Abbie Laura Smith, Brunel Way, Bristol, August 2024
The game of hide and seek, hunting down wheatpastes from Abbie Laura Smith, continues with this moody piece on one of the skate ramps under Brunel Way. I really love this one, that offers more than her customary face portrait pieces. In this piece, the attitude and pose of the subject add so much more to the story, proving that body language makes up a large proportion of our signal communications. The drips add so much more to the ink work, creating interest. Still one or two more from this recent batch to come.
We don’t get to see nearly enough of Jaksta’s caricature pieces in Bristol, so this one from a week or two back came as a bit of a welcome surprise. Based in Swindon, Jaksta makes a living from his art commissions, so his street work will be somewhat dictated by how busy he is, and he lives far enough away for his Bristol trips to only be occasional.
Jaksta, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2024
This portrait piece is in keeping with a slight shift in his work from caricatures of famous people to interesting and dynamic portrait pieces like this one. The piece is cartoon in style, although I can see a transition, perhaps, away from the humorous to a more serious and photorealistic direction. There is a lot of detail in the piece, which leaps out from the wall as being something rather special. I hope we don’t have to wait too long to see more like this from Jaksta.
Well I never! This is a really unusual piece, on several counts, the first of which is a bit of a Bristol thing. It is quite rare to find ‘saucy’ street art, and nudes are almost non-existent. I was chatting with Inkie and Sepr about this a week ago and they suggested that the reason for this is that such pieces get dogged and ‘censored’ very quickly – it would seem that the city is generously populated with prudish activists. Another reason that this is unusual is that I think it is by Laic217, but there is no signature, and it is without many of his usual trademarks.
Laic217, River Avon, Bristol, March 2024
I would say that I am about 95% certain that this piece is by Laic217, and I base this on the style of artwork, which includes the folds in the material of the girl’s jacket, the tones of the flesh and the thin white border around the piece. In my experience, though, this subject is something I have not seen from the artist before, and I very much welcome it. Laic217 is having something of a purple patch at the moment, and is definitely experimenting and pushing a few boundaries. An unusual find.
A brief one this morning, there is just too much beauty and history around me. I sit in an ancient medieval library, part of a monastery that has been converted into a holiday let in Umbria. It is difficult not to become entirely enveloped in the culture of the place. Also I need breakfast, I am hungry. This piece is something rather different, and a first on Natural Adventures from Dai_luk_tattoo.
Dai_luk_tattoo, Brunel Way, Bristol June 2023
I can’t tell you much about the artist, but this is a beautifully designed work of a woman arched backwards in a graceful pose and with plentiful hair. I am not sure what the orange shapes by her feet are, but they look like teeth. Surely not. Based on this I would dearly love to see more street art from this tattooist.
I have only once before come across the work of Buber Nebz and that was a fabulous dog piece that he painted at Upfest 2016. That dog and this fine painting of a woman listening to music could hardly be more different and demonstrates that the artist is most versatile and constantly evolving his style. On his website biography he stated that his recent works contain pixels, something he is playing with at the moment and that can be seen in the hair of this woman.
Buber Nebz, Paint Festival 2019, Cheltenham, September 2019
I think that this piece has an oblique reference to the book theme of the festival, by mentioning words in the context of music with the slogan ‘where words fail, music speaks’. I’m not sure if this is Buber Nebz’ quote or he is quoting someone else, but it seems to work well here. This is a nice clean piece with a great colour palette – a great contribution to the festival.
It has been a little while since I last saw a piece by Zake, and this little gem is exactly what we’ve seen from him before except for one thing… hair. He really has nailed the format of these column pieces and this one is rather special.
Zake, M32 Spot, Bristol, July 2019
I have looked at it a lot, and can see it in two forms. One as a woman with voluminous black hair, and the other as a woman with a hijab. Both are beautiful. It is great to see the artist return to the spot where I first became aware of him.
I think that the first piece of street art by Copyright that I became conscious of was a wheatpaste somewhere in the Stokes Croft area a few years ago, I have since seen so much more of his work, and like it very much. It was nice to find this paste up, in Dean Lane skatepark recently, still pretty much in mint condition.
Copyright, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2019
Things have slowed a little on the street art scene in Bristol over the past ten days or so because of the dismal weather we have been having, but it has allowed me to catch up (the tiniest amount) on my posts.
There is something a little sinister in this piece, and I think it might be the lack of pupils in the eyes, and this edgy nature cuts slightly across the grain with the title ‘Love’. The spots read-across really well from the dress and onto the background providing a continuity to the whole. Fabulous to see another Copyright wheatpaste (or anything for that matter… it has been a while).
A few more striking wheatpastes from Frenchman Tian on the streets of Stokes Croft. Unfortunately with all the rain we’ve been having, several of these have started to peel off and disapppear, but I guess that is the ephemeral nature of street art.
Tian, Stokes Croft, Bristol, May 2019
There appear to be two colour variants of this stencil piece of an oriental woman looking so beautiful with flowers in her hair, this blue one, and a slightly less colourful sepia one.
Tian, Stokes Croft, Bristol, May 2019
I am so full of admiration for the way Tian works his art – first sourcing a great photograph, then creating a stencil from it, then printing off and cutting out paste ups and finally finding the precise and thought-out locations for each of them. He is a true master of his craft and I am an enormous fan.
I spotted this one a couple of days ago while searching out some of my favourite spots. I almost drove straight past without seeing it because it is a thin bit of one way road with double yellow lines that is difficult to be observant and drive properly. I just caught it out of the corner of my vision and parked up further on.
Face 1st, M32 Spot, Bristol, April 2019
Ah what joy, Face 1st at his best with my favourite beautiful character. This is a large piece on a great wall which allows Face 1st to show us what he can do. The striking thing for me is the flowing pink hair that has been filled with pretty intricate patterns that give it something special. This kind of filling is a technique used by a few other Bristol artists such as Tasha Bee.
Face 1st, M32 Spot, Bristol, April 2019
The other obvious feature of the piece is the skull being held by the woman. I have seen this before in Face 1st’s work and must remember to ask him what it symbolises next time I see him. I love this piece and am so glad I managed to see it in such good condition.
I originally had this piece down as ‘unknown’ artist, but managed to find out a bit from the signature ‘Pekoe’, which at first I thought was an unrelated tag. Pekoe is a Bristol-based artist originally from Wolverhampton, who describes herself as a self-employed illustrator and painter. In her linked-in profile she reveals:
I regularly paint walls around Bristol, usually with fellow crew members, as well as doodle constantly to keep honing my skills. I’m influenced by a wide range of artists, whether graffiti or modern, and also take inspiration from the worlds of pin up, tattoos, sneakers and hiphop.
Pekoe, M32 roundabout, Bristol, May 2018
It seems strange that she has only just entered my consciousness, but having found this, I have since found another and realise that one of my ‘Upfest unknowns’ is by her…both to follow soon.
Her interisting illustrative style really stands out from the crowd of burners and character pieces and feels like a spray sketch. It reminds me in style a little of Ant Carver who uses similar squiggle shadings in his portraits. Really looking forward to seeing more of her work about the place.
Natural adventures 