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Heaviest downpour
overflowing guttering
urban river roads
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by Scooj
Tag: UK
5454. Greenbank (92)
What fun it has been to follow Evey’s progress as a graffiti writer over the last few years. She has come a long way, and this recent RBF paint jam Barbie piece, I suspect, may have stretched her somewhat, and she has carried it off brilliantly.
The font is Barbieish, without conceding too much to the Mattel brand, but also works very well as an Evey piece. Some nice clean lines and solid fills, although some colours are a little bit thin in places. I only recently discovered (a tip from I bee W) that spray cans often have a little graphic on the can describing how thick or thin the paint is – good to know and explains why sometimes you can use twice as much of one colour than another. This is a fine piece from Evey on what looked like it was a super-fun day.
5453. Queen’s Road (3)
This is the third piece I have posted from the 650 years of Bristol celebration pant jam, and it is by the magnificent artist Willl Cross. For most of the artists, there was a major challenge in switching their spray cans for brushes, not so for Willl Cross who uses brushes for all his street art pieces, and is more familiar with studio art work.
Willl Cross tends to use a crossover method which incorporates modern scenes painted in a romantic style, and often his subject is wearing traditional Bulgarian costume. This outstanding piece presents a stunning view which many Bristolians will be familiar with, showing the Avon Gorge and Clifton suspension bridge viewed from the Downs. The woman in the portrait, with her eyes closed, appears to be enjoying the moment and is gently holding a wildflower.
There is more mystery to the piece though, with some menacing winged beasts or demons floating around the woman’s head. I would like to believe that the demons are being expelled by the peace of the moment.
The patterns on the dress are wonderfully painted, and the dramatic skies overhead indicate turmoil. I would so much love to speak with Willl Cross to understand more about the painting.
We are privileged in Bristol to have free access to stunning artwork like this for citizens and visitors to enjoy. Next time you are passing, stop for a moment and drink in this awesome painting.
Making friends
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Two boys overheard
a cyclist and a scooter
“you are really good”
one boy says to the other
“I’m not really, but thank you”
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by Scooj
- This is how young boys make friends, it was heart-warming to see. I wanted to stay and listen a little longer, but of course, that begins to look a little bit peculiar, so the dog and I went on our way.
5452. St Werburghs tunnel (379)
What a treat! Two Fiva pieces in the space of three weeks, both in the tunnel, and both reminding us of what we have missed over the last couple of years. I am not too sure why he has been absent for so long, perhaps he moved away or there were other real life events that made painting difficult, but he is back and that is what matters. At the end of the last post I wrote “I hope this isn’t a flash in the pan”. The appearance of this piece puts that worry to bed.
Fiva has used this overlay technique to great effect before, and it is such a clever way to tell two stories in one go. There are large block capital letters in Grey spelling out ‘FIVA’ and overlaid is a lower case, script written ‘fiver’ in pink and blue (that winning combo again). The clever part is how these interact, for example, the bevelled edge of the capital letters runs through the lower case letters, but in different shades. No self-respecting Fiva piece is fully complete without a cheeky cartoon character, and this grey chappie with a purple cap rounds off the piece magnificently. Looking forward to more from an artist who has been much missed.
5451. Sparke Evans Park (79)
Trafficity, one of several Polish artists working his magic on the streets of Bristol, paints only occasionally, but when he does you know you are in for a treat of consistency, style and great technique. His works are based around the same template of the word ZIOM, and the main differences between his pieces is the colour scheme.
The unique letter style is faithfully replicated from piece to piece, and therein lies a great skill, because it is a complex arrangement of letters. The colour palette of this one in Sparke Evans Park is particularly pleasing, with the three tones of green in the letters contrasting nicely with the red border and background. Great, consistent work from Trafficity.
Trafficity
A gallery of outstandingly consistent graffiti writing from Bristol-Polish graffiti writer Trafficity.
ZIOM
Instagram: @trafficity
All photographs by Scooj
5450. River Avon (49)
This is a piece that I thought I had posted, which makes me think that it might have been painted some time ago. Having said that, it might be a recent piece. It is so difficult to keep on top of street and graffiti art in Bristol at the moment, because I have never known the turnover to be so high, nor the number of new entrants into the urban art community. Each time I go out, which is most days, I can find between 5 and 10 new pieces, which gives you some idea of the scale of activity in our vibrant city.
Todoaciem is one of two top-class calligraffiti writers in Bristol, the other being Stivs. Most of the time Todoaciem will write the letters CIEM in a Gothic style typeface, maintaining strict conventions in the letter shapes and forms. There is no room for error, as even small mistakes would be obvious in the overall look of the piece. From the photographs and from memory, it is difficult to tell if this is chrome and red or white and red, but I think it is the former. Whatever the colours, the form is fabulous and the piece another fine example of great calligraffiti from Todoaciem.
5449. Cumberland Basin
Enn Kay or NAK, has been knocking it out of the park lately and massively expanded his portfolio of characters in a very short space of time, adding strength to the maxim ‘practice makes perfect’. This piece was painted during Werm’s birthday paint jam and has quite brilliantly adopted the theme colours of blue and pink.
In this piece, Enn Kay has painted a blue cartoon rabbit, looking rather Disney to me, holding a pink spray can, which he has been using to paint the letters NAK. This is a common construct in street art, in which the protagonist has painted a part of the piece in which they exist. This is a beautifully finished piece that sits snugly with the others in this collaboration.
5448. St Werburghs tunnel (378)
I was really struck by this piece in the tunnel recently and at first I thought it might have been by Rozalita, but on closer inspection it clearly wasn’t, and the name BLEOM was also a bit of a clue. The piece is by Bloem, who is also Hiccup, and because I have posted her pieces under the latter name, I shall be consistent and continue to do so.
The portrait piece, featuring a jester, is really neat and tidy and carries an element of treat in the form of a barbed wire circle around the head. All elements of thee piece come together well, in particular the ruff, and the jester’s expression. The letters are also very sharp and well painted. This is a classy piece from an artist relatively new to the Bristol scene, and I look forward to seeing and writing about more of her work (coming sooner than you might think).
Natural adventures 