On a wall opposite the Phlegm mural, previously featured, is a beautiful stencil of a tabby cat.
The cat, by Beastie, an artist from Gloucester, has left its blue paw prints behind. This is a lovely and somewhat understated work.
Beastie has been nicknamed the Banksy of Gloucester by the local media, and he would appear to be both prolific and popular.
7/10
This is a rather topical stencil which is by Stewy, whose dodo can also be found in Leonard Lane.
Stewy’s work includes stencils of iconic figures, and this one is of a well known celebrity in Bristol. DJ Derek is a 73 year-old disc jockey who plays sets in pubs and clubs in the Bristol area, and has also played at Glastonbury.
He went missing on 23 July this year, and has still not been found. Many fear the worst.
This stencil was produced before DJ Derek went missing, and the added graffiti makes sense when you understand the back-story.
7/10
With many thanks to a friend who told me about this tiny ‘shock wave’ by JPS, that is missed by most who walk this street. The pictures may give you some idea of scale.
In Weston-super-Mare, where JPS comes from, there is a full scale version of the same work on the side of a shop.
Weston-super-Mare is of course also playing host to Banksy’s Dismaland exhibition.
More JPS here and here, and also take a look at a great JPS post from Street Art Rat.
8.5/10
Only a stone’s throw away from the new Unify stencil, is a memorable work by one of Bristol’s most celebrated street artists.
Nick Walker was born in 1969 (which makes him almost as old as me) and has become a world famous artist, having emerged from the Bristol graffiti scene in the early 1980s. He tends to use stencils and freehand, and many of his works will be found in more than one place. More about Nick Walker can be found here.
This particular mural is known as ‘Rapunzel’ and features a recurring theme in his work of a ‘vandalism’ motif with a heart. It appeared in August 2008.
I will be posting more of his Bristol murals in time.
8/10
My mother told me I really should go and check out a beautiful bird mural in the centre of Chichester when I was visiting a week or two ago, so I did.
The mural, which overlooks the Baffins Lane car park, is by ROA, and was created during the Chichester street art festival in 2013.
Although his work appears throughout Europe and beyond, little is known about the artist from Ghent, Belgium.
He specialises in pictures of animals, often gracefully contorted in death poses. These birds however, are very much alive. I will have to look out his work in Bristol.
Strictly speaking this is street art, because it is a painting on a street, however it is likely to be a precursor to the rather more edgy stuff we are used to these days.
This small mural was painted by an artist, Tony Giles who lived in St Agnes from 1961 until his death in 1994. Originally from Taunton in Somerset he was known for his landscapes.
I wonder if he lived in the house behind the wall where this mural is.
The figure always reminds me of the cartoon ‘Pearly Kings’ in Mary Poppins.
I like it.
7/10
This brilliantly executed street art is one of my favourites of its type. Simple, witty and anarchic. I wrote a Haiku about it a little while ago.
There is not a lot of street art or even graffiti in this part of Cornwall, so this is a bit of a rarity
There is no point in trying to find out who did it, as I think it is a creative one-off.
7/10
I first saw this beautiful work before I really began to look out for street art when visiting Chichester a couple of years ago.
It is unmistakably a Stik mural and was painted during the Chichester Street Art Festival 2013.
Stik is based in London, but has created pieces all over the world. There is a large Stik in Bristol which I will post about when I get a decent picture of it.
I love this.
9/10
Zase v JPS
I don’t yet understand the ground rules or protocols that exist between street artists, but it would seem there is some minor conflict in a small passageway by the Arches on Cheltenham Road, Bristol.
An original mural by Zase adorned the side wall of Wong’s Acupuncture Clinic. This appeared before or during 2011. I only became conscious of the piece last year when I saw a wonderful JPS stencil entitled ‘Insert Punchline’ which covered the lower left hand side of the Zase work. Even at the time I saw it, part of the JPS had been sprayed over. Sometime later somebody added a rat and Banksy signature, but I doubt very much that it is an original.
I took a look at the wall last week, and it would seem that Zase has returned and restored the wall to its former status. It is a pity in a way, but at least I managed to get a picture of the JPS before it disappeared.
My wife told me yesterday about this very recent stencil work on the wall of the Highbury Vaults pub in Cotham. It is in good company, being just a few yards away from ‘Vandalism’ by Nick Walker (will post this soon).
The bubblegum boy is by Unify, an artist who appears to work in London mostly, but has done works around the world. I’ve not seen any others in Bristol, but that doesn’t mean they are not there.
It is difficult to find out much about Unify, although there is a website.
UPDATE – Somehow I lost all the original pictures of this piece, but have since photographed it again, and it is still in pristine condition. The original post was written in August 2015 and the photographs taken in June 2016.
Natural adventures 