Tag: Upfest

434. Upfest 2016 (50)

Without question, one of the highlights of this year’s Upfest was this magnificent mural by the fabulous Louis Masai. His works are nearly always highlight threats to the environment or endangered species and on that ticket alone he ranks highly in my own personal favourite artists.

Louis Masai, Redpoint, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Louis Masai, Redpoint, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

His recent murals have featured animals painted with a patchwork quilt kind of effect, and in this case the rhinoceros is being stitched together by a honey bee and a bumble bee.

Louis Masai, Redpoint, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Louis Masai, Redpoint, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

It is difficult not to be impressed with this work, and not surprisingly Louis Masai’s status in the street art world has grown in the last year or two.

Louis Masai, Redpoint, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Louis Masai, Redpoint, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

Definitely, definitely in my top five pieces from this year’s festival. It is a pity that it is slightly off the beaten track as many visitors to Upfest will have missed it. The piece is on the Redpoint Bristol Climbing Centre on Winterstoke Road.

Louis Masai, Redpoint, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Louis Masai, Redpoint, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

It would be great if he could return next year, although I’m not sure he could better this one.

433. Upfest 2016 (49)

Seeing Bristol street artists’ work at Upfest just felt right. In amongst all the exotic invitees to the festival were the artists that put Bristol on the map in the first place. If there wasn’t a street art scene here in the first place then there would be no festival.

Kid Crayon, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Kid Crayon, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

This cheeky piece by Kid Crayon is yet another great work by one of my favourite Bristol street artists. I read, I think on KC’s Instagram feed, that he was not happy with the piece and that the sun had played havoc with his spray cans. Havoc or not, KC never fails to please, with his bright colours and Picassoesque ‘blue’ figures. Keep them coming!

432. Upfest 2016 (48)

C3 is a street artist I admire very much. The distinctive cut out pasteups C3 produces were very much in evidence at Upfest along the hotly contested spots of North Street. There wasn’t a biography of C3 in the Upfest programme, so I am not certain that the works were entirely official, which in my mind makes them all the better.

C3, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
C3, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

The work of C3 will often feature, as in this wheatpaste, a backdrop of newspaper, typically with an image of a woman in black ink and red hair. Instantly recognisable and each telling a story of love or heartbreak. Since seeing C3’s work in Bristol, I have photographed a whole lot more in Shoreditch, which I will share soon. Worth a quick squint at C3’s website too.

430. Upfest 2016 (46)

One of the best things about my personal journey into the world of graffiti art and street art has been the discovery and continuing observation of Tom Miller. Tom is a fine artist who has turned his hand, like many others, to the street and with stunning results.

Tom Miller, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Tom Miller, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

This work was produced for Upfest, and I managed to catch him just as he was signing the piece. Some great shots, but my intrusion came at the expense of a film maker who has been following Tom for a couple of years…I got in the way a bit…oops.

Tom Miller, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Tom Miller, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

All was ok though as we have a mutual interest in Tom,’s work, and my accidental ‘photobomb’ was forgiven.

Tom Miller, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Tom Miller, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

Tom’s work is centered around his construct of ‘imaginite’ which is, I think, the idea of capturing the mind’s thoughts in art. A fabulous concept, and one that draws heavily on the Surrealist movement. I just love his work and this is a beauty.

418. Upfest 2016 (45)

Krishna Malla is an illustrator from Cornwall. As a frequent visitor to Cornwall, I need to seek out some of his work, as street art is hard to come by down there. His wonderful work at Upfest, of a snail (what is it about snails…see 3Dom’s recent work in Stokes Croft) contains two of his alias’ ‘Hare’ and ‘Tech Moon’.

Krishna Malla, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Krishna Malla, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

He has a nice website, in which his ‘About’ section reads as follows:

“Street artist and illustrator from Cornwall.

I like doing drawings.”

That’s pretty cool. Krishna Malla teaches at the Arts University Bournemouth, which is also pretty cool. Given that Bristol is somewhere between Cornwall and Bournemouth, it would be nice to think he might drop by and paint something new for us sometime.

417. Upfest 2016 (44)

I have been aware of The Addicted Doodler for some time, but never posted any of his work before (something that will change I assure you). What I didn’t know until I started to find out a little bit more, was just what a brilliant designer and illustrator the Bristol-based artist is as well as his more familiar street art.

The Addicted Doodler, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
The Addicted Doodler, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

This piece from Upfest is typical of his light-hearted style in which he gives human characteristics to inanimate objects in a cartoon style, sometimes quite reminiscent of Mr Potatohead. Personification? Whatever the style is called, I love the bright and cheerful look he brings to the streets of Bristol.

416. Upfest 2016 (43)

I like a bit of edge, and at This year’s upfest it was provided in small doses by the brilliant wheatpaster ‘What Have I Done Now’. I don’t know if he had a ‘feature piece’ or whether he had been invited to simply paste up his work wherever he felt like, but there was plenty of the latter on show.

What Have I Done Now, North Street, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
What Have I Done Now, North Street, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

This small Piece appeared on the corner of a large advertising hoarding, and as with so many of these things, many visitors to Upfest walked straight past it, probably focusing on finding the next art venue. A pity.

What Have I Done Now, North Street, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
What Have I Done Now, North Street, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

I liked What Have I Done Now’s biography in the Upfest programme, it reads:

‘When people ask me what kind of artist I am, I say political.As more often than not I’m responding to the machinery of control as it grinds us all up in its gears. I’m trying to remind folk we can simply refuse to stop applying the grease.‘

Good words, and great art work. More to come.

415. Upfest 2016 (42)

There were several highly memorable pieces at Upfest this year, and this photorealistic colour negative by Takerone was in my view one of the best. Takerone, who comes from Hungary, tries to make his art photo real, but makes an effort to retain a natural look.

Takerone, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Takerone, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

If, like me, you are wondering what the positive image looks like, then definitely take a look at Takerone’s Facebook page which has a brilliant film clip with positive and negative versions of his work side by side. Just a great idea and incredible execution. I have tried to cut an image from his video below:

Takerone, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Takerone, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

414. Upfest 2016 (41)

23Magpies is an artist I have admired for sometime now. Although she has already featured in one Upfest 2016 post already, her ‘official’ work, I couldn’t resist including some of her ‘extras’.

23Magpies, North Street, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
23Magpies, North Street, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

These extras are often left behind by street artists during a festival and wheatpastes in particular seem to appear all over the place. 23Magpies leaves these treats for people like me to find. Often she pastes them onto utility boxes and lamp posts.

23Magpies, North Street, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
23Magpies, North Street, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

Generally to get a good look and photograph one needs to stoop somewhat drawing strange glances from passers-by. Of course if you don’t look, you won’t see. Some will never see beyond their next text message.

23Magpies, North Street, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
23Magpies, North Street, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

23Magpies is known for her wildlife and environmental themes in her work and with this cat and mouse pair she doesn’t sdisappoint. More 23Magpies extras in a future post…I promise.

407. Upfest 2016 (40)

One of the most striking pieces at Upfest this year was this incredible portrait by Title. There is something about this work that simply draws you in to take a closer look.

Title, Upfest, Bristol, July2016
Title, Upfest, Bristol, July2016

Title, emerged from the hip hop and graffiti writing culture in Birmingham in the eighties before moving onto canvass work in the ’90s and studying  computer graphics and digital art.

Title, Upfest, Bristol, July2016
Title, Upfest, Bristol, July2016

Thankfully, he has returned to the streets with enthusiasm and appears to be enjoying himself returning to his first passion. It is difficult not to be intrigued by this piece. The face seems to be that of a young man…there was a #Alfie on the image on his website, maybe it was him.

An aside – a great many pictures by street artists seem to feature spray cans – the tools of the trade – note to self…write a special on spray cans.