Ah! what joy to see one of the Bristol favourites back in his home town. Mau Mau is an established artist who features a crafty and irreverent fox in most of his works. I haven’t seen much new stuff in Bristol, so it was great to see this a week or so ago. A skateboarding fox with a bit of attitude.
Mau Mau, The Bearpit, Bristol, March 2017
The last work I saw from Mau Mau was in Camden Town in London during the summer (yet to be posted), and I felt that he really ought to be doing more in Bristol. Well here it is, and it is beautifully done too. It is hard not to like a fox, isn’t it?
It is always great to see a new Tom Miller piece, and this is a wall he has favoured in the past. I can’t keep up with this particular wall, and have some pieces that have never made it to the blog. Maybe if I was retired…
Tom Miller, The Bearpit, Bristol, March 2017
This work has all the hallmarks of a Miller piece; body parts bursting with a suffusion of colour and ‘imaginite’ – the way thoughts might look if they could be painted. There is a little story going on here, chasing after love perhaps. I would like to think it is a happy picture and not a morose or sad one. I really am a big fan of Tom Miller’s work.
This is a remarkable and really well sprayed piece on one of the stairways of The Bearpit by Deamze. Quite often Deamze will write his name or some other word and incorporate a cartoon character. This time he has really gone to town, and been a little political too (which of course I love).
Deamze, The Bearpit, Bristol, March 2017
His chosen characters, Dennis the Menace and Minnie the Minx are from the famous British comic strip the Beano. Deamze has recreated these with absolute perfection.
Deamze, The Bearpit, Bristol, March 2017
The whole piece spells out ‘exist resist’ and carries the taglines ‘question authority’ and ‘Government is theft’. I have a feeling that the unending austerity, pressure on schools and the health service, compounded by the significant economic impacts that leaving the EU will impose, will lead to a great deal of protest in this country in the coming years. I hope future protests will be as peaceful and colourful as this.
Deamze, The Bearpit, Bristol, March 2017
I cannot say enough good things about this piece. The location is also well thought out, to be able to accommodate the long words but also with a footfall of predominantly sympathetic eyes passing it every day.
Deamze, The Bearpit, Bristol, March 2017
It is work like this that makes my pleasure a pleasure.
This was a rather nice surprise left by one of Bristol’s master graffiti artists at the Deaner recently. Inkie has been back in town, and it is great when he leaves something like this behind. This is a beautiful piece of writing, typical of his style, and the colour selection is just brilliant.
Inkie, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2017
I know how busy Inkie is, with commissions all over the place, so a piece like this…back to his roots…somehow seems so very valuable and meaningful. Enjoy this, from one of the longest lasting and very best there is.
On a walk to the Montpelier area of Bristol a little while back, I came across this interesting piece by Fiver aka Henry Barnes. It doesn’t get much more Bristol than spraying a Wallace and Gromit piece on your garage door as a nice way to encourage people not to park in front of it.
Fiver, St Andrews Road, Bristol, December 2016
There is no doubting Fiver’s skill, and this is a nice piece. However, he is another Bristol artist who appears to have been under my radar, and this is the first of his pieces that I have featured. I think he tends to do a lot of work using existing characters from cartoons. On doing a bit of research, I found this nice article about how he proposed to his girlfriend in front of a piece he sprayed of her favourite characters. All good.
This is another quick piece by Whysayit at one end of the tunnel in St Werburghs. I can’t believe that I missed this when I went in to photograph pieces in the tunnel, and it wasn’t until I came out again that this caught my eye.
Whysayit, St Werburghs tunnel, Bristol, March 2017
I really do like his style of graffiti art, the way he disguises his letters (YSAE) with curvy shapes and the colours he uses and the outlines to his pieces. I am also rather fond of his tagging, which is peculiar, because as a rule I dislike tagging. All in all a nice piece here.
Whysayit, St Werburghs tunnel, Bristol, March 2017
When Meds and Peal visited Bristol a little while back they teamed up with several Bristol artists to work on some stunning collaborations. This is a large wall on Wilder Street that had previously played host to a fine collaboration between Deamze, Voyder and Soker. It is a popular wall, which I believe needs permission from the owners to be painted. Rather than interrupt the images with short paragraphs of text, I thought on this occasion I would simply let the pictures do the talking. Along with Meds and Peal, this piece was sprayed by Sled One, Ments and Epok. Please don’t ask who did what…it could take a while to unpick.
I haven’t seen a piece by Eraze for rather a long time, so it was really great to find this one up at Dean Lane recently. The writing spells out ‘dope’ which is a word often seen associated with pieces by Eraze.
Eraze, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2017
What makes this piece stand out is the colour selections on the white backwash – I think it works extremely well and really sets it apart from much of the graffiti art found on this particular wall. Of course it only lasted a few days, so I am pleased I captured it.
This is the second half of the wall referred to in the previous post, which accompanies Cheo’s work. This right hand side in the beautiful wildstyle writing so typical of Soker. It is a lovely piece and like it’s neighbour, really crisp and sharp.
Soker, Church Road, Bristol, March 2017
Soker’s work is very distinctive and I have yet to see a piece by him which I think is a bit rubbish or below par. He always seems to turn out excellent work…an artist on the top of his game.
Tucked away behind an industrial unit in Church Road is a little lane that I have not visited before. The building is sprayed with permitted pieces all around, and many of them by Cheo. This is a recent piece, and the wall was shared with Soker – see the next post.
Cheo, Church Road, Bristol, March 2017
Cheo has been a little quiet in Bristol since Upfest, but seems to have gone on something of a spray spree recently. This is a quality bit of wildstyle work and there is a crispness so typical of Cheo’s style. This is a great piece, and nice to see a return of the bee.
Natural adventures 