Elno, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
One of the things about finding street art in a place that isn’t your home, is that you will come across artists that you are unfamiliar with, and that is certainly the case here with this fabulous portrait piece by Elno at the Lighthouse Community Garden in Stratford.
Elno, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
Elena Gonzalez Nieto also known as ELNO, is a Spanish visual artist based in London since 2014 (taken from her fabulous website) who it would seem specialises in stunning portrait pieces elaborated with bright colourful backgrounds. Although painted last year, the piece looks fresh and vibrant – definitely a candidate for Upfest I would have thought.
Last weekend, Paul H and I took a trip to Weston-super-Mare to photograph some of the street art there, not least the impressive recent additions from the last three years thanks to Upfest’s involvement with the Weston Wallz initiative. We hadn’t even left the station when I spotted a surfeit of doors on a Network Rail maintenance wagon – this was going to be a good day.
Plenty of doors on this Network Rail rail grinder, Weston-super-Mare, May 2023
Being a seaside town, many of the doors are in fairly poor condition, from all that salt spray in the winter months, so, plenty of characterful doors, but not many ancient ones. The doors were a bit of a bonus on what was actually a street/graffiti art mission, but Paul was very patient with me as I snapped up a few interesting doors. I hope you enjoy them:
Blue doors of a certain period, Weston-super-Mare, May 2023
Green doors of a certain period in need of some TLC, Weston-super-Mare, May 2023
Dirty plain door and a little bit of graffiti, Weston-super-Mare, May 2023
Steel doors, Weston-super-Mare, May 2023
More to come from this trip in due course. My I wish you a happy end of week.
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.
This is the third in a series of Ceus pieces that appear to be in a revised or reinvented style, largely around a colour scheme, and large bold and obvious letters. There are small references to some of his work from last year in the shape of a wing tip to the left of the letter C.
Ceus, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, May 2023
The bright blue writing set on a white background has a heavenly look and feel to it an looks very fresh – so easy on the eye. There are some lovely colour fades in the fills and the orange outline/shadow with bubbles sets the whole piece off nicely – a quality work from Ceus.
Although I regularly post pieces by Face 1st, it is probably only about half of everything I photograph. He has been a consistently prolific artist in Bristol since I started writing about this stuff back in 2015 and has brought me personally a lot of joy with his constantly evolving themes and ideas, based on a face.
Face 1st, Coach and Horses, Bristol, May 2023
This is a wonderful example of Face 1st’s work, a really tidy piece with sumptuous colours that work son well together. Some of Face 1st’s throw ups can be a little untidy, but this is crisp and sharp and beautifully finished. The smiling girl with earrings has the word FACE for hair, with not a little gloop going on. This is classic Face 1st, classily painted and presented.
It is fitting that my six hundredth post from Dean Lane should feature a stunning collaboration wall from Vozie and Bnie, two of my favourite writers at the moment. There is an awful lot to like about this colourful collaboration, and the colours and style remind me of the cartoon fairground scene in Mary Poppins or the Village from the TV series ‘the Prisoner’ – the psychedelic elements probably elicit those thoughts.
Vozie, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2023
To the left Vozie does what she does, although in this version of her name, she has written VOSE, not VOZIE which we are more accustomed to seeing. Beautiful letters, beautiful fills and a fabulous drop shadow… there is little more to say.
Bnie, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2023
To the right Bnie has replicated the colours, fills and shadow to make this a truly collaborative piece. As with Vozie’s half, Bnie has created beautiful letters, using beautiful fills and a fabulous drop shadow. This is an exceptional piece from the RBF girls, and a bit of a fave of mine so far this year.
Kool Hand and Daz Cat, Greenbank, Bristol, May 2023
I can’t believe we’re almost at the end of May, but it is true and with each day that passes more and more pieces of graffiti writing, and street art adorn our city walls. It can be a struggle at times to keep up, but a pleasurable struggle, if there is such a thing.
The light wasn’t particularly helpful on the day that I photographed this collaboration between Kool Hand and Daz Cat, but I might have just got away with it.
Kool Hand and Daz Cat, Greenbank, Bristol, May 2023
To the left, a Kool crocodile chills up against a colourful palm tree, looking almost like a piece of quilt work (watch out Louis Masai!). On the right is a Daz Cat cat floating and mixing music. What is interesting about the collaboration is that Kool Hand’s work is quite flat, and Daz Cat’s has depth and perspective, bringing different aspects and styles to the piece. It is always good to see these two painting together.
Conrico organised a paint jam under the M32 a week or so back, and a great many of the columns there were given a fresh coat of paint, including this banging vertical piece of writing from Ryder. The slogan accompanying this fiery piece is “play with fire – get burnt”, an apt phrase for the graffiti community.
Ryder, M32 Spot, Bristol, May 2023
Some artists have pure class, which is a gift that can’t be manufactured, and Ryder has class. There is a confidence and assertiveness about his work that eclipses others around him, and this is a great example of that. The fun piece (spelling out RYDER) incorporates character faces into the letters, something Ryder does a fair bit, and has a delicious colour selection with perfect fills, and a steady black outline. This is one of the best column pieces I have seen in a long while. Simply the best.
I am enjoying the regular flow of MILK from Wxttsart, and this yellow and black number from a paint jam in the tunnel a little while back is another great example of his writing that is definitely crossing-over into calligraffiti.
Wxttsart, St Werburghs, Bristol, May 2023
His two-tone grey letters have a mid-line running through them and a yellow 3D shadow dropping off to the left, providing some depth to the writing. Adding a little bit of interest are some lightening strikes at the base of the letters and a few highlight spots, without which the piece might appear to be a little flat. Some nice work from Wxttsart.
Kosc has been smashing it for a long while now, both with his arty pieces and with his writing, and this is another fabulous example of his greyscale graffiti. I managed to catch up with Kosc last week as he was painting a new piece on the M32 roundabout, unfortunately I never saw the completed piece, as the entire wall was bombed by DBK before I returned a day or two later.
Kosc, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, May 2023
With clever use of light and dark shades and a midline ridge running through each of the letters, Kosc has managed to get the letters to pop out from the wall, creating a wonderful 3D effect. I would like to see Kosc experiment with anamorphic writing, because I think he would be excellent at it, and we don’t seem to have any anamorphic writers in Bristol at the moment, other than Zase. Another fine piece from Kosc.
Natural adventures 