Tag: Upfest

4543. Upfest 2022 (25)

Not only is Upfest great for the people of Bristol and surrounding area, introducing them to the magnificent world of street art, but it is also a massive pull for artists too.  Artists are drawn from all over the globe to attend this important event on the calendar, but many artists are local to Bristol who rarely paint walls, but have the opportunity to transfer their studio skills to a more accessible format. Some even get a taste for it.

Rosie McLay, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022
Rosie McLay, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022

Rosie Mclay is a Bristol artist who has painted at Upfest before, but in between festivals she continues with her studio artwork, which I have seen her selling in the Tobacco Factory market once or twice, and fine stuff it is too. This piece is really rather beautiful, and she has used the larger format to great advantage. The ‘study’ has two feet joined by a piece of string which is wrapped around the big toes of each foot. The string is fraying in the middle. Colour and tone is added with the yellow circle and red triangle, although I am not quite sure what the whole thing is about. I am a fan of her work, and perhaps I ought to buy something next time I see her selling sketches.

Rosie McLay, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Rosie McLay, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018

4542. Upfest 2022 (24)

This is a fine piece of graphic writing from Acer for Upfest on a permanent wall, although the permanence of the wall is no guarantee for the permanence of the piece and sadly this has already been dogged, which is a pity, because it is a classy piece that commands this spot overlooking Greville Smyth Park.

Acer, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022
Acer, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022

It is something of a joy to watch Acer’s work and how it progresses from month to month and year to year. His theme these days seems to be based on a highly stylised font or series of fonts that incorporate black base-lettering with transitioning rainbow colour outlines, creating both high design and depth. The sentiment is a good one… PARTY, which is what Upfest 2022 turned out to be, and a great one at that.

4541. Upfest 2022 (23)

The man who paints (draws, geddit?), faster than his shadow. What a stunning piece, and definitely one of my favourites from Upfest this year. Featuring comic book character Lucky Luke, a series I never read as a kid, but rather wish that I had now, (I was more of an Asterix and Tintin fan), the piece, by Alain Welter is beautifully proportioned and structured, with a strong sense of depth.

Alain Welter, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022
Alain Welter, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022

The board is quite long, and Alain Welter has used the space cleverly by putting in the text on the left and reducing the width enough for the proportions of the piece to work. Alain Welter is an accomplished street artist from Luxembourg (a first for Upfest) whose website is definitely worth a visit. He even has a blog post about this piece, so he likes to keep things up to date.

Alain Welter, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022
Alain Welter, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022

When producing graffiti writing, it seems that Alain Welter uses the the letters MOPE, hence Lucky Mope instead of Luke. There is so much to like about this piece, it is very easy on the eye, witty, and the artwork is superb, just take a look at the writing on a curtain. Clever stuff. I do hope that Alain Welter makes it back to Bristol for next year’s Upfest.

4540. Upfest 2022 (22)

It is always great to see street art that deviates from the norm that we are used to seeing, namely spray can art, and every year at Upfest, Angus, a local Bristol artist, treats us to a mosaic or two, although he is also an accomplished spray artist too, he seems to have preferred his mosaics in recent years.

Angus, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022
Angus, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022

This rather fun piece on one of the walls of the Hen and Chicken, a key venue for Upfest art, features a dog enjoying a pint of beer. I took the picture on a bright day, with shadows cast across the piece, but being an inherently lazy person, I haven’t been back to get the ‘perfect’ picture, but then I suppose who is to say what a perfect picture actually is. Enough covid-induced philosophising. Great work from Angus, and more to come.

4539. Upfest 2022 (21)

If only I felt a little better, I could do a fabulous write-up of this remarkable and innovative piece by Victoriano for this year’s Upfest. Painted on a wall that hosted my favourite Upfest 2021 75×75 piece, this had quite a lot to live up to.

Victoriano, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022
Victoriano, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022

When I first saw the piece, it was a work in progress, but it was only when I checked out the artist on Instagram that I realised that there were several versions of the work in progress, each of which was photographed and then stitched together to make a time-lapse video of the dog running – You can see this innovation on Victoriano’s Facebook page, and on his Instagram feed, both well worth a look to see the creativity of the piece, and his first augmented wall.

Victoriano, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022
Victoriano, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022

Right, that’s your lot for today, I am off to bed.

4523. Upfest 2022 (20)

Mazcan produced my absolute favourite collaboration of last year’s Upfest 75 walls in 75 days (75×75) event, so it was a great pleasure to meet her while painting the second of two portraits, both in Greville Smyth Park over the two days of the festival.

Mazcan, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022
Mazcan, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022

The portrait, you might recognise as Uma Thurman and in my view, is an excellent likeness in her stylised form. It was interesting to see how quickly Mazcan was able to produce this piece, which was a bit of a bonus extra piece, using up one of the spare boards available on the second day.

Mazcan, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022
Mazcan, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022

When I see art like this, I realise how lucky we are in Bristol to host Europe’s largest street art festival in the shape of Upfest, and I offer huge respect to Steve and Emma who together with their team manage to organise a truly phenomenal event on such a regular basis. Lovely stuff.

Mazcan, King William Street, Bristol, June 2021, Upfest 21
Mazcan, King William Street, Bristol, June 2021, Upfest 21

4522. Upfest 2022 (19)

How wonderful to see a familiar Bristol artist taking up one of the semi-permanent walls at Upfest this year. The artist in question is the magnificent Kid Crayon with the first of two Upfest pieces, the other being on a temporary board in Greville Smyth Park.

Kid Crayon, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022
Kid Crayon, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022

This rather rare (these days) street piece by Kid Crayon features his name in blues and pinks, nicely worked around the notice board on the wall and a beautiful cartoon-style portrait. The portrait of a silver-haired woman wearing a choker round her neck, is a fine portrait indeed and works so well with his style. The best bit is a return of a floating crayon just in front of the woman’s mouth. It is so good to see Kid Crayon hitting walls again, I only hope he finds time to keep up the momentum.

4521. Upfest 2022 (18)

One of Bristol’s biggest losses (in street art terms) in recent years was the departure of Aspire, who took up residence in the old smoke, making the opposite decision to the one I made many years ago. I definitely know where I’d rather live, and it is not in London. On the upside, Aspire does come to visit Bristol from time to time, and he always seems to dazzle us during Upfest.

Aspire, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022
Aspire, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022

Aspire specialises in creating the most beautiful pictures of birds and in this Upfest piece he has perfectly captured my favourite British bird, the Goldfinch. His work is never complete without his trademark pixelation, and it is interesting to see from this work in progress, that he adds the pixels at the end of the painting process.

Aspire, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022
Aspire, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022

I love this piece, it feels very uncluttered, and the neutral skyline background serves to lift the goldfinch out from the boards. If you are interested in seeing more of Aspire’s work, I recommend you take a little look at a gallery I compiled in 2018, and updated today.

I leave you with three Haiku poems I wrote about goldfinches:

Charm

Goldfinches return

colours exaggerated

in bright winter sun

Lucky Charm

One…two…five…seven…

nine goldfinches together

in our silver birch.

Haiku 7

Vibrant tricolor

and flanking golden flashes

majestic goldfinch

4520. Upfest 2022 (17)

This is an extraordinary piece from TEAone for Upfest 2022, and one of my firm favourites this year. From a distance, the piece has a photorealistic quality, looking like an old photograph from a scrapbook or something like that. The effect is quite amazing.

TEAone, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022
TEAone, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022

TEAone manages to create an incredible atmosphere in this scene with what looks like a continental street. It is set in a warm climate, with the air conditioning units and washing hanging out to dry, and the archway and shopfront and awning have all the hallmarks of a European country, and the word Cucina suggests it would be Italy. I absolutely love this piece… it fills my nostrils with the smells of abroad and a longing to be where this is. I can lose myself in this piece and forget that I am standing in the middle of Bedminster. Bravo TEAone.

4519. Upfest 2022 (16)

I have met Goin only once and it was at an Upfest a few years ago. He had just finished a stencil piece in a spot that was not a recognised Upfest wall (let’s call it) and was looking rather sheepish. I tried to strike up a conversation with him, but he wished to keep his anonymity intact and was backwards in coming forwards (and who can blame him). Things have moved on since then, and Goin has created this magnificent wall for Upfest 2022.

Goin, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022
Goin, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022

I had to have a couple of goes at photographing this piece, because there were shadows running across the wall in my first attempts. This was one of the first walls to be completed at this year’s Upfest, and is a real statement piece. Big, bold and simple the girl in greyscale is wearing a beret, but the only revolution here is for love. The only colour is a red badge on her beret and the heart cushion she is clasping to her chest. The piece feels important and significant and is a strong message in these uncertain and troubling times.