6228. Upfest 2024 (43)

Ant Carver, Upfest 2024, North Street, Bristol, July 2024
Ant Carver, Upfest 2024, North Street, Bristol, July 2024

I am always touched when I say hello to artists, and they recognise me from brief snatches of conversations at previous festivals. This is the third year i a row that I have stopped to chat with Ant Carver, and in common with most artists I meet, he is a genuinely lovely bloke who will always make time to talk for a bit. At this year’s festival, he was running a little behind schedule, so I didn’t occupy his time too much.

Ant Carver, Upfest 2024, North Street, Bristol, May 2024
Ant Carver, Upfest 2024, North Street, Bristol, May 2024

Ant Carver has done a terrific job with an awkward spot, which is quite hard to see from street level, unless you stand some distance away. The flat roof, and restricted access to it, meant that, apart from inquisitive souls like me, Ant Carver was pretty much left alone to get on with his split piece.

Ant Carver, Upfest 2024, North Street, Bristol, July 2024
Ant Carver, Upfest 2024, North Street, Bristol, July 2024

I was wondering what was going on with this interesting juxtaposition and found this explanation on the artist’s Instagram feed: “Lately I’ve been looking at the way we consume news and media and the conflict between intense and light imagery”. Ant Carver has demonstrated this perfectly in this piece, with the treat of the snarling dog, and the stoic partial portrait. Great work from Ant Carver.

6227. Upfest 2024 (42)

Rob Lee, Upfest 2024, West Street, Bristol, July 2024
Rob Lee, Upfest 2024, West Street, Bristol, July 2024

Some murals can only really work at scale, and this is one of them. The relatively simple design by Rob Lee becomes something utterly awesome when plastered on the side of an entire building. I don’t think that visitors to the occupiers of the building would have any difficulty in finding the address… “err, it’s the one with the big pink, yellow, green, blue and lilac stripes on it – you can’t miss it”.

Rob Lee, Upfest 2024, West Street, Bristol, May 2024
Rob Lee, Upfest 2024, West Street, Bristol, May 2024

Although the design might be reasonably straightforward, there is a lot of technical subtlety in it, especially with the transition of shades of colour marking the bends in the stripes. The piece would be somewhat bland without the rippling of the stripes and the depth it gives the whole piece. Painting the colours on a black background is a master-stroke, and rounds things off perfectly.

Rob Lee, Upfest 2024, West Street, Bristol, July 2024
Rob Lee, Upfest 2024, West Street, Bristol, July 2024

I have come across a piece by Rob Lee once before, last autumn in Sheffield, and some of you might remember the post. I like the Sheffield piece, but this Upfest one definitely trumps it!

Rob Lee, Sheffield, November 2023
Rob Lee, Sheffield, November 2023

6226. Upfest 2024 (41)

Hazard, Upfest 2024, North Street, Bristol, May 2024
Hazard, Upfest 2024, North Street, Bristol, May 2024

Just like many other communities, the Bristol artist community is in a constant state of flux, with many new artists moving to the city as others move out. One of the most significant recent departures has been that of Hazard, who I believe has moved to the North of England, possibly to Leeds. This is a huge loss for Bristol, but her connections with the city mean that she will return from time to time, I am sure, like she did to paint this beauty for Upfest 2024.

Hazard, Upfest 2024, North Street, Bristol, May 2024
Hazard, Upfest 2024, North Street, Bristol, May 2024

The portrait piece with its patchwork of coloured shapes slightly underplays her brilliance – perhaps it is the slightly awkward spot, or the dark tones she has used, but it doesn’t leap out at you like many of her pieces do. It is a piece that you need to stop and look at and admire, but all too often people simply stroll by, focussed on their phone screens. I definitely miss Hazard’s regular interventions, but that makes each of her appearances now even more precious.

6195. Upfest 2024 (40)

Tozer signs, Upfest 2024, North Street, Bristol, May 2024
Tozer signs, Upfest 2024, North Street, Bristol, May 2024

Anyone who spends time on Bedminster’s North Street will have consciously or unconsciously seen signs in the area by Bristol-based sign writer, Tozer signs.this is a beautifully designed and executed street sign welcoming visitors to North Street.

Tozer signs, Upfest 2024, North Street, Bristol, May 2024
Tozer signs, Upfest 2024, North Street, Bristol, May 2024

There is a huge amount of skill and experience that has gone into producing this large sign that more than equals even the best graffiti writing in the city… the only real difference is the discipline and accuracy that a sign writer must work to in order to have any credibility at all. Tozer signs delivers in bucket-loads with this piece. The block letters spelling out NORTH STREET, have great uniformity and depth, and show off the talent of a brilliant craftswoman. Regrettably this piece was dogger not long after the Upfest festival ended. There are way too many idiots in our midst, but I guess anyone who created art on the streets knows the risks and likely limitations on longevity. Beautiful work from Tozer signs.

6194. Upfest 2024 (39)

Wrdsmth, Upfest 2024, North Street, Bristol, May 2024
Wrdsmth, Upfest 2024, North Street, Bristol, May 2024

I am aware of Wrdsmth’s work, mainly from my trips to some of London’s great graffiti/street art spots like Shoreditch and Camden Town, but I don’t think I have seen anything by the artist on this scale before. It is a privilege for the artist to secure this wall that has had some significant masterpieces on it before, in particular a stunner from Liam Bononi back in 2021.

Wrdsmth, Upfest 2024, North Street, Bristol, May 2024
Wrdsmth, Upfest 2024, North Street, Bristol, May 2024

From the little I know about Wrdsmth, he usually follows the same format with a typewriter and some wise words issuing forth from it. Here, the words say “Aspire to inspire others and the universe will take note”. I am not so sure about this confident assertion, but admire its trust in human nature. It was great to have Wrdsmth visit Bristol for Upfest, and it would be great to have the artist return sometime.

6193. Upfest 2024 (38)

Ivan Tortajada, Upfest 2024, East Street, Bristol, May 2024
Ivan Tortajada, Upfest 2024, East Street, Bristol, May 2024

Ivan Tortajada is a Spanish artist from Valencia whose stylised portrait pieces are unusual and fantastical. You can only fully get a feel of his work by checking out his website, which I thoroughly recommend. In this Upfest piece, he has cleverly brought together two characters on perpendicular surfaces and incorporated the large caterpillar that has occupied this wall for as long as I can remember.

Ivan Tortajada, Upfest 2024, East Street, Bristol, May 2024
Ivan Tortajada, Upfest 2024, East Street, Bristol, May 2024

The portrait on the left is painted with warm colours in his highly illustrative style. The character appears to be glancing at the caterpillar and is holding a lighted match, I hope without malicious intentions.

Ivan Tortajada, Upfest 2024, East Street, Bristol, May 2024
Ivan Tortajada, Upfest 2024, East Street, Bristol, May 2024

The adjacent portrait is in colder blue colours is also looking on at the caterpillar and appears to be holding a disc that the bug is resting on. The portrait is beautifully worked with stripes of graded blues, and a touch of yellow where there is reflected light. This is a beguiling piece and one that so cleverly fits into the selected spot, working with the existing caterpillar, rather than against it.

6192. Upfest 2024 (37)

Lemak, Upfest 2024, The Tobacco Factory, Bristol, May 2024
Lemak, Upfest 2024, The Tobacco Factory, Bristol, May 2024

There was a time when Lemak, a Bristol-based artist used to paint his stencils reasonably regularly on the streets. These days he concentrates on his studio pieces and electronic art installations and only occasionally paints outdoors, however, an invitation to Upfest is usually enough to winkle him out of his studio work.

Lemak, Upfest 2024, The Tobacco Factory, Bristol, May 2024
Lemak, Upfest 2024, The Tobacco Factory, Bristol, May 2024

This is an utterly outstanding multi-layered stencil of a woman in a space suit, a theme that Lemak has returned to for this piece. To add depth, quite literally, Lemak has added a couple of free standing pillars in front of the piece as bookends to help frame it. Goodness only knows how many hundreds of hours it would take to prepare all the layers for this piece, but the end product is overwhelmingly brilliant. It was noticeable that there weren’t too many stencil artists at this year’s Upfest, perhaps because they tend to work smaller walls, and the focus this year was on large feature walls that suit muralists more. It is so good to see Lemak’s work like this, and I hope that maybe he will treat us to another street piece before too long.

6191. Upfest 2024 (36)

Inkie, Upfest 2024, Gathorne Road, Bristol, May 2024
Inkie, Upfest 2024, Gathorne Road, Bristol, May 2024

Inkie is probably Bristol’s best known street artist, alongside Banksy (of course) and Nick Walker, and unlike the others, he still regularly paints in Bristol. It is pretty much a given that Inkie will be invited to Upfest to paint a significant wall, and for at least the second time he has painted the side of Parson’s Bakery on North Street.

Inkie, Upfest 2024, Gathorne Road, Bristol, May 2024
Inkie, Upfest 2024, Gathorne Road, Bristol, May 2024

‘Use your loaf” is the slogan Inkie has chosen for this classic piece with his very special writing and stylised portrait of a girl with long flowing hair. I don’t know if the colloquialism is one known outside the UK, but in this instance ‘loaf’ means brain or head… a bit like the phrase ‘use your noodle’… same thing. A clever slogan for a bakery. Wonderful stuff from Inkie.

Inkie, Gathorne Road, Bristol, July 2019
Inkie, Gathorne Road, Bristol, July 2019
Inkie, Gathorne Road, Bristol, June 2016
Inkie, Gathorne Road, Bristol, June 2016

 

 

6156. Upfest 2024 (35)

Jagung, Upfest 24, West Street, Bristol, May 2024
Jagung, Upfest 24, West Street, Bristol, May 2024

Lots going on this morning getting in the way of writing posts. The General Election results are in and we will have a labour Government, having seen off the Conservatives… at last. In my constituency a Green candidate won, which is great news, bringing the total of Green MPs up to 4 from 1 before – the start of something exciting perhaps. I am also not feeling too bright – I have tested negative for Covid, so it must be some other stoopid summer bug that I have.

Jagung, Upfest 24, West Street, Bristol, May 2024
Jagung, Upfest 24, West Street, Bristol, May 2024

There were so many outstanding Upfest murals this year, but this was one of the most eye-catching. Painted by Jagung, a young Malaysian artist, who loves to use colour, talking in his profile about playing with colour inversion, although I don’t see any evidence of it here.

Jagung, Upfest 24, West Street, Bristol, May 2024
Jagung, Upfest 24, West Street, Bristol, May 2024

The day I photographed this piece, it was surprisingly busy, and I had to wait a while before I could hog the space. The portrait piece is notable for the large amount of the wall taken up by the orange yellow and red figurative flames, and relatively small portrait – a clever device to create tons of movement and energy.

Jagung, Upfest 24, West Street, Bristol, May 2024
Jagung, Upfest 24, West Street, Bristol, May 2024

A close up of the face and hand of our hero shows that Jagung hasn’t shirked or dodged doing an incredible job with creating the realism of the face within the abstract frame of swirling flames. A hot mural in all senses of the word.

6155. Upfest 2024 (34)

Fesa, Upfest 24, West Street, Bristol, May 2024
Fesa, Upfest 24, West Street, Bristol, May 2024

It looks like Fesa got lucky and managed to paint in two different spots for Upfest this year. I have already posted his Dalmatian dog at the Redpoint Climbing Centre, and this is a four (8) panelled landscape piece that is absolutely wonderful.

Fesa, Upfest 24, West Street, Bristol, May 2024
Fesa, Upfest 24, West Street, Bristol, May 2024

Once again I am reminded of Cezanne-like landscapes of a continental European type, that conjures up a feeling of warmth and vacations. The piece used the window frames really well, reversing our viewpoint, and rather than looking into the building, we are looking out towards this landscape. The gull on the windowsill adds another layer of perspective. I am very drawn to Fesa’s work, and the calmness it gives off – I do hope he returns to Bristol sometime.

Fesa, Redpoint Climbing Centre, Upfest 24, Bristol, May 2024
Fesa, Redpoint Climbing Centre, Upfest 24, Bristol, May 2024