212. Dalton Square

This large wall by Sepr gave me enormous pleasure when I eventually found it in Dalton Square on the side of The Bell pub. I had seen images of it on the Interweb, but it took me an eternity to find it. It turns out, it is only a very small detour from my usual walk into work.

Sepr, Dalton Square, Bristol, April 2016
Sepr, Dalton Square, Bristol, April 2016

This is classic Sepr, plenty of things going on and lots of fine detail. It might be considered a little nightmarish, with all the characters inside the main character. It is difficult to figure out what is going on…are they all influences from the past?

Sepr, Dalton Square, Bristol, April 2016
Sepr, Dalton Square, Bristol, April 2016

Common to a lot of his work is wheeled transport, in this case a bicycle. There is also a beautifully crafted ball chain framing the main picture and leading to the two rather wonderful dogs.

Sepr, Dalton Square, Bristol, April 2016
Sepr, Dalton Square, Bristol, April 2016

Sepr signs off the work with an ornate wildstyle signature to the left of the piece. This really is a fabulous work, and the photographs, taken on a dull day, really don’t do it justice. So totally worth a visit.

Sepr, Dalton Square, Bristol, April 2016
Sepr, Dalton Square, Bristol, April 2016

 

210. Nine Tree Hill (3)

Sometimes you can hang on to a photograph for so long that it becomes a bit of an albatross. I took these pictures back in January this year, and I have some that are even older. The reason that I haven’t posted them until now is that although I know who the street artist is – Kleiner shames – who writes FOIS in his pieces, I don’t know anything about him, so I don’t have a lot to say.

Fois, Nine Tree Hill, Bristol, January 2016
Fois, Nine Tree Hill, Bristol, January 2016

I think I have actually photographed him working on a piece in Hill Street, but I’ll save that for another time. Other than that, Kleiner Shames remains a complete enigma. His work is very elaborate wildstyling of his name, with a touch of what I would call art deco influences…I think it is the curves. This work can be found on the corner between Nine Tree Hill and Armada Place, another Stokes Croft hotspot.

The observant viewers might see an iconic Rowdy crocodile on the building behind. More about that in a future post.

209. Mina Road (1)

It has been a little while since I posted anything about Silent Hobo. This is a shopfront commission in the wonderful St Werburghs area of Bristol, slightly north east of St Pauls.

Silent Hobo, Mina Road, Bristol, March 2016
Silent Hobo, Mina Road, Bristol, March 2016

Silent Hobo’s work often depicts a ‘happening vibe’ going on among the subjects in his pictures. Here he has captured the aspects of fun and leisure that cycling offers, and I’m sure it says more about it than some stock corporate photographs of people cycling.

Silent Hobo, Mina Road, Bristol, March 2016
Silent Hobo, Mina Road, Bristol, March 2016

I have never been to the Sportsman Bicycle Shop before as I have several closer to where I live and work. Maybe next time I am ‘snapping’ in the area I’ll pop in. I love the fun the couple are having on their bike, and the detail he includes of a little hedgehog…these days a rare sight.

Silent Hobo, Mina Road, Bristol, March 2016
Silent Hobo, Mina Road, Bristol, March 2016

All in all a really nice commission and one that showcases the best Silent Hobo has to offer.

206. Stokes Croft, Canteen (2)

No self-respecting Bristol street art blogger can ignore what is probably regarded as the most Bristol Banksy of them all. The Mild Mild West still sits proudly on the wall outside the Canteen, and opposite Cosmo Sarson’s Breakdancing Jesus, in spite of attempts to vandalise it (layered irony there).

Banksy, Stokes Croft, Bristol, July 2015
Banksy, Stokes Croft, Bristol, July 2015

This iconic Banksy (and which ones aren’t) tells so many Bristol stories, which are really nicely captured in this 2008 article from the The Telegraph. I see this wall pretty much every day and it is special, really special. The area in which it stands is an area which has played host to several riots, the most recent of which was the ‘boycott Tesco’ riot.

Banksy, Stokes Croft, Bristol, August 2015
Banksy, Stokes Croft, Bristol, August 2015

So established is this piece, that it makes it into the ‘Visit Bristol’ website as a must see attraction. How things have changed from the days of rounding up and arresting Bristol street artists.

This work simply has to be one of my all time favourite pieces in my adopted city.

204. Cheltenham Road, Metropolis hoardings

These hoardings rarely have decent works sprayed on them because they get painted off almost immediately…it may be that the owners of the site don’t want the hoardings to become a practice wall. The result is that the hoardings are heavily tagged instead. In among the useless tagging, there was this gem however – an anonymous tribute to DJ Derek. As is is a stencil, I would expect to see it popping up around the place. Simple and touching.

Anonymous stencil, DJ Derek, Cheltenham Road, Bristol, April 2016
Anonymous stencil, DJ Derek, Cheltenham Road, Bristol, April 2016

DJ Derek’s funeral took place last week, and there has been no more news about the circumstances of his death. I do not believe they were in any way suspicious.

203. Brunswick Square hut

Brunswick Square is a reasonably recent discovery for me, which is why it has taken me so long to find this work by Dan. I posted another of his works in Hillgrove Street back in October 2015, but I really struggle to find out much about him at all. I know the piece was sprayed in 2009.

Dan, Brunswick Square, Bristol, March 2016
Dan, Brunswick Square, Bristol, March 2016

I have lifted he backstory quote from Dan to this wonderful work from the Wooster Collective website and it is as follows:

“After the opening of a new multi-million pounds mall in the city centre of Bristol. All the areas around have been proclaimed “no street drinking zone” giving the homeless people and the local street drinkers no choices but to leave the area. As a result of this, the number of street drinkers is considerably increased in deprived areas where the drinking ban is not so strictly enforced.”

Special Brew, the drink pictured,  is a strong lager favoured by heavy drinkers.

201. Stokes Croft various, Bristol

I am going to break with tradition for my 201st street art post, and talk about an unknown tagger. I have been seeing a lot of this tag lately, and my first instinct is to rather enjoy it…certainly better than scrawling black initials over everything. This may be an attempt by a new artist to start marking their presence before graduating onto something more ambitious, I certainly hope so. Here are a few sites from the Stokes Croft area that started appearing in March 2016.

 

 

Maybe I’ll get to find out who it is and observe their progress.

200. M32 Roundabout, Junction 3 (8)

The final one of a quickfire burst of Deamze wildstyle works. This is yet another one on the M32 roundabout. Doing this reminds me that I really ought to get back down there to see what’s new.

Deamze, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2016
Deamze, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2016

This time we are treated to pinks and reds in this intricate work. Unfortunately it is very tricky to photograph, because it is in quite a narrow passage which makes it difficult to get the whole piece in frame. The sideways shot just about does it.

Deamze, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2016
Deamze, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2016

OK, I’ll leave Deamze alone for a while now and concentrate on some other works.

199. M32 Roundabout, Junction 3 (7)

So here we have another fine example of wildstyle writing at its very best. Deamze is really a master of his craft and prolific too. It can be really difficult to keep up with his new work.

Deamze, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2016
Deamze, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2016

This work sits alongside a work by Soker that I featured a little while back. I think that they were concentrating on the yellow and blacks, and I assume that they sprayed the wall on the same day. Another great work by Deamze.

Deamze, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2016
Deamze, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2016

198. Jubilee Street (4)

An old, and now long gone wildstyle piece from Deamze in my favourite backwater, Jubilee Street. This is a beautiful work, which is offset really well with the robot character at the right hand end.

Deamze, Jubilee Street, Bristol, November 2015
Deamze, Jubilee Street, Bristol, November 2015

There are so many Deamze works in Bristol, the next couple of posts will also feature some of his great stuff.