A week wouldn’t feel like a week without posting a piece by Laic217, and his productivity shown no signs of slowing down.
This piece is from about a month ago and was situated on the West underpass into The Bearpit. Several of Laic217’s favourite motifs are present in this work;the bucket hat, an alien, weed, smileys and a face distorted, this time in watery reflections. A nice piece from the master of freehand graffiti art.
This was a piece I photographed back in December, and most unlike me I let it slip away…unusual because I am a big fan of Sled One. This is a nice wildstyle piece tucked away in the St Pauls/St Werburghs border, close to the M32.
With a bit of getting your eye in, you should be able to read the word SLED, as well as a small crew tag ‘ASK’. Sled One’s work seems to have such confidence in technique, often combining several different spray effects in one piece. In this example we have strong, hard, angular lines combining with curvy softer lines and misting around the edges together with some black and yellow decoration which one would think would ruin the piece, but in fact complements it perfectly. It is always a pleasure to post his work.
It is clear that Deamze really favours this spot for his pieces, and I have seen several different ones here over the last few months. This is a bright piece, in his typical widlstyle format, with a character popping up at the end. In this case it is a beautiful Felix the Cat.
I admire very much the way Deamze recreates cartoon characters with such accuracy and sharpness, and his range seems to have no boundaries. All good really.
On one of my walks a while back, I took a little detour away from the M32 cycle path, and what a good thing to. I came across this amazing spider by Andy Council. I think that it is one of his older pieces in Bristol, and since I took this picture has been almost entirely obscured by the bins adjacent to it.
Andy Council’s work is possibly the most recognisable in Bristol, and he obviously commands respect on the streets as his pieces have incredible longevity and are rarely tagged.
The spider contains local landmarks, including a nearby mosque. Another classy detail is the web etched into the filth on the wall around the spider. Consistently great work.
A little while back I posted a piece by Skor85 – it was of a dog on a cloud, and there was some discussion as to what animal it actually was. This piece is by the same artist and in almost exactly the same spot but it carries quite a different message.
I am not too sure what the piece is articulating in the line ‘what are you proud of’ nor am I clear what the brick hand holding the earth is about. Clearly full of symbolism, there is a good story here somewhere. It would be nice to know a little more.
Oh my goodness – they are everywhere. It seems that now I am so much more aware of the work of Shab, I am seeing it everywhere. This is a piece that appeared…and disappeared pretty quickly from Dean Lane. It is a wonderful small abstract piece that is rather subtle, and could be missed or overlooked.
It is however the work of a very accomplished and practised artist whose creations are very easy on the eye, but also seem to ask questions or challenge in some way – I’m not sure if I have explained that very well, but they kind of leave you thinking. This is a lovely piece and of course we have another fabulous eye.
I love the passionate and political messages contained in the works of Object∅∅∅. In this piece, which sadly only lasted a few days, he seems to be having a swipe at those who eradicate or remove street art with their ‘anti-graff’ paint. I guess his target is Bristol City Council, although I can’t be sure.
I like the plastic bag containing ObjectØØØ’s spray cans – there is something really functional and worthy about keeping your paints in an old plastic bag – it is beautifully painted too.
The relatively recent hoardings (erected about four months ago) in Raleigh Road have provided an opportunity for some great displays of street/graffiti art. The appearance and disappearance of hoardings and the art adorning them is all part of the changing landscape in Bristol. At the time these hoardings appeared, the ones in Old Bread Street were taken down as development of the area began.
This is a lovely piece by Cheo, who in recent weeks has become very busy indeed on the streets of Bedminster, often spraying with his fellow ASK graffiti artist Soker.
This piece has a lot of references to street culture in Bristol, although I’m not too sure what the little octopus has to do with anything. A great piece beautifully executed – nice crisp image.
It is funny how you can miss things. This is a piece in The Bearpit by Laic217 that he did a little while back, but which I hadn’t seen because it is on a different approach than the one I normally use.
It is an interesting piece because it is overtly critical of stencil art. It is quite unusual to see this kind of commentary about artists by artists, but obviously it is something Laic 217 feels strongly about. On his Instagram feed he says he hates stencil graffiti, and when pressed says that in his opinion it is cheating and being lazy. Only free hand for Laic217. It is not a sentiment I necessarily agree with.
The piece itself is a bit surreal and menacing…I guess that is the intention. Laic217 does like the use of skulls in his pieces and has a dark side to many of his pieces. It is possible that he is trying to be humorous in this piece, but I don’t think it quite makes the mark. Nonetheless, I like the artwork from this very busy artist.
It is always nice to see fresh new pieces before they get dogged or tagged, and in The Bearpit, you need to be quick. DBK (Dirty Bristol Kids) will not let work hang around too long before tagging over it. Some pieces are left alone, and I would love to know the criteria they use behind which they tag and which they leave.
This is a really nice abstract piece by Decay set on a pink background. The piece is a masterclass in drips, you’ll not get them much better than this. To those of you who don’t get to see a lot of street art, there is a ‘thing’ going on about drips. They are a deliberate part of the work and take a lot of skill to do.
This is, I think, a really great piece from Decay, and worth a trip down to the Bearpit…if it is still there.
Natural adventures 