The man who paints (draws, geddit?), faster than his shadow. What a stunning piece, and definitely one of my favourites from Upfest this year. Featuring comic book character Lucky Luke, a series I never read as a kid, but rather wish that I had now, (I was more of an Asterix and Tintin fan), the piece, by Alain Welter is beautifully proportioned and structured, with a strong sense of depth.
Alain Welter, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022
The board is quite long, and Alain Welter has used the space cleverly by putting in the text on the left and reducing the width enough for the proportions of the piece to work. Alain Welter is an accomplished street artist from Luxembourg (a first for Upfest) whose website is definitely worth a visit. He even has a blog post about this piece, so he likes to keep things up to date.
Alain Welter, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022
When producing graffiti writing, it seems that Alain Welter uses the the letters MOPE, hence Lucky Mope instead of Luke. There is so much to like about this piece, it is very easy on the eye, witty, and the artwork is superb, just take a look at the writing on a curtain. Clever stuff. I do hope that Alain Welter makes it back to Bristol for next year’s Upfest.
Once again, the famous curved wall in Dean Lane gets a makeover by Ceus, who seems to have really taken to Dean Lane for his artwork. It will be interesting to see if he will start to spread his wings (literally-metaphorically-artistically), further afield and starts spreading his talent along the M32 or in the tunnel etc.
Ceus, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2022
You can be sure that when Ceus paints, he will be turning up the dial on his colour selections and creating a piece of beauty. His letters spell out Ceus and feature the pair of wings we see in much of his work. It would be quite interesting to introduce Ceus to Tom Miller and Paul Monsters… what an explosion of colour that would be.
A gallery of magnificent script writing from Logoe
All photographs by Scooj
Logoe, St Werburghs, Bristol, September 2023Logoe, St Werburghs, Bristol, September 2023Logoe, M32 roundabout J2, Bristol, April 2023Logoe, M32 roundabout J2, Bristol, April 2023Logoe, M32 roundabout J2, Bristol, April 2023Logoe, M32 roundabout J2, Bristol, April 2023Logoe, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, April 2023Logoe, M32 Spot, Bristol, March 2023Logoe, Brunel Way, Bristol, April 2023Logoe, St Werburghs, Bristol, March 2023Logoe, Dean Lane, Bristol, January 2023Logoe, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2023Logoe, Brunel Way, Bristol, November 2022Logoe, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, October 2022Logoe, St Werburghs, Bristol, October 2022Logoe, M32 Spot, Bristol, October 2022Logoe, M32 Spot, Bristol, October 2022Logoe, M32 Spot, Bristol, October 2022Logoe, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2022Logoe, Frome Side, Bristol, May 2022Logoe, Frome Side, Bristol, May 2022Logoe, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, January 2022Logoe, M32 Spot, Bristol, January 2022Logoe, Sparke Evans Park, Brisol, January 2022Logoe, River Avon, Bristol, December 2021Logoe, M32 Spot, Bristol, December 2021Logoe, M32 roundabout, Bristol, December 2021Logoe and Silent Hobo, St Werburghs, Bristol, December 2021Logoe, New Stadium Road, Bristl, October 2021Logoe, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, November 2021Logoe and Sepr, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2021Logoe, M32 roundabut, Bristol, October 2021Logoe, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, October 2020Logoe, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2019Silent Hobo and Logoe, M32 roundabout, Bristol, September 2019Logoe and Haka, M32 Spot, Bristol, January 2020Logoe and Silent Hobo, St Werburghs, Bristol, December 2019Logoe and Haka, M32 Spot, Bristol, November 2019Logoe, M32 roundabout, Bristol, December 2018Silent Hobo and Logoe, Ashley Road, Bristol, April 2017Silent Hobo and Logoe, Ashley Road, Bristol, April 2017Logoe, Ashley Road, Bristol, April 2017
A recent visit to Bristol by Goldie and Posea was enough to draw some of Bristol’s best artists, 3Dom, Dibz and Shade One, together to create a magnificent collaborative wall in Dean Lane, a couple of weeks ago. The end result is something quite magnificent and a wall that will last long in the memory, and might well remain in situ for quite some time, as there will be lots of respect for it.
Shade One, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2022
The left-hand side of the wall is propped up with this wonderful portrait piece from Shade One. I don’t know if I might be imagining it, but recently Shade One’s style has moved from a cartoony style to a more photorealistic style, and he seems to have raised his level considerably.
Shade One, Goldie and 3Dom, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2022
The left side of the wall features three artists, Shade One, Goldie, with the writing (SAKUKO) and 3Dom with the fantasy and rather fantastical landscape of mushrooms and snail thing. I understand that the two pieces of graffiti writing are names of two of Goldie’s children.
3Dom, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2022
The 3Dom snail with a house for a shell is crazy and imaginative, but I have seen him paint this house a few times before, and I wonder if there is some significance to it. The snail is magnificent, and the eyes are beautifully painted – I’m not too sure what it all means though.
Goldie, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2022
The second piece of Goldie Graffiti writing spells out CHANCE, the name of his daughter, and is in a style more reminiscent of his writing in St Werburghs tunnel a few months ago. There is a flag sticking out of the ‘a’ with the word bleu on it – another mystery of the piece.
Dibz and Posea, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2022
The right-hand side of the wall is rounded off with some superb writing from Dibz and a hand with a lighter by Posea. Both of these elements are superbly painted, as you’d expect, and the flame from the lighter acts as a bridge between the two halves of the collaboration.
Posea, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2022
I don’t know much about Posea at all, other than that he comes from Sheffield and judging from his Instagram feed is a hugely talented and productive street artist. This hand holding a lighter is outstanding, but the flame takes it to another level. Since I photographed this piece, I have seen another of his pieces in Bristol which is equally impressive. I hope he can return soon to share the joy again.
One thing you can be pretty sure of is that when Stivs creates a piece, it is never sloppy or rushed, the calligraffiti style lends itself to accuracy and precision, and anything that deviates from that simply wouldn’t work. This is a lovely recent piece on the M32 roundabout.
Stivs, M32 roundabout, Bristol, June 2022
The colours are reminiscent of those used in fun fair art, and the style too. The letters are beautiful, spelling out STIVS, and the colours wonderfully matched, but it is the fills and decorations that steal the show on this one. A truly magnificent piece from Stivs
I was in Cumberland Basin yesterday and this piece by Whysayit was being buffed over to make way for the latest Bristol Womxn Mural Collective paint jam, which is all part and parcel of the street art wall recycling process, without which the whole scene would simply die. I haven’t posted much work by Whysayit (YSAE) since his painting partner, Kleiner Shames, moved to London, which is a pity, because I really like his letter style – I might have to dig a few photographs out of my archive.
Whysayit, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2022
Whysayit’s letters are irregular, but they also are quite easy on the eye, with their curvy shapes. The solid ills are in strongly contrasting colours – no fades here. Painted at the back end of the Queen’s platinum jubilee, I don’t thing there is much doubting what Whysayit’s views on the monarchy are. It is nice to be able to post this piece after such a long gap since the last one, (about four years).
Weekends, early mornings and evenings reveal a whole extra opportunity for viewing street art, with the expanse of shop front shutters on view. In North Street, Bedminster, probably about a third of all the pieces on view are on shutters, and if you aren’t there at the right time they are pieces you simply will not see.
Taboo, North Street, Bristol, June 2022
This fine shutter piece from Taboo is the second I have posted recently and is only a stone’s throw from his first. Taboos unconventional writing style presents an unusual TABOO, with a distorted Mickey Mouse face making up the first ‘O’. This is classic taboo and so good to see. I like his work and his style which is a shift from more conventional works we are used to seeing, and keeps things fresh.
I genuinely thought that this wall would become redundant when work began on redeveloping the building about a year ago, a suspicion exacerbated when they put some windows in the wall. My fears may have been unfounded, as the wall appears to be intact and has regular makeovers, many of them quite fantastic, like this PWA collaborative wall from a short while ago.
Face 1st, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2022
The three artists are Face 1st, Chill and Soap, and together they have created an upbeat and rather fun triptych. Face 1st on the left ha painted one of his traditional smiling face characters whose hair is made up of the letters FACE – full of joy.
Chill, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2022
In the middle, Chill has created one of his cartoon-style line drawings with quite a story going on. I don’t know what the story is, but it includes a bird, a rose and a scroll with the artist’s name on it. More mischief and fun.
Soap, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2022
To the right is Soap’s contribution in which he continues the colour selections, backfilling his letters spelling SOAP and featuring (a many of his posts do) the Ice King from Adventure Time – a cartoon series that sadly passed me by. Nice work from this PWA trio.
Very short of time today, so this write-up will be relatively brief. Klashwhensober is a lovely guy who is smashing out pieces all over the place, and I find it quite hard to keep up with them, so I have started to gather them up, writing about more than one per post. If I didn’t do this, I wouldn’t be able to share them all.
Klashwhensober, M32 cycle path, Bristol, June 2022
This selection are all recent pieces along the M32 Cycle path, each very different, but in the Klashwhensober style. This first one spells out KLASH in lovely 3D letters with a colourful and imaginative array of fills and given a bit of pink splat treatment for good measure.
Klashwhensober, M32 cycle path, Bristol, June 2022
The second piece, pretty much opposite the first, is once again full of colour and dynamism, spelling out SOBA, some patterns in the lower half of the letters are similar to those in the first piece. I rather like the explosion in the middle of the letters, which has contrasting effects above and below the transition line.
Klashwhensober, M32 cycle path, Bristol, June 2022
The final piece is a few yards further along the path, spelling SOBER, and is once again a tidy piece with a nice 3D effect and central vanishing point. The theme with all three of these seems to be around explosions of some kind or another, bright lights and colour emanating from a central point and radiating outwards. I suspect there is some deep conscious or unconscious meaning here – I shall have to ask him next time I see him.
How wonderful to see a familiar Bristol artist taking up one of the semi-permanent walls at Upfest this year. The artist in question is the magnificent Kid Crayon with the first of two Upfest pieces, the other being on a temporary board in Greville Smyth Park.
Kid Crayon, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022
This rather rare (these days) street piece by Kid Crayon features his name in blues and pinks, nicely worked around the notice board on the wall and a beautiful cartoon-style portrait. The portrait of a silver-haired woman wearing a choker round her neck, is a fine portrait indeed and works so well with his style. The best bit is a return of a floating crayon just in front of the woman’s mouth. It is so good to see Kid Crayon hitting walls again, I only hope he finds time to keep up the momentum.
Natural adventures 