 2Keen, Moon Street, Bristol, May 2016

I have always been rather fond of this wall and can’t think why I haven’t posted it before. Ryder’s writing meets the high expectations one expects from his work, and the 2Keen piece is really rather special. His work is quite unlike anyone else’s and has a soft quality to it, almost blurry. A specialist in character teeth. Great at last to publish this one.

Ryder and 2Keen, Moon Street, Bristol, May 2016
Ryder and 2Keen, Moon Street, Bristol, May 2016

1620. North Street Green (12)

A wonderful collaboration between Paul Monsters and Loch Ness that has been hiding away in my archive for such a very long time. Too good to leave there, especially as I owe my debut piece to these two, Paul for all his unvelievable work on Upfest and Loch Ness for giving me my lesson in spray painting.

Paul Monsters and Loch Ness, North Street Green, July 2015
Paul Monsters and Loch Ness, North Street Green, July 2015

It is rare to see a piece by Paul Monsters these days that isn’t some kind of geometric design, and Loch Ness too has developed his technique and is favouring larger pieces these days. The two still collaborate, and I expect to see them both hard at work at Upfest.

I am writing this in advance, but by my estimate this post should be out the day before Upfest begins.

Europe’s largest street art festival begins in Bristol tomorrow, and I am (will be) beside myself with excitement. Time to prep cameras and make sure all batteries are powered up to the max. I’ll start to post images from the festival as soon as I am able, but regular followers will know that it take me about 9 months or so to work through them.

1619. Dean Lane skate park (147)

It is only about three months ago that I first found out about Slim Pickings. Since that time, I have met him, posted about him and found quite a few of his pieces in my archive. This one is rather interesting because it is a mirror image of his usual tag.

Slim Pickings, Dean Lane, Bristol, January 2018
Slim Pickings, Dean Lane, Bristol, January 2018

I don’t know if this would have been easy for him to do, or a real challenge. I would find it very difficult, because I struggle with mirror image layout. I know this because I live in a semi-detached building which has a mirrored layout on each side. When I have been next door, it does my head in. I can’t transpose the reflection in my head. Slim Pickings has left us with a perfect reflection beautifully sprayed in chrome. More to come from this No Frills artist.

1618. Leonard Lane (17)

Regular readers will know I don’t like to post pieces unless I know the artist, but sometimes it simply isn’t possible. This really unusual piece in Leonard Lane is in a more traditional fine art style, but added to that it incorporates some leaves that have been sprayed with metallic paint which make up the subject’s headdress.

Unknown artist, Leonard Lane, Bristol, January 2018
Unknown artist, Leonard Lane, Bristol, January 2018

When I see pieces like this, I guess that they are by artists wanting to give some outdoor work a go. Leonard Lane is probably the perfect place for this on account of it being a quiet backwater full of graffiti and very few ‘enforcers’. An interesting piece.

Upfest upset

 

Bloody typical!

after months of dry weather

rain due for Upfest.

 

by Scooj grrrr.

1617. St Werburghs tunnel (32)

I am loving this apparent renaissance by PWA’s brilliant Soap. I say apparent because He seems to have become much more busy on the streets in recent months and is posting like crazy on his Instagram feed. Whether this is a real thing or simply my perception is no matter really, he is putting out some great work at the moment.

Soap, St Werberghs, Bristol, July 2018
Soap, St Werberghs, Bristol, July 2018

This is a spectacular piece of writing, spelling out his name and incorporating some of his favourite themes, including the mouth and bones. The colours are perfectly selected and complement each other beautifully. I love the little bone cross decorations. Bravo!

1616. The Bearpit (155)

One of the things I admire about street artists is that they tend to have a distinctive style that they carry through all of their work – this becomes more obvious when you group their works together in galleries, which I have started doing with Aspire, 3Dom, Mr Draws, Andy Council and Deamze.

In this case the work of Daz Cat has such a strong expression that even when his work doesn’t feature a cat or a dog, it is still utterly unmistakable – this is one artist who doesn’t need to sign his work.

Daz Cat, The Bearpit, Bristol, July 2018
Daz Cat, The Bearpit, Bristol, July 2018

This piece ‘Haven’t a clue what’s going on!’ is a little unusual and slightly unsettling, but nicely conceived and very nicely executed. I wonder if the sentiment is expressed about the Council’s stance to restrict the street/graffiti art in The Bearpit…of course it might have nothing to do with that at all. Another nice piece from Daz Cat.

1615. Dean Lane skate park (147)

On the left hand side of the long wall at Dean Lane is this lovely piece of writing from INUK. I have never come across this graffiti artist before, but have been able to find out a little bit about him from the Interweb thing. He comes from London and took his name from the Inuit of Greenland. He chose INUK because he used to get called Eskimo as a boy.

INUK, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2018
INUK, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2018

He seems to be a man on a mission to keep on doing something that he just really enjoys, and takes pride in what he has done. This piece is nicely done – great to have a background and then some real effort put into the letters and fills. There are some similarities with Inkie’s style, possibly the striped 3D fill and thick black outline on the letters. This Londoner is welcome to return any time.