Upfest – Page 67 – Natural adventures

675. Upfest 2016 (102)

I think I have said it before, but one of the great pleasures of Upfest is to see the work of artists from all over the world and from all kinds of disciplines descend on our little patch of South Bristol. One such artist, ‘Climber’ or Lee Nowell-Wilson from Baltimore left us with this beautiful portrait of a young child.

Climber graduated with a Batchelors in painting in 2011. According to her Upfest bio, she now works at bringing those traditional skills to the streets. With creating relationships as the main objective, she strives after levels of vulnerability within her work to encounter people in their everyday. She certainly achieves her objective with this piece.

674. Upfest 2016 (101)

There was an underlying theme to Upfest 2016 and that was the emergence of ‘Mr Graff’. This was a playful idea where Cheo was asked to create Mr Graff in the style of Roger Hargreaves ‘Mr Men’. Other artists were encouraged to play with the idea, and several did exactly that.

This piece ‘Mr Impossible’, is by the colourful and talented Loch Ness who specialises in psychedelic and surreal imagery. His pieces often have a host of playful characters sprayed in a multitude of great colours. Loch Ness also sprayed another piece at the school during the festival, but I don’t have a picture of the completed work, which was still behind scaffolding when I caught up with him for a chat. His work brightens up the dullness around us.

651. Upfest 2016 (100)

This is my 100th post about the amazing Upfest 2016 which happened during July in Bedminster, Bristol. At a guess I would say that I am only about half way through reporting on the pieces I photographed. Some of the remaining images probably won’t make the cut and anyway I only have a few months left to go before Upfest 2017 will be upon us.

This is a really interesting stencil piece by Eins92 who specialises in micro stencils and who has already appeared in this blog for another piece he did at the festival. In this work he has created five micro stencils of the same subject but with different densities of paint and different layers. It is an interesting piece, but one that needed studying a little.

The fine detail in these tiny pictures is remarkable. I would hate to guess how long each of the stencils takes to cut. He must have the patience of angels.

650. Upfest 2016 (99)

It seems that everywhere I looked during Upfest, I was being stalked by this brilliant little creature, called Jake the dog, created by LostHills. In each of the paste ups, Jake the dog is striking a different pose with something different happening. I love this kind of themed approach to street art.

Losthills, Jake, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

Although I don’t believe that Losthills was an official artist at Upfest, his wheatpastes brightened up every corner of Bedminster, and several still remain six months on.

Together with C3, 23 Magpies, Phoebe New York, Face the Strange, What have I done Now and D7606, paste up artists were very well represented at Upfest 2016, and I rather hope there will be more this year.

649. Upfest 2016 (98)

One of the most charming pieces of Upfest 2016 must surely have been this cat and mouse mural by Boe and Irony.

Boe and Irony, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

Unfortunately during the festival, I don’t think this piece got as much notice as perhaps it should have done for two reasons. Firstly, the scaffolding remained up until after the festival, and secondly it was tucked away in an area that was slightly off the beaten track. In a way this makes it almost more attractive and exclusive for Bristol street art fans.

I don’t know too much about either of the artists, there wasn’t even a biography in the programme for Boe. I have seen some of Irony’s work on social media before, but this is the first of his works I have seen ‘in the flesh’.

Boe and Irony, Upfest, Bristol, January 2017

Irony describes himself on his Facebook page as a ‘painter, street artist, vandal’. That’s the spirit. Looking at his other works, it is difficult to believe that this London-based artist is self-taught.

This piece is so beautifully sprayed, the fur on both the cat and the mouse is amazing, and the electric-blue outline really makes the piece stand out.

Who wouldn’t want something like this on the side of their house?

648. Upfest 2016 (97)

In the car park of the Tobacco Factory, the far left area of wall space was taken up by the Spanish artist Rudiart. Reading from the Upfest notes, it seems that Rudiart began painting in the streets of Cacares in the early 90s, but the City simply wasn’t ready for this kind of art, so by the end of the decade he moved on to Madrid.

Since that time he has grown as an artist and travels around Europe to different festivals, exhibitions and events.

I managed to take pictures of his work on both days of the festival, and he was in full flow with spraying on the Saturday.

This piece comes in two halves. On the right is some wildstyle writing with a heavy 3D effect, something of a specialisation for Rudiart.

On the left hand side of the piece he paints a futuristic scene depicting a lady in a spacesuit, with a rather nice ‘R’ on her cap.

The two halves come together nicely, although I don’t have a very good picture of the whole. His Facebook page is worth a quick look, and he did post a decent picture of the whole piece in one shot. Nice to see him at the festival.

647. Upfest 2016 (96)

One of the pleasures of Upfest 2016 was the sheer volume of wheatpastes that appeared on billboards, lamp posts, letterboxes and other utility boxes. One of the busiest of these paste up artists was Face the Strange, who must have come to Bristol with a suitcase filled with his work.

Face the Strange, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

This piece is really rather odd, odder than many of his other pieces and that is saying something. A raspberry lady in a business suit walking with crutches – what is going on here? It isn’t so much shocking as just weird. I rather like it though and you can see that a lot of thought and effort has gone into this small wheatpaste.

625. Upfest 2016 (95)

This piece is a really interesting collaboration between Ulysses Nevmer and Alexandr Hade both from Minsk in Belarus. Searching the Interweb to try and find out more about them, it would appear that they have worked together before.

Ulysses Nevmer and Alexandr Hade, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

The piece features two female portraits, looking towards one another. It is difficult to know if they are the same person or different people, but there is clearly a story going on. There is a confidence about Nevmer’s figure and on the left and Hade’s figure to the right is seeming to look on, longingly with some uncertainty.

Ulysses Nevmer, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

Ulysses Nevmer tends to paint people, so she says in the Upfest programme biography, “because they are beautiful , also not only outside!” You can see more of her work on her Facebook page.

Alexandr Hade, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

Aleksandr Hade has an interesting statement in his biography and it relates to the story in his pieces mentioned above:

“The front layer of Aleksandr’s works may seem pretty obvious and straightforward at first sight, though almost always it has its hidden meaning or a story to tell. The whole essence of his art concludes in prompting the audience to speculate on the real storyline and the idea beneath the seem-to-be-evident form. Aleksandr mostly touches on the themes of diverging time, people’s attitude to nature and mythology.”

624. Upfest 2016 (94)

Peter Sheridan is an artist from Glasgow who is now based in Dorset having been raised in Manchester. He has been painting since 1982 when he returned from an inspirational trip to New York at the tender age of 12.

Peter Sheridan, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

This piece was one of the first satirical pieces that I had seen, coming so soon after Theresa May had been appointed as leader of the Conservative Party in Early June 2016, and by default landed the job of Prime Minister.

Sheridan managed to combine May’s rise to the top with the Pokémon-go craze that was sweeping the nation at the same time.

This is a great commentary piece and presents us with a rather sinister view of the Prime Minister, something that I think chimes with a great many people who are not wedded to the right/far right of British politics.

623. Upfest 2016 (93)

There were an enormous number of works to look at and absorb at Upfest 2016, and inevitably some didn’t register at the time, but were snapped in the moment and retained. This piece, by Christian Boehmer, was one of those that I don’t recall, but that I am so pleased I captured so that I have been able to study it and enjoy it in preparing to write this post.

Christian Boehmer, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

Boehmer, from Germany, is an artist who creates urban street art and drawings which have a common thread, all the figures have a paper bag over their head. I rather like this, in part because it satisfies my love of surreal art, but also because there is something very powerful in obscuring people’s faces and expressions. You need to study more their clothes, bodies, gestures, movements and so on without being distracted by the face. And then you are left being curious about the face and the personality. I like this piece a lot.

	paulh121 on 7403. Dean Lane skate park…
	hitandrun1964 on 7402. Stapleton Road
	paulh121 on 7402. Stapleton Road
	Loveswing on Winter afternoon
	scooj on 7400. St Werburghs tunnel…

	paulh121 on 7403. Dean Lane skate park…
	hitandrun1964 on 7402. Stapleton Road
	paulh121 on 7402. Stapleton Road
	Loveswing on Winter afternoon
	scooj on 7400. St Werburghs tunnel…

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: