Tag: Upfest

1736. Upfest 2018 (47)

One of the privileges that wheatpasters have is that they can spend lots of time in the studio conceiving and preparing their work, and only a few minutes pasting it up. That is not to say it is in any inferior to any other kind of street art, it is just different and requires different skill sets. Perhaps the most challenging part is finding the exact right spot to paste a piece up, and in this instance, Face the Strange has nailed it with this large expanse of red brick wall.

Face the Strange, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Face the Strange, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018

The piece itself is a clever reworking of Waddington’s Cluedo in which each of the characters have been given the Face the Strange treatment and have heads relating to their names. I really rather like this concept piece as did many other visitors to the festival who were gathered round it. This artist’s name says it all really.

1735. Upfest 2018 (46)

Tim Marsh is not an artist I know, but I feel I almost know him by proxy as he is a friend of Lewis Duncan, he of the brilliant No Grey Walls website featuring street art in Barcelona – and there’s the link, Tim Marsh who was born in Paris now lives in Barcelona. You can read a great interview between the two here.

Tim Marsh, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Tim Marsh, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018

This piece is a cool take on The Simpsons theme for this year’s festival and shows a rather furtive Bart in a hoodie smoking a cigarette. This is the Bart that he might become if ever he gets any older. The title of the piece perhaps gives us more of a clue, and introduces other famous people…Salvador Banksy.

Tim Marsh, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Tim Marsh, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018

The piece has been nicely painted and the bits of tape in one of the pictures give you a clue to how he achieves his straight lines. This is a lovely piece on a new wall for Upfest and one that is well worth searching out…It is in Ruby Street, Bedminster.

 

 

1734. Upfest 2018 (45)

This magnificent piece by Danny Rumbl is in a retro style that I really love, and it reminds me of the fine character works of Deamze and Sepr. The subtle blue-grey shades are extremely effective, and a great example of how sometimes ‘less is more’.

Danny Rumbl, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Danny Rumbl, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018

Danny Rumbl is an illustrator from the Netherlands who grew up with and was inspired by American cartoons of the 1960s, children’s books and nature all of which I think are reflected in this piece. What I like most about it though is the simple form, the crisp, clean lines and the solid fills. A highlight of the festival.

1733. Upfest 2018 (44)

I don’t get to see very much of Guts’ work, but when I do see it I pretty much always like it. His style seems to bridge that gap between graffiti and street art and always feels a bit old-school, a good thing in my view.

Guts, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Guts, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018

This shutter piece features ghosts, skulls and monsters but all framed in a gentle and humorous style. The fez on the red ghost to the right of the piece really tickles me – I don’t know why. Lovely piece.

1732. Upfest 2018 (43)

The quality of Stencil work at this year’s Upfest was once again really high, and this beautiful piece from Neverender Design is just one of many examples of this. The portrait is a six layer stencil piece which looks rather tribal to me and is full of atmosphere and mystery and well as being technically excellent.

Neverender Design, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Neverender Design, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018

Neverender Design is a huge inspiration to any wannabe artists because he was inspired to start his own work at Upfest 2013 and he decided he would like to return to the festival as an artist rather than as a spectator. Well, here he is, and in my view he has absolutely smashed it. There’s hope for me yet.

1731. Upfest 2018 (42)

I approached Upfest on the Saturday morning from East Street and as I was at that end of Bedminster, dived into Dean Lane skate park because it is always busy with ‘fringe’ festival art, and by that I mean it is not all entirely official. This is one such stencil work by About Ponny, an artist not known to me before…I have immediately become a fan.

About Ponny, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
About Ponny, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018

About Ponny is a highly skilled stencil artist from Bologna in Italy and I found a short biography on his Facebook page which I have translated from the Italian using Google translate. It reads as follows:

Ponny was born in Bologna one evening after dinner.

Single, but only in the name, because always accompanied; for this reason it has no gender.

Son of a game between friends and of the passion for art, in all its forms, as long as expression and creativity, incessant source of emotion.

In continuous search for balance on the edge of legality, the road torments him, the only place to express himself!

This work, in  my mind, is stencil work of the highest calibre. The subject is touching and soulful, the execution brilliant, the colour scheme has an earthy and innocent quality and the location is brilliant. One of the best ‘unofficial’ Upfest 2018 pieces.

1730. Upfest 2018 (41)

Off we go again on another batch of fabulous street/graffiti art from Upfest 2018, starting with this stunner from Lokey. Lokey, a Bristol artist is a specialist at 3D writing, and this piece is close to perfection in my view. With subtle shading and clever ‘hourglass’ highlights the letters LOKEY are lifted out from the black background.

Lokey, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Lokey, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018

Everything about this piece is good – the colours, the design and proportions and the lovely clean sharp lines. This is definitely one of my favourite graffiti pieces from the festival this year. It took me a couple of days to get a good picture of it though, because every time I went to take a look at it, there were bunches of people standing in front of it. There should be a law against that.

1715. Upfest 2018 (40)

This is an outstanding large mural by Sicilian duo Rosk and Loste and one of the finest of the larger pieces at this year’s festival. Unfortunately I am unable to tell you anything more about the artists, because I can’t find anything about them on the Interweb.

Rosk and Lost, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Rosk and Loste, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018

This massive wall is slightly set apart from the main concentration of Upfest artwork, and probably receives fewer visitors during the festival weekend which is highly unfortunate, because this piece is really impressive.

Rosk and Lost, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Rosk and Loste, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018

I didn’t actually get to see it until a few weeks after Upfest, because it is in a part of town I rarely visit and I had to wait until I was passing by to get these pictures. The photorealistic style is so impressive as is the scale. Worth the journey.

1714. Upfest 2018 (39)

The artist for this piece is Rosie McLay, not to be confused with Muffin Mclay the old English sheepdog in the brilliant book ‘Hairy Mclary from Donaldson’s Dairy’ by Lynley Dodd. I digress. Rosie is a graduate of UWE in Bristol where she studied drawing and applied arts. There is more about her in this interesting short interview on the ‘Sky Light Rain’ website

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

Her piece for Upfest of course appeals to me because it is centered on a fish, and some readers might know that fish hold considerable significance for me. I love her sketch style and there are some interesting concepts to the piece, the bones in the mouth of the fish and a hand emerging by the tail and a skyline along the base of the piece, I would love to know the back-story to this one. Great work from Rosie McLay.

1713. Upfest 2018 (38)

The forecast for Upfest this year had been pretty dreadful, which was disappointing as the rain came in the middle of a heat wave and prolonged spell of dry weather. The impact on many artists was that they made hay while the sun shined and finished their pieces early on Saturday. The upshot to this is that there were several artists I would have liked to catch up with that were long gone by the time I found their work.

Decay, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Decay, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018

Decay has long been a favourite of mine, and it is great to see that in 2018 he has really started to grow his style while keeping the basic elements of his colour pallette and curvy lines. This is a 10 year celebration piece and has a nice little dedication to Emma and Steve, the masterminds behind Upfest in the top right. If I am not mistaken, there is a Bowie lyric in there too. This is a nice splash of colour and a lovely nod to the festival itself.