The most consistently prolific artist over the last seven years is without doubt Face 1st. His tireless drive to keep producing wonderful pieces is enviable and really rather awesome. I don’t know where he gets the energy, or the cash for paint from. I guess I don’t need to know, but simply enjoy the benefits of his heroic efforts.
Face 1st, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, June 2022
This is a rather nice FACE piece with a girl’s face in place of the ‘A’. The letters are large and bold, as if carved out of stone, and the grey of the letters contrasts wonderfully well with the Orange hair of the smiling girl. When the world grinds to a halt, Face 1st will still be out there painting letters and smiling girls on walls. It is just what he does.
I was going to run this post as an extra one yesterday for our American friends and use the cheesy pun “Happy Phourth of July”. I’m rather pleased I didn’t though, although quite happy to run with it today.
Phour, New Stadium Road, Bristol, June 2022
Phour continues to plug away at his aesthetically pleasing letters (and the sound they make as a word), leaving them at numerous spots around the city. There are some letters that work really well with graffiti writing, and Phour pretty much hits the jackpot. This piece has some great colours and is neatly finished with strong, clean black boundaries. This is a nice one to add to the collection.
This is a fine piece of graphic writing from Acer for Upfest on a permanent wall, although the permanence of the wall is no guarantee for the permanence of the piece and sadly this has already been dogged, which is a pity, because it is a classy piece that commands this spot overlooking Greville Smyth Park.
Acer, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022
It is something of a joy to watch Acer’s work and how it progresses from month to month and year to year. His theme these days seems to be based on a highly stylised font or series of fonts that incorporate black base-lettering with transitioning rainbow colour outlines, creating both high design and depth. The sentiment is a good one… PARTY, which is what Upfest 2022 turned out to be, and a great one at that.
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.
Natural adventures 