This is something a little different from Mr Draws, and I really rather like it. The colour scheme that he has selected works really well with the verdant spring growth at the base of the wall and the trees behind set on a stunning blue sky (something of a rarity this year).
Mr Draws, M32 roundabout, Bristol, April 2024
The character hand and letters combination looks really good and is nicely proportioned. This is so typically Mr Draws, and I can’t fully explain why, but his whole approach to graffiti writing is unconventional, which is great to see, as there is quite a lot of ‘Samey’ stuff out there. I love the hand, and I think that it is something he should bring into his work more often. A great piece from an artist I really like.
Fade, Dibz, Noise and and Awkward, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2024
I am not sure that I have seen this wall painted as much as it has been over the last year or so, not just painted, but painted with so many high-quality pieces. This recent collaborative piece is by Fade, Dibz, Awkward and Noise.
Fade and Awkward, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2024
The left-hand end of the wall is collaborative combination from Fade and Awkward. Starting with the latter, I think that this is the most extensive bit of work I have seen from him, with so much more than his usual mega-tag face. Here Awkward has included a complete character as well as some woodland beasties and flowers, with loads of little details. The character is wearing a Cheech Wizard hat and surreptitiously holding a spray can. Fade has painted some beautifully finished letters, acting as a central platform for Awkward’s decorations.
Dibz and Awkward, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2024
The middle section is by Dibz with a combination of outstanding writing and a couple of characters… a Vaughn Bode Lizard and another masked character whose name I don’t know, both faithfully reproduced. There have been a whole ton of Vaughn Bode inspired pieces lately, and I guess it is a theme from World Wall Stylers or something like that.
Noise and Awkward, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2024
Rounding off the wall and sticking with the colour theme, Noise, who seems to be enjoying a spate of collaborations, has produced another of his NOISE pieces composed of dense letters with stunning fills and transitions. Awkward makes another appearance with a character peeping over the ‘S’ along with a couple more woodland bugs. Altogether a wonderful piece from the foursome.
I have enjoyed immensely the vigour with which Hypo has upped his game over the last year or two, both in terms of the quality and quantity of his painting. Sticking with his HYPO letters, he has come up with a sequence of colourful and strong designs of which this is one of his more recent.
Hypo, M32 roundabout, Bristol, April 2024
Unfortunately I captured this piece on a late sunny afternoon, and there is a bit of glare, but it doesn’t hide the excellence of the artwork. The colour palette is really good and the transitions through greens to yellows and oranges and blue are really well done. some spots are added for decoration, but it is the overall design of the letters and the clean finishing that I am particularly attracted to in this piece. Great work from Hypo.
We are lucky that SkyHigh and Roo appear to have a strong association with Bristol – I believe that they have family here. This is good, because every time they come to visit, they drop a couple of pieces, which mixes things up nicely.
SkyHigh, Greenbank, Bristol, April 2024
This is a beauty from SkyHigh in which he has spelled out his name with several optional variations in how you choose to read it. The block letters, each in a different font/style, have loads of depth to them and are displayed in different orientations creating a kind of 3D collage effect. The tried and trusted pink and blue combination is a winner, and is augmented with some splashes of yellow in the form of smiley ‘stickers’. Tidy.
It feels like only a matter of months but is actually more than three and a half years since I first encountered Mudra’s work, and over that time it has improved immeasurably from the small character-based pieces to complex pieces of writing/character combinations.
Mudra, Frome Side, Bristol, April 2024
This piece underneath the M32 reminds me a little of Minto’s work, with its combinations. The colours red and green work well together and rather contradict the fashion industry maxim that ‘red and green should never be seen’. The letters are quite fancy and the face in the centre of the piece a little odd. Overall though, this is a nice piece that shows how the artist is constantly stretching himself.
Mote is an artist who emerged as a Bristol-based artist in the spring of 2022 and has been developing his craft steadily since then. His early pieces were relatively simple constructions with solid primary colours and thick solid lines, but he has quickly developed his style which is altogether more sophisticated while sticking to his monster characters.
Mote, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, April 2024
This monster at the back of the Temple Meads development site is carrying a theme that Mote recently appears to be playing with which is to have the eyes appearing quite differently, one wide open, the other heavily lidded. this asymmetry certainly lends itself to the monster-like appearance of the character. There are just so many good pieces by Mote out there.
Last month I visited Peterborough for work, and because it is some distance away from Bristol, I stayed the night before the workshop I was leading, in a hotel. On the way to my lodgings, I took a meandering route (as I always do when visiting an unfamiliar town or city), and was rewarded with this unbelievable mural by Nyces (Nathan Murdoch).
Nyces, Peterborough, April 2024 (afternoon)
It appears that Nyces is ‘the’ street artist in town, and although there are small pockets of graffiti writing in various places, Nyces ‘owns’ the walls of Peterborough. This outstanding piece is obviously a reflection of the horrific war in Gaza, with a child in combat gear sitting forlornly in a desert near a makeshift dwelling. A spray can sits amongst pebbles in the foreground, but the small bacon of hope comes from the snowdrop flower emitting some sparkles of light. This is a moving piece that has a calm about it, a sense of resignation – very powerful. It is superbly painted too.
I got really lucky on my way back to the station after my workshop. I had been told that there was an artist painting in the shopping centre opposite the station, and indeed it was Nyces who was painting a series of large murals to brighten the place up. Naturally I introduced myself and has great chat with him. Although he doesn’t leave Peterborough too often, he has visited Bristol once or twice in the past. One or two more pieces to come from Peterborough’s Nyces.
Doors 264 – Doors from Highgate, London, November 2023 (Part III)
I went to a private (public) school in London, Highgate School, which was regarded in those days as a ‘second division’ public school for boys. In fairness, it has changed immeasurably since I was there. Then, it was a hotbed of white male privilege, and an anachronistic hangover from our colonialist days as a nation.
I received a very good education there and made a select few lifelong friends, but I frequently reflect on my time with some regret, that I was, and by inference am, a product of a system that has resulted in so many things that are bad about our country today. Misogyny, arrogance, inflated confidence, entitlement, racism, hierarchy and many other aspects of a social and financial elitism were nurtured in the public school environments of the 1970s.
We see in the current (and previous) Conservative Government the outcome of a dysfunctional and utterly unfair and unbalanced educational (and class) system. So many of our decision makers have enormous ‘blind spots’ where their position and status have been forged by their privileged experiences and selfish desires, without even a cursory glance at the wider society they serve.
Make no mistake, the private educational system in our country perpetuates the class and social divides and in my view should be abolished. A good education and educational assets should be the right of every child in the country, without exception, irrespective of background or ability to pay. Raise the bar for everyone, and if we have to pay more taxes to get it, then so be it. Those paying £30,000 per year (or term in some places) would be able to divert their savings into the public purse and feel the warm glow of helping the nation rather than themselves.
It is clear from the last 14 years, that our Eton-educated leaders have absolutely ruined our country, not because of the quality of their education, but because of their prejudices and ideology nurtured on the playing fields of British public schools.
OK, so I have got that off my chest. There are some parts of my school days that I do look upon fondly. My friends, some of the teachers (the Zoological Society – see last week’s post), the access to sport and the buildings were positive aspects, and through the years I had something of a love/hate relationship with the school. I worked hard, was never particularly academic, and was generally well-behaved. My reward eventually was to be made a school Prefect and head of my house (Eastgate), I say this to put into context the final photograph in this week’s selection where I am sitting to the left of the Housemaster (right as you look at it).
As you might have gathered, this week’s doors are all from the buildings of Highgate School, photographed on my visit there last November. Definitely mixed feelings when I saw the old place. I hope you enjoy the doors.
Doors in the entrance to the ‘modern’ Dyne House, Highgate School, Highgate, London, November 2023
Austere door that was never used as I recall, Highgate School, Highgate, London, November 2023
Fancy glass door on a building that wasn’t there in my day, Highgate School, Highgate, London, November 2023
The main entrance gate and doorway, Highgate School, Highgate, London, November 2023
Doors and steps to the school chapel, Highgate School, Highgate, London, November 2023
Gate to the quadrangle (I think that is what it was called), Highgate School, Highgate, London, November 2023
Door and stairs to the main school hall, Highgate School, Highgate, London, November 2023
Eastgate house photograph circa. 1980/81 in front of the school hall door, Highgate School, Highgate, London, November 2023
I am sure that is it the same for many of us that our school days contribute immeasurably to who we become. I have spend many of my adult years gently unpicking and scrutinising my time at Highgate School, and think I now have a much healthier relationship with the place and circumstance I found myself in, and have challenged the attitudes and prejudices that surrounded me. I am content with it.
More of an essay than a Thursday doors – I promise to revert back to concentrating on doors next week, when I will feature some more Highgate doors.
If you have made it this far, you probably like doors, and you really ought to take a look at the No Facilities blog by Dan Anton who has taken over the hosting of Thursday Doors from Norm 2.0 blog. Links to more doorscursions can be found in the comments section of Dan Anton’s Thursday Doors post.
These pictures are my second attempt at capturing this fine bird piece by Mr Crawls, the first effort resulted in photographs that had the piece in brighter light but scattered with shadows. Sometimes overcast days are much better for certain spots, such as Greenbank and Sparke Evans Park, as well as anywhere with overhanging trees or herbage.
Mr Crawls, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2024
Mr Crawls has been having a great few months, especially since joining up with Mote, a partnership that appears to have stretched both artists with some terrific outcomes. In this bird piece, Mr Crawls has used his favoured chrome background as a backdrop for his raptor(?) character sporting a rather nice hat. Although Mr Crawls has been experimenting with all sorts of creative monsters, it is comforting when he returns to one of his classic birds.
Natural adventures 