Tag: Urban

2871. Turbo Island

On Turbo Island, one of the spots in Bristol that often exposes some of our greatest social problems in the city, is this wonderful message of thanks from Ryder to the National Health Service. Of course we must shout out to not only the NHS but also care home workers, all key workers, public servants and civil servants who are keeping this country ticking over during this difficult period. Notable by their absence in this list of heroes are bankers and hedge fund managers – I seem to remember the nation bailing them out about a decade ago. How quiet they are right now, speculating about how much money they can make when we come out of this crisis. Leopards never change their spots.

Ryder, Turbo Island, Bristol, April 2020
Ryder, Turbo Island, Bristol, April 2020

Ryder has managed to get out during lock down to create this piece, and I guess it could be interpreted as mental and physical exercise, and I guess he may have worn a mask when painting it. Just to emphasise the point about some of the social problems in this area, the plastic object directly in  front of the wall is a sleeping bag/tent for some poor homeless person.

Thank you Ryder for raising the spirits of Bristol citizens at this time.

2870. Stokes Croft

This piece, in the heart of Stokes Croft came as a complete surprise to me on one of my Covid-19 dog walks last week. It is by the wonderful Pekoe and painted over one of her previous pieces here, and from that I can guess that this is one of her favoured spots.

Pekoe, Stokes Croft, Bristol, April 2020
Pekoe, Stokes Croft, Bristol, April 2020

There is always a lot of emotion in Pekoe’s pieces, sometimes happy, often sad, but this one look different particularly downcast. Maybe the sadness is reflective of the Coronavirus pandemic and all the baggage that comes with it.

All the trademarks are here, a colourful face, big hair in multi-colours with lots of symbols in it and a tear. Another fine piece from Pekoe.

Pekoe, Stokes Croft, Bristol, January 2018
Pekoe, Stokes Croft, Bristol, January 2018

2869. Brook Road (2)

It took me a rather long time to find this collaboration from Face 1st and Soap. I knew it was in St Paul’s but it was not in the bit of St Paul’s where I thought it was. I found it on one of my Covid-19 dog walks, where I tend to walk down as many side streets as I possibly can – poor dog, gets dragged all over the place.

Face 1st, Brook Road, Bristol, April 2020
Face 1st, Brook Road, Bristol, April 2020

Painted just before lock-down, the Face 1st half visits a theme he has been experimenting with lately of a face being inside a face and I think it works very well. He has an amazing talent for conveying the emtion of his faces with such simple features, just a mouth and eyes, this one seems to be having fun.

Soap, Brook Road, Bristol, April 2020
Soap, Brook Road, Bristol, April 2020

The Soap side of the collaboration continues the theme of being part above and part below a waterline and the colour of the paints used is commensurate with this difference and is skilfully done (by both artists in fact). Overall this is a lovely collaboration. Due to the very bright conditions, the colours are not quite so well represented in these pictures.

2868. Upper York Street (20)

A whole block of buildings bar one house on Upper York Street has been demolished and the site is being developed. While this meant that some great graff walls disappeared, they have been temporarily replaced with hoardings. A week or two back some Bristol artists hit the hoardings and this piece from Decay was painted then.

Decay, Upper York Street, Bristol, April 2020
Decay, Upper York Street, Bristol, April 2020

This is a really nice piece from Decay in which he has adopted a slightly different typeface design from the one we are used to seeing. The red line outline provides a nice 3D effect and the painted drips (as opposed to drippy drips) are a nice touch.

This wall is not easy to photograph due to the big sky above it, and afternoons are very tricky indeed – I have been foolish enough to walk down there on three sunny afternoons! This might explain the slightly washed-out look in these pictures.

2867. M32 roundabout J3 (204)

Right, so we are going to return to the now for a little while, after a short Covid-19 induced excursion through the archives. This recent piece from Smak at the M32 roundabout is really clever.

Smak, M32 roundabout, Bristol, April 2020
Smak, M32 roundabout, Bristol, April 2020

The overall effect looks like it has been partially scrubbed by some ‘do gooder’ trying to clean the wall, but it is designed to look like this, which when you consider it, is quite amazing. Clearly recognisable as Smak’s work, his style and class shine through in this original lock down piece.

2866. New Stadium Road (22)

This is one from the archives back in May 2019 and one of a whole bunch of not-yet-posted work from Rezwonk and Nightwayss. Over the coming weeks I will try to liberate more of these, but just this one for the moment.

Rezwonk, New Stadium Road, Bristol, May 2019
Rezwonk, New Stadium Road, Bristol, May 2019

From pretty much nowhere two years ago, Rezwonk has become one of Bristol’s most prolific graffiti writers, with a seemingly inexhaustable capacity to create great designs. This lovely piece, part of a collaboration with Decay, is notable for its sticky stuff between the Z and second E and its upside down R. It is all too easy looking at these obvious features to miss the nice background and silhouetted jagged landscape and the rather clever blurred outline that gives the top of the piece a kind of glowing quality. Worth the wait.

Decay, New Stadium Road, Bristol, May 2019
Decay, New Stadium Road, Bristol, May 2019

2865. Dean Lane skate park (302)

This was a nice little piece from DJ Perks in Dean Lane. It is something of a miracle that this father of six children manages to get out and paint at all, but he does, mostly at L Dub (Lawrence Weston) but ocassionally here in Bedminster too.

DJ Perks, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2019
DJ Perks, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2019

I would categorise DJ Perks’ work as formative, and that he has some really nice ideas and executes them well, but with practice I feel that there is a lot more to come from this street art hunter. As I have said before, he gives me hope for my own painting ambitions. This was another one from the archives, back in May last year. Coming soon some recent pieces… Yeah! street art has not been entirely killed by Covid-19.

2864. Stokes Croft

I thought I had posted all my pictures of French artist Tian’s wheatpastes in Bristol from a visit he made in May last year, but I was mistaken, and the opportunity that Covid-19 has given me to ‘look back’ has unearthed a whole bunch more of which this is one.

Tian, Stokes Croft, Bristol, May 2019
Tian, Stokes Croft, Bristol, May 2019

I love Tian’s work and that he has twice visited Brisol in recent years and left us these wonderful pasteups is a real privilege. I’m not sure who the sepia-tinted woman featured is, it might be Jane Fonda? Or possibly it isn’t anyone famous. No matter, it is beautiful in my eyes. More to come, and possibly a gallery soon.

2863. Easton

Some more archive material. There can only be one reason why this outstanding piece by Dan Kitchner never made it into Natural Adventures, and that is that I can’t remember exactly where in Easton this wall is. No matter, I have overcome this problem with giving it a general ‘Easton’ label.

Dan Kitchener, Easton, Bristol, May 2019
Dan Kitchener, Easton, Bristol, May 2019

The wall is split into a long landscape part with cars in a wet street scene, and a portrait section filling an old bricked-up window space featuring one of his trademark pedestrians with an open umbrella.

Dan Kitchener, Easton, Bristol, May 2019
Dan Kitchener, Easton, Bristol, May 2019

There is something so incredibly atmospheric about these pieces, and living in such a wet country they really resonate with me. They also remind me a little of the original Bladerunner film with its oriental element.

I first saw this a few years back, but never stopped to photograph it. I found it again last year and decided not to make the same mistake. If only I’d written down the road name too!

2862. Cheltenham 2019 (33)

Aah, this is a real beauty from T-Rex at the Cheltenham Paint Festival 2019. Three mischievous dinosaurs on the rampage in the Honeybourne Line tunnel, simply perfect. I said a short while ago that I don’t feature T-Rex nearly enou* in Natural Adventures and that this is another opportunity to put that right.

T-Rex, Paint Festival 2019, Cheltenham, September 2019
T-Rex, Paint Festival 2019, Cheltenham, September 2019

T-Rex is so adept at painting these characters that I expect she could do it in her sleep. For good measure she has complemented the rascals with a couple of fanged snakes for good measure. A lovely piece from the RAW (Read and Weep) artist.