At the entrance to St Werburghs tunnel, Face 1st left this beautiful trademark piece a little while back. It would seem that Face 1st has been experimenting of late with some angular block lettering which I have seen two or three times now.
Face 1st, St Werburghs, Bristol, March 2021
As ever, there is an enormous amount of expression in the piece, something that Face 1st manages to achieve with the minimum of fuss, not dissimilar to the way Stik conveys emotion with his simple figures. I have lots of Face 1st pieces to catch up on… aargh, the backlog!
One of the notable things about Stewy is that he skulks around, a little bit like the fox depicted in this stencil, without fanfare or pomp and with great modesty leaves us with some beautiful and lasting art to enjoy. Stewy selects his spots very carefully and few if any get tagged or over-painted because of where they are.
Stewy, Greville Road, Bristol, March 2021
Stewy is a well known artist who gets a lot of commissions, and alongside his animal work, he is famous for his stencils of well-known people such as pop stars, politicians and other notable figures. In this gorgeous piece he has painted a fabulous Bristol fox in this three-layer stencil. This fox might have been there forever, or might be relatively recent, but that is the thing with Stewy, it is hard to know sometimes.
As a matter of pragmatic protocol I shall refer to Claro_que_sssnoh as Claro for the duration of this post, although very interesting, his name is without doubt the most difficult to type, especially on an iPad. Fortunately, his street art work is much easier to enjoy and assimilate.
Claro_que_sssnoh, M32 cycle path, Bristol, March 2021
This reasonably recent piece from the HMR man is so typical of his unique style. Interlocking letters spelling out HONS are formed with a combination of straight and curvy lines in equal measure and he decorates the piece with a plethora of graffiti arrows. Always good to see work from one of our talented Spanish writers.
Somehow I forgot to post this wonderful little gem by Pekoe from a little while back. I think that I thought I might have posted it already, such has been the productivity of Pekoe in recent months, it has been hard to keep up, and I am just about to head out to Dean Lane straight after writing this to photograph another new one.
Pekoe, St Werburghs, Bristol, March 2021
Smaller than many of her pieces, this one is nonetheless a bit of a gem. With the customary big hair being crafted into a bun (that’s what we used to call them when I was young) and a strong solid green face with pink lips, this piece screams out ‘Pekoe’… in a nice way. Great work.
Silent Hobo paints some of the very best large murals in Bristol and this one on the railway bridge in Stapleton Road is so large that I have split it into component posts to keep it manageable. This bit of the remarkable mural is on the side of the of the bridge and runs perpendicular to the M32 motorway. I was lucky enough to have a quick chat with Silent Hobo as he was just starting on this elevation.
Silent Hobo, Stapleton Road, Bristol, April 2021
I say this every time I write about Silent Hobo, and I am certainly not going to break with tradition now, that he has an incredible knack for capturing a mood and reflecting it back to us. The youth of Bristol and a contrast of urban clutter offset by nature and hope are themes he explores in so much of his work.
Silent Hobo, Stapleton Road, Bristol, April 2021
On this section of wall some Easton youths are interaction with nature and their environment, and key to this embrace is rail and bus services which are greener methods of transport than cars. I love the artwork and I love the themes.
I noticed a few days ago that the bottom of this wall had been tagged with white paint, but when I went there yesterday, the offending tags had been painted out. I love it that people care about this community mural. The rest of the mural will be in a new post soon.
Ticking over quite nicely and occasionally reminding us he is still out there is Hire with this rather rich BF piece. I believe BF is Hire’s crew name as his Instagram account is @hireonebf although I am not too sure what the letters stand for.
Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2021
What appears to be rather different about this piece from his normal fare is the inclusion of a 3D shadow which really isn’t in his regular repertoire. It is a nice tidy piece, and I guess one directed as much at the crew as at the Dean Lane audience. A hardy perennial and one I wouldn’t be without.
Another artist who appears to have woken up a little of late is Veks who has teamed up several times lately with his friend and painting partner Turoe. This character portrait piece was part of a collaboration with Turoe and Teao One from a week or two back.
Veks, M32 cycle path, Bristol, April 2021
This old school style portrait would appear to be autobiographical, with the words ‘we don’t learn… 80s kids’ posted next to it… perhaps even a self-portrait of a younger Veks? The cartoony piece is very nicely done and just in case you weren’t too sure about the artist, the letters VEK are tattooed onto the characters fingers.
I recently featured Footloose for the first time on Natural Adventures and said then that I would need to post more of her work and so, true to my word, here is another recent piece from her up on the M32 roundabout.
Footloose, M32 roundabout, Bristol, April 2021
Her letters, spelling LEWSE, are always pretty clear to read and follow quite a standard pattern, with a long base on the L and a curl at the top of the W, so it is her colours, fills and patterns that distinguish one piece from the next. In this piece the letters are filled very nicely with different shades of blue in an array of different patterns from spots to drops to lines.
I don’t think I have ever really given Lewse nearly as much credit for her work as I ought to have done and will be trawling back through my archives when I have a bit of slack to find some older pieces.
This wall presented a dilemma for me. It is one contiguous collaboration piece and I could have presented it as that, however my photographs were compromised by extraordinarily bright sunlight and I could only get decent shots of sections of the piece rather than the whole, and so I have split it into separate posts of which this is the second.
Acer One and Andy Council, Chatterton Square, Bristol, April 2021
This panel in by Andy Council and Acer One who collaborated several times very successfully over quite a short period this spring. The two rats are by Andy Council and show his composite approach to creating creatures, where the whole is definitely greater than the sum of the parts. The geometric writing from Acer One has completely stumped me, and every time I try to decipher it my eye goes funny and the pattern goes flat – it looks like it might say A2. I am fully expecting chapter and verse from Paul H on this one (no pressure Paul).
The final effect is a stunning one and there is still more to come from this wall just across the road from Temple Meads Station.
This wonderful and rather large mural is by Ejits, a Bristol artist and is the fifth instalment of the ‘six sisters’ shop facades opposite North Street Green. Orchestrated by Upfest and Bedminster BID, each of these beauties is painted by a local female artist, showcasing the wealth and breadth of street art in Bristol.
Ejits, North Street, Bristol, April 2021
The piece is painted not with spray cans, but more traditionally with paints and brushes and features Ejits which Emily (the artist’s real name) describes as ‘a curious and playful bunch of illustrated characters created to brighten up and bring joy to your world’. Well mark this down as an outright success straight away. I will confess at this stage that I didn’t know about the artist before she painted this, but now that she is on my radar, I’ll look out for her studio work and any walls she might be decorating.
Zoe Power, Gemma Compton, Sophie Long and Ejits, North Street, Bristol, April 2021
It is probably best to finish off with Emily’s own words about the piece which she calls ‘Rumpus’, taken from her beautiful website:
‘After a long year of lockdowns, I felt it was important to bring something colourful and joyful to this piece of public art. I took inspiration from Where the Wild Things are and Keith Haring to create something with a lot of movement and energy. That’s why the title of this piece is Rumpus!
The Six Sisters are hyped to be the largest mural project in the UK designed and painted by female street artists.
It sits in a prominent and popular part of the city on North Street Bedminster and also features murals by Bex Glover, Zoe Power, Gemma Compton and Sophie Long. Lucas Antics will be the sixth and final artist to add her mural to the line-up.‘
Natural adventures 