.
Anticipation
warming toes and glowing nose
winter fire tonight
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by Scooj
Tag: UK
6563. Sparke Evans Park (107)
Funnily enough I met Sworm, a friend of Klashwhensober’s, when he painted this piece back in the summer, and somehow it has remained intact since. To be fair is is a really nice piece of writing, and has been respected for a long while. At the time of painting, I never got a photograph of the completed piece and only snapped it in November.
The jaunty letters spell SWORM, but it is the fills that delight the eye. A spectrum of colours, perhaps it was a dregs piece (the term used by artists for using up the dregs of a can), dance through the letters with a variety of inspired patterns. This is a most attractive piece of graffiti writing.
6562. Ikea Wall of Fame (2)
This is the second section of the long and exciting new wall of fame at Ikea. DJ and Record producer brought together street art and graffiti talent from Bristol and around the world to celebrate 30 years of his record label, Metalheads.
In this section we have an extraordinary split portrait piece by Posea. The vertical line separates the faces of DJ Doc Scott, and a version of the tin man from the Wizard of Oz, picking up the yellow brick road theme of the whole collaboration production. Posea’s skills are perfectly showcased in this contrasting portrait.
The mushrooms and flowers are courtesy of Zaki Dee and the skyline and flying monkeys (I think) are by BG183. More from this unique wall in due course.
6561. St Werburghs tunnel (459)
The stand-out element of this wonderful BEN piece by Benjimagnetic in the tunnel is, in my view, the outstanding colour selection. Rather cleverly, he has overwritten a piece by Mr Klue, which provides a rather nice backdrop in complementary colours.
Benjimagnetic pieces are carefully crafted and the style I would describe as being deconstructed writing. The letters are there, but it is more about what is missing rather than what is there, and there is an obscuring of the writing that is its attraction. The fills are made up of black and white writing, which I imagine is extremely difficult to do with spray paint, requiring great can control. An attractive piece.
6560. Brunel Way (303)
In the furthest southern tip of the Brunel Way spot, is a DIY skate spot and this wonderful recent combination piece from Conrico brightened up this dark spot. It is usually pretty tatty around this wall, where materials for building ramps etc. for the skate park are scattered.
The writing is nicely done, set on a swirly patterned background, but it is definitely the portrait accompanying the writing that catches the eye. I think that it is the woman’s hair which draws the eye – it is a really nice and happy portrait. Not long after Conrico painted the combination piece, the council came along and buffed the wall, although they decided to keep the portrait, which is curious really, because it is all illegal graffiti.
I believe that the buffing is done by gangs of people doing community service for some misdemeanour or other. The problem, of course, is that this is a completely fruitless exercise, and waste of grey paint, because a buffed wall is a blank canvass.
6559. Dean Lane skate park (784)
Noise has been one of the most regular Bristol writers in 2024, turning out numerous distinctive fat-letter pieces all over town. This is a particularly nice one on the curved wall in Dean Lane. If you like his work, then a quick look at this recently published gallery of his graffiti writing might be worthwhile.
The letters spelling out NOISE, although in darker colours with a dark background, are bursting with energy. The two tones of green work surprisingly well with the dark purple/black backdrop. Although I am sure it is unintentional, the ‘i’ resembles a nose, and weirdly if you take the ‘i’ out of noise, you get nose. Having seen the nose, you can’t unsee it. Nice one from Noise.
Me time
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Reflective moment
a supermarket car park
mentally prepping
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by Scooj
6558. M32 roundabout J3 (641)
Sub paints his large three letter pieces reasonably often, but I have been waiting for one that has the ‘wow’ factor, and with this enormous piece on the roundabout, I think he has pretty much got there. I first saw this piece on Instagram, before I photographed it, and was actually really keen to go and see it for myself.
I think that the buffed wall really helps in this instance, and the colour selection of orange and blue works really well. Sub has paid great attention to the dimensions of the drop shadow, which drifts off to the left. There is a fusion of his letters, through which the blue fill bleeds across the piece. The thing I like the most is the thin line patterning, which is just about right. Any more decoration and it would look fussy, any less and it would look bare. In my view, this is Sub’s best piece to date.
6557. Sparke Evans Park (106)
An emerging artist in Bristol that I am watching quite closely is Roma. I know nothing at all about Roma, and at this stage I have to be careful about assigning a gender to the artist, because I have made the unconscious bias mistake of assuming artists are male when in fact I have been quite wrong, most embarrassingly with T-Rex.
Roma has been painting some quite elementary letters, and you can see from the borders and highlight lines that can-control is a difficult skill to master, but Roma is making great progress in this area. The blended mixture of fill colours is effective, and I love the sprinkling of pink stars running horizontally through the piece. Definitely one to keep a close eye on.
6556. Newfoundland Road (6)
This is a curious shutter piece painted on a new Kashmiri restaurant in St Pauls. It is a little off the beaten track, but on one of my dog-walking circuits. The piece is signed by Zase, but it is quite unlike most of his work, and is most likely painted to a commission brief.
The piece is a stunning mountainous landscape, with a river running through rolling hills and a cherry blossom dangling across the piece in the foreground. The piece is unusual, because you simply don’t see this kind of thing very often in Bristol. It is beautiful.
On the other side of the restaurant entrance is a flag-map of Kashmir. I am not certain that Zase is the artist, because it is so utterly different from his normal style, and it isn’t quite finished to the sharp quality I would expect. The whole thing though is a refreshing change from the usual fare I see every single day.
Natural adventures 