Urban – Page 144 – Natural adventures

6076. Upfest 2024 (13)

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

This extraordinary mural by Serbian artist Artez is one of the most iconic pieces to emerge from the incredible Upfest 2024, which was staged over three weekends in May and June. Although there wasn’t a street ‘festival’ this year in one of the south Bristol Parks, the organisers triumphed with finding a host of new walls to feature some of the best artists in the world.

I was not familiar with Artez, as I don’t believe he has visited Bristol before, but after seeing this piece I will most definitely be keeping an eye on him. There is a wonderful connection in this piece with the space it is painted on and the subject, whose tummy aligns with the vertical wall and bent knees reflect the pitch of the roof. Clever stuff.

I could spend hours looking at this piece, which gives off an incredible sense of calm and peacefulness. The unusual position that the woman is in adds interest, and the large empty spaces around her draw attention to her face, her body and the folds of material in her clothes. A masterpiece from Artez.

6075. Upfest 2024 (12)

Cock Dicks, Greville Smyth Park, Upfest 24, Bristol, May 2024

Cock Dicks is a Bristol-Based artist who occasionally transfers her skills to the walls in Bristol alongside the Bristol Mural Collective. In this piece for Upfest 2024, up at the Greville Smyth Park Bowling Club, she has painted a mural containing the most iconic emblem of Bristol, some hot air balloons.

I was lucky enough to meet Cock Dicks, whose mischievous name is derived from her surname (Dicks) combined with her mother’s maiden name (Cock), while she was painting this piece and told her that I had written about her art on Natural Adventures before, and she seemed to be surprised that I knew that she had painted with the Bristol Mural Collective occasionally.

Using brushes rather than spray cans, Cock Dicks has created a rather loveable collection of balloons, each with big eyes and differing expressions cleverly portrayed by the shape of the eyebrows and mouth and angle of the eyes. This is a piece for all the family, and captures the spirit of Bristol and Upfest perfectly.

6074. Upfest 2024 (11)

Liam Bononi, Lime Road, Upfest 24, Bristol, May 2024

Liam Bononi is right up there with some of the best street artists in the country and beyond, and it is a great privilege that he has returned to Bristol and Upfest with this outstanding portrait piece in Lime Road. I got a little lucky with these pictures, because there is usually a car parked in the bay, partially obscuring this wall.

The portrait piece is different from work I have seen before by the artist, in that usually he distorts the image in some way through ‘cracks’ or obscured features and so on, but here he appears to have gone with a straightforward portrait. His photorealistic work is outstanding and manages to convey more than simply an accurate portrayal by capturing both emotion and movement in the subject.

There is one nod to obscurity in this piece in the form of the golden violin bow, which is lacking in any detail. I am not too sure what to read into this deliberate mechanism, and may have to do a little research. One of the highlights of Upfest this year.

6073. Wilder Street (43)

Zoe Power, Wilder Street, Bristol, May 2024

This piece by Zoe Power would be equally at home in my street art posts or as part of the Thursday doors series (watch this space, because it will eventually appear in the latter). Zoe Power is a successful artist i Bristol, whose commissions can be found on walls all over the city. Her style is clear and simple and overtones of the Fauvist school of art which was known for its bold use of colours and expressive brushwork. Henri Matisse, I am convinced, is an inspiration behind some of Zoe Power’s work.

This door is an absolute beauty which blends colours and shapes seamlessly. There are plenty of recognisable icons and motifs, such as an eye, a pencil, a mouth, a heart and a plant all presented in an abstract format. The colour palette works well and the door is surely one of the prettiest in the area. A fine commission from Zoe Power.

6072. Various Locations

Klashwhensober, St Paul's, Bristol, May 2024 — Klashwhensober, St Paul’s, Bristol, May 2024

When you see the title ‘various locations’ you can be fairly sure that the post is likely to feature Bristol’s most prolific graffiti writer, Klashwhensober, and you wouldn’t be wrong. This is a roundup of ‘SOBER’ pieces by the artist from May 2024 – by bunching them together I am able to continue to post other artists’ work, at the expense of not commentating on each of the pieces by Klashwhensober.

Klashwhensober, River Avon, Bristol, May 2024

Klashwhensober, St Werburghs, Bristol, May 2024

Klashwhensober, M32 roundabout, Bristol, May 2024

Klashwhensober, Leonard Lane, Bristol, May 2024

Klashwhensober, Upper York Street, Bristol, May 2024

You can tell from this mini-gallery, that Klashwhensober has a recognisable style of writing, but what brings out his work as special is the uniqueness of each piece with regard to colours and fill patterns and the occasional accompaniment of a character. What is also clear is that the artist has good days, and less good days when the finishing can appear a little rushed.

I believe that this is the best way to post Klashwhensober’s work without compromising my desire to share the full spectrum of street/graffiti art in Bristol.

Fig – 30 Days Wild (4/30)

Fig tree, Ficus carica, River Frome, Bristol, June 2024 — Fig tree, *Ficus carica*, River Frome, Bristol, June 2024

Resilient fig

unlikely urban foothold

nature will prevail

by Scooj

30 Days Wild is an initiative organised by the Wildlife Trusts. It is an annual challenge event, for those who choose to participate, to do one ‘wild’ thing a day throughout the month of June. I will try to write a nature haiku every day if I can, as my contribution to this celebration of wildlife and biodiversity. I did this back in 2015 and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge.

6071. M32 Spot (185)

Zaenone and The Mole, M32 Spot, Bristol, May 2024

For most people, coming across a street/graffiti artist while they are actually painting is probably something of a rarity. Because I am out most days in all the most popular spots, it is quite unusual not to meet someone while they are painting, and on this day I happened upon Zaenone and The Mole as they were working on this collaboration.

I had not met Zaenone before, although we have exchanged a few words on social media before. He was fairly quiet when I met him, and I mostly spoke with The Mole. This is a classic piece from Zaenone, typically bookended with characters and the letters ZAEN sandwiched in the middle. The combination has a psychedelic buzz going on, with the hippy characters and the multicoloured fills, topped off with peace symbols.

The Mole has written INCA and included his familiar mole character on the right of the piece, beautifully filled I might add. I asked him where the inspiration for the word Inca came from, and it is completely as you might expect, he has an interest in the Incas. The Mole character was created and developed during the first lockdown (if I remember correctly). As ever it is always great to welcome these LRS lads back to Bristol for a paint.

6070. Leicester

I saw an awful lot of street art and graffiti writing in Leicester on a work trip to the city last month, and I have had to be quite selective on what I have selected to post. This piece by Annatomix might not be one of the best pieces I photographed, but I have a soft spot for her work, and the subject matter, a fox, is representative of the city of Leicester.

Annatomix is know for her representations of wildlife that resemble a folded paper model, recreated in her artwork. It is a style that she has perfected and made her own. There is a crispness and accuracy to her work that is admirable, and her ability to create a completely believable image of something that we can imagine, but that doesn’t exist is remarkable. A lovely piece and fond memory of my trip.

6069. Leicester

On a recent work trip to Leicester, I was fortunate enough to have a little over an hour early in the morning before meeting up with colleagues to wander around the streets. I met a very nice man called Cameron who showed me around the best spots, which probably saved me a great deal of time.

My visit also happened to coincide (utterly unplanned) with Leicester’s ‘Bring the Paint’ festival. Unfortunately, it was the first day of the festival and no new pieces were yet painted. What I do have though is a good record of the pieces that were at the end of their lifespan and were due to be painted over. This extraordinary piece by Smug was not being painted over, thankfully.

This is an iconic piece by Smug, and one that I had seen all over social media, but hadn’t ever registered where it was located, so coming across it in Leicester was an absolute bonus. There are no words really that would do the piece justice, so I will probably leave it there and just enjoy the memory of one of the best murals I have ever seen.

6068. St Werburghs tunnel (427)

Mr Draws, St Werburghs, Bristol, May 2024

I would truly love to post all of Mr Draws’ pieces, but unfortunately, like so many others, I simply don’t have the bandwidth to do so, and many remain in my archive. I think that the only solution is to have ‘sweep up’ posts in which I trawl through unpublished pieces over the last few months and create a mini gallery in a single post. It is a tactic I have used for posting Klashwhensober’s pieces, because of his extraordinary productivity rate.

This is a nicely presented classic Mr Draws piece, written in his easy and familiar style. A chrome fill dominates, with yellow and lilac patterning. The red drop shadow is very neat and tidy as is the yellow border. The final additional touch is in the form of tly disrupting the form to add interest. Nice stuff from Mr Draws.

	Sheree on 7433. St Werburghs tunnel…
	Bill Bisgood on By a frozen lake
	scooj on 7432. M32 roundabout J3 (…
	scooj on Mont Blanc
	scooj on Mont Blanc

	Sheree on 7433. St Werburghs tunnel…
	Bill Bisgood on By a frozen lake
	scooj on 7432. M32 roundabout J3 (…
	scooj on Mont Blanc
	scooj on Mont Blanc

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