I miss The Bearpit street art so very much, particularly when I find pictures like this one of a Tian wheatpaste in my archive. Using his favoured sepia tones, Tian presents us with another glamorous lady… possibly famous, possibly not. All of his work is designed to get us thinking about the central character, even if we can’t help ourselves.
Tian, The Bearpit, Bristol, May 2019
I am a very big fan of paste ups, and finding them in Bristol is a bit of a treat, because unlike other parts of the country/other countries, the scene is pretty small here, and most wheatpastes are from visitors like Tian or qWerT or Upfest artists. It was Kid Crayon’s wheatpastes that drew me in to being more curious about street art some five or six years ago, and I haven’t looked back.
I am a little pressed for time this week, so here are a couple of doors I photographed over the last two days during my brief walks escaping from lock down.
I really struggle with social distancing, it feels so unnatural and uncomfortable. Crossing into the middle of the road to avoid oncoming pedestrians on the pavement feels embarrassing, almost insulting, but I guess we all have to do it. I am lucky that it is impacts like this that have most affected me so far, they are trivial compared to the impacts on others.
The point being that my walks are not linear but rather they are zig zaggy and the upshot is I do walk to places I might not have walked before and get to see interesting things.
The first door is up some steps, that look like they could do with a bit of repair work. Not a house for people with mobility problems. The wall on the left of the steps has a great warning to us all… zombies are coming.
Steps and daisies lead up to a yellow door, Gloucester Road, Bristol, May 2020
The second door isn’t really a door, it is more like a window, both physically and metaphorically. Lock down has certainly led to a surge in creativity, with gardening and baking topping the charts, but a local family (I am guessing) have made this brilliant model of a home in lock down. Take time to look at it and see what it tells you about the family. I think this is lovely and a great capture of life in the time of Coronavirus.
Behind a glass door, a scene from a lock down household, Bishopston, Bristol, May 2020A wonderful interpretation of lock down life, Bishopston, Bristol, May 2020
That’s it for another week. Look after yourselves.
If you have made it this far, you probably like doors and you ought to take a look at the Norm 2.0 blog – the originator of Thursday Doors where there are links to yet more doors in the comments section at the end.
Here is another of those old ones, that inexplicably ended up on the cutting room floor. It is hidden away in St Werburghs and is by the hugely talented 3Dom. I think that I might have held back on posting it because the light is all wrong in the photographs and in my mind may have considered returning to take some better pictures. Of course, that never happened. The piece is much older than the pictures.
3Dom, Sandbed Road, Bristol, May 2019
I envy the owners of this house having a lovely clean 3Dom piece on their wall and it certainly is a bit of a landmark in this quiet backwater. I’m not at all sure I know what the story is here, but there is a definite connection with nature going on, which is a very topical subject just at the moment. It is a beautiful piece with tranquility and menace in equal measure.
What an absolutely gorgeous sunny morning it is in Bristol today, deep blue skies and optimism in the air. This is an old photograph (consistent with all my recent lock down posts) of an even older piece by Smak. It is on a curious hoarding on the southern edge of Bedminster that leads to a tunnel under the railway.
Smak, Hereford Street, Bristol, April 2019
It is all too easy to run out of superlatives when describing Smak’s work, and it is a rare thing indeed to find anything to be critical of. This is a thing of beauty, and I rather like the juxtaposition of urban graffiti writing set against greenery on the other side of the hoarding, like a scene from the Terry Gilliam film Brazil. Did I ever mention that my dad was the stage manager for Monty Python during their Drury Lane shows?
Another archive piece, this time from #DFTE, on the famous wall on the corner of Stokes Croft and City Road. This is one of #DFTE’s framed pieces, and if I am honest, I’m not entirely certain that it is still there.
#DFTE, Stokes Croft, Bristol, April 2019
The words ‘We are all in this together‘ have a certain poignancy about them today as we sit in the midst of a global pandemic. I like the sentiment, but I dislike the way our government have rolled out this slogan (as if it was their invention) to try and inject some patriotism and collective responsibility for the fallout of coronavirus. I feel a monumental rant cominng on, so I will end the post now before I bore the living daylights out of you. In cheerier times I would appreciate the words more. I am a big fan of the artist and his alternative style.
This is a gorgeous piece of block lettering on the M32 cycle path from Dott Rotten. I took the photograph on 30 March 2019, and the photo label is ‘Brexit Day’. How my heart still bleeds about the unbelievably bad decision our country has taken, now amplified by the need to work together following the coronavirus outbreak. I suspect our folly (or otherwise) will be scrutinised by our grandchildren, by which time we might have recovered from the economic shock.
Dot Rotten, M32 cycle path, Bristol, March 2019
Meanwhile, this beautiful piece is expertly sprayed and demonstrates the crossover between graphic design and spray painting. Dott Rotten has used the brick lines to get the proportions of his letters correct, but this piece excels in its 3D letter depth off to the bottom right and the block letter shadow off to the bottom left. Take a good long look to see how this works. A nice clean piece and something a little different.
Looking back to May last year when The Bearpit was nearing its end as a street art spot, (shame on Bristol City Council) and the visiting French wheatpaster Tian, left us several fabulous pieces in Stokes Croft and the roundabout.
Tian, The Bearpit, Bristol, May 2019
This fabulous piece, printed from a stencil, is of a boxer, I have no idea who, and is one of his larger paste ups at about three-quarters life size. The yellow tones work really well on the red background and the piece is full of life and movement. If and when Tian returns to Bristol he may struggle to find as many spots to paste his work as he has been used to on previous visits as the pace of gentrification accelerates.
There is no order or plan with which I am going through my archive (during lock down) I am simply skipping from monthly folder to folder, spotting something and thinking, ‘ah yes, this needs posting’. This exact process has happened several times with Slim Pickings (TES) and each time I put the moment back to be returned to another time. Well, enough is enough. Here is a rather lovely TES from March last year, that didn’t get posted first time round.
Slim Pickings, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2019
As I would always expect from Slim Pickings, this is a really tight and clean piece, painted in pillar box red set on a dull bronze background with some green gunge and drips for good measure. The white highlight lines are just enough to give the letters a 3D feel. Clever and consistent. Note to self… high time I did a gallery.
Another piece from January last year, released from the archive, this one is by Minto. My knowledge of Minto is a little bit patchy but I think he used to live in Bristol and then, like so many street artists/designers, moved to London, so pieces here are few and far between.
Minto, M32 Spot, Bristol, January 2019
This is an unusual piece of writing, unlike anything I have seen before really, and I am not certain it is necessarily in Minto’s usual style either. Not really my cup of tea, but it is always great to have a spectrum of art in the city.
The journey through my archives continues with this amazing (yes another one) cartoon piece by Deamze. A short while ago I wrote about the Asterix piece on this wall by the same artist, which I photographed in 2018. This one photographed in January 2018 features a similar wildstyle writing mash up of Scooby Doo.
Deamze, Waterloo Street, Bristol, January 2019
Those pesky kids appear in the writing (spelling out DEAMZ) as recognisable body parts. From left to right we have Velma Dinkley and Shaggy Rogers (is there a hidden adult gag in his name?).
Deamze, Waterloo Street, Bristol, January 2019
Next in line we have Scooby Doo and thank goodness without the dreadful spin-off Scrappy Doo, with the ’70s hunk Fred Jones next in line – what was that red scarf all about?
Deamze, Waterloo Street, Bristol, January 2019
Finally the lovely but slightly boring Daphne Blake and to her right the iconic Mystery Machine. As a group the characters were known as Mystery Incorporated. Scooby Doo was required viewing for my generation, and the cartoon series appears to have had an extraordinarily long shelf-life. Amazing really for a story line that is pretty much identical in every episode.
Deamze, Waterloo Street, Bristol, January 2019
Deamze is utterly amazing in the way he creates these composite pieces with such accuracy and style. An outstanding piece, which might still be there, I haven’t been that way for a while.
Natural adventures 