Door three.
Stokes Croft, Bristol.
Artist: Alex Lucas
by Scooj.
Thursday doors
Tag: Street art
1084. Upfest 2017 (84)
The fourth piece looking from left to right on the RAW wall at Upfest is by Jaksta, who has sprayed a great caveman character sandwiched neatly between Rusk and Ryder. I don’t know an awful lot about Jaksta, but I think he comes from Swindon. I have seen a few of his pieces around the place in Bristol, but I don’t think I have yet posted any.
Jaksta is clearly held in very high regard by his RAW peers, as each of them told me how good he is when I spoke with them. I think by the time I got to see his work here, he was already working on another piece nearby. I will try to dig out more of his work.
1083. Upfest 2017 (83)
I think that RUSK is probably the most diligent street artist/graffiti writer I have met so far. He takes his time with his work and adjusts it until he is satisfied. He was still spraying and revisiting this piece long after the rest of the RAW crew had packed up and left.
In this piece, the third from the Upfest RAW wall, he has some fabulous colour layers and texture infills in his writing – in my view this is a really classy piece and his attention to detail really pays off.
In taking a look at at the piece in progress, it is possible to see how the basic colours and shapes are laid down first, and then the detail and outlines are added afterwards, almost like the opposite of painting by numbers.
Rusk is a quiet and gentle fellow who it was my pleasure to chat with at Upfest. I hope it is not too long before I bump into him again.
1082. Upfest 2017 (82)
This is the second post from the RAW wall at Upfest, and I fear that Sled One, is a bit of a gatecrasher on this wall. Sled One, now part of The Paintsmiths, is a member of ASK, but was clearly very welcome on this wall.
1080. M32 roundabout J3 (51)
As long as FaceF1st keeps spraying, I will keep posting his work. This one looks like it is a tribute to someone called Minty. Perhaps this is why the face looks sad. This is yet another fine piece from FaceF1st and I particularly like the sprayed drips and the real black drips.
I’m not sure if this is a Google algorithm feature linked to my computer or if it is a real thing, but when I type ‘FaceF1st Bristol’ into google images, I see an amazing gallery of many of the images I have taken of his work. I have to admit it makes me feel pretty good that I have been able to record his work over the last couple of years.
1079. M32 roundabout J3 (50)
This is the first piece that I have posted from Elvs, but it is not the first I have seen and I will have to dig out others from my achives, because this is very fine wildstyle writing indeed. There is little on the Interweb about Elvs, and I guess he would want it that way. but I suspect he is a London-baased artist who comes occasionally to Bristol.
This stunning piece has adopted the same technique that I have featyred from Deamze and Voyder, where there is a diagonal split through the writing, and in this case the primary colours, black and white, are reversed either side of the diagonal. Thuis is highly accomplished stuff and beautiful crisp writing. I can’t think why I haven’t posted any of his work before.
1078. The Bearpit (99)
Mr Draws has certainly made a great comeback since losing his mojo sometime back in July around the time of Upfest. This piece in The Bearpit harks back to a piece he did in Dean Lane a few months back, where he has corrupted his name into ‘Zieht’ which is German for draws.
This is a colourful piece that has a layer of sophistication behind the ‘light’ style that Mr Draws tends to use. He really is one of the artists I most enjoy seeing about the place – always up for a chat and happy to talk about his work.
1077. The Bearpit (98)
I said in my post about the rather unusual Upfest piece by Will Coles that I would write about more of his work that he left behind in various places in Bristol. This is the first of those.
The clever thing about this and his other pieces is that they are all disguised or camouflaged in some way and that most passers by will not see them. I only stumbled across this one myself, because I had noticed a new Mr Draws piece on the wall of the Gents, and looked up.
There is something funny about a skull with LOL written on it…I’m not sure what, but it tickled me anyway. More from Will Coles soon.
1076. The Bearpit (97)
One of the classiest pieces in The Bearpit for a little while appeared just over a week ago and took up the entire length of ont of the north side entrance ramp. This stunning piece is a collaboration between Sled One and Epok. As is often the case with work like this, the photographs really don’t do it justice and I would urge Bristolians to get down to The Bearpit to see it for themselves.
There is a strong message here about the damage being done to our oceans by plastics – don’t get me going on this subject, because it vexes me because the torrent of pastic, large and microscopic, will kill off life in our oceans unless urgent action is taken. We sure know how to goof up our planet.
The artwork in this piece is exquisite and incredibly detailed, just take a look at the pectoral fins of the fish above, to see how much work has gone into the colourse ripples and folds of the fins.
Them whole thing is cleverly constructed, combining some abstract elements with life studies, but the whole effect is one of movement and swirling currents.
It would be great to hear from the artists themselves what inspired them to do this piece. It is possible that it was a commission, but by whom I wonder. Next time I see Sled One, I’ll have to ask him.
All in all a great piece and beautiful gift to the people of Bristol. Now, reduce that plastic waste!
1075. Greville Road (7)
I am struggling a little about how to categorize this piece. It is by Sonic Oner, whose official Upfest piece I posted a little while back, but I think that this appeared a few days later, and so I am not classifying it as an Upfest piece, preferring to think of it as an extra gift to Bristol.
Located on a wall outside the Hen and Chicken, the piece is in great company, being next to a Pelmo piece. I love reptile street art, and this Iguana is really rather special. There is a lot of attention to detail in the scales, and the eye is beautifully worked.
I think he probably used the spray paints that he had used for his other piece, since the colour scheme is the same; green, white and black. It was a lovely surprise to find this after the main event of Upfest was over.
Natural adventures 