This is the second of three large recent pieces by Taboo that appeared at the back end of May. Unfortunately, the third and largest had been overpainted by the time I got to it, such is the high turnover of work at the moment.
I’m not sure if it is just me or what, but the piece seems to say ABOO without the T… maybe he just ran out of space or the T and A are conflated. Big letters, a snake and a skull give me all I would need from a large burner like this. Great work.
What an utterly outstanding piece this is from Spanish artist Wiflywin. This was his contribution to the poland – Spain paint jam on the M32 roundabout at the back end of May. Meeting Wiflywin and speaking with him during this paint jam was the highlight of my little trip to the spot, and I am without doubt a big fan of his work, which I am seeing more and more of dotted around North Bristol.
The work in progress (pictured above), which in itself is outstanding gives an indication of just how good this piece of graffiti writing was going to end up, and so it was. The design is outstanding and really compelling with lots of nice curves to draw the eye in and a great central vanishing point for the letter shadows. The finishing touches to the background perfectly set the piece off. This is outstanding art for sure.
Poland 2 Spain 1
Something good pretty much always results when these two PWA artists collaborate, which fortunately for us is often, this time under the M32. Soap and Face 1st seem to have a telepathic connection like Pires and Henry (I had to choose Arsenal players, but think of any deadly football partnership and you’ll know what I mean), and their collaborations feel so comfortable and easy if you know what I mean.
I don’t quite get what the story is but there is consistency across the whole collaboration. On the left Soap is the writing of Soap which is filled with a sophisticated array of colours and techniques and is truly a thing of beauty. Soap’s fills just seem to get better and better.
On the right we have a rather unusual Face 1st piece of a girl riding on the back of a cigarette-smoking frog waving a bee on the end of a stick in front. What?!? I must ask him what on earth is going on in this piece next time I see him. Wild, imaginative and wonderful.
So far, since the lock down restrictions were first eased, there seem to have been an extraordinary amount of collaborative sessions, I guess because artists have missed each other through the lengthy coronavirus isolation. In this case the artists combining their talents are Varo and Saik.
Varo is an artist I met for the first time a couple of weeks back when he was painting alongside his Spanish compatriots during a paint jam on the M32 roundabout. I haven’t posted any of his work before, but that is all going to change from this moment forward. This is a nicely done piece spelling out VARO and has a natural, organic feel to it.
Saik is no stranger to Natural Adventures, but it has been quite a long time since I posted anything by the artist. This piece of graffiti writing is really nicely done, nice and tidy with an interesting fill in shades of green. An unexpected and interesting collaboration under Brunel Way.
This is the first in a series of Several posts from a big paint jam on 30 May 2020 which involved four Spanish artists and four Polish artists, all of which I think are resident in the Bristol area. I got very lucky indeed when walking the dog to see all the artists in action and stopped to chat with a few of them. I returned a few days later to photograph the completed pieces.
The first piece from this paint jam is by Hire, who has appeared on Natural Adventures countless times. I stopped with him for some time for a chat and asked him how he manages to get such fine detail on his work. He showed me the sketch he made for this piece and said that this style suits him and that if he were to try other styles or street art rather than writing that he would struggle.
I have been labelling his work as being Gothic in style, but he corrected me saying it wasn’t really gothic writing at all… oops. I guess it is perhaps reminiscent of medieval swords, spikes, halberds etc or at least it is to me. This is a lovely piece of graffiti writing, spelling HIRE, set on a cloudy purple background with some day glow green spots for decoration. A really nice piece from Hire.
Poland 1 Spain 0
The more I look at this piece from Cort (Padi) the more I like it. On first inspection it all looks a bit untidy, but I don’t know, there is something that really attracts me to it. Cort pretty much always has strong letters that aren’t particularly over-disguised but are designed differently from piece to piece. In this one he has changed the customary CORT for KOORT, which is a playful thing to do and gives him scope for messing about with different letter shapes.
Painted alongside the multiple skeleton piece by Laic217, Cort’s work acts as a perfect foil to Laic217’s because the style and content is so different. I think it is the red colour contrasting with the grey that works so well for me. A nice piece.
This is the first of several new pieces from Soge, who seems to have been really busy since the lock down restrictions eased. His style is similar to his compatriot Hire’s, but perhaps slightly less jagged.
Soge has knocked it out of the park with this piece. The SOGE writing is incredibly detailed and decorated with stars and bubbles. The background is a perfect colour for the main colours of the piece and the whole thing is very easy on the eye. You can see a little 2020 hidden in the letters too.
Something a bit new, or that I haven’t been aware of before is that Soge has started to include characters with his work, and to the right of this piece is a little Beaver with a speech bubble saying ‘I love furlough’. I’m not sure why the beaver has an axe with a bleeding blade, but it adds a little bit of edge to the cute character. This is a really nice piece from Soge.
I managed to catch this piece literally minutes before it was painted over. The artists were on site having a quick smoke before getting started. I am pleased to have made it in time because even for the high standards expected from Rezwonk, this is an outstanding piece.
Spelling out REZER, the piece is painted using a gorgeous palette of red, orange and yellow tones set on a white and orange background. To describe the fills fully would take way too long, but suffice it to say that there is a lot of craftsmanship involved and they are beautifully done. Linger for a while and study each letter. Magnificent work.
As the lock down restrictions have eased, the street/graffiti artists in Bristol have started to get busy, and Dean Lane in particular has been a destination of choice. This colourful collaboration is from Crem, Nevergiveup and Kity.
First up is Crem and a confession that I don’t really know this artist at all and this is the first Crem post in Natural Adventures, although not the last I am sure. Crem’s letter shapes are unusual and nicely finished and the piece sets the tone for the whole collaboration with its attractive fills.
No need to introduce the creator of the rabbit in the centre of the piece as he is the most featured artist on Natural Adventures, and even then I have loads of unpublished pieces of his in my archive. I am of course talking about Nevergiveup. This bunny adopts the colour scheme and offers one of the best bunnies I have seen.
Finally we move on to Kity, who like Crem I know absolutely nothing about. It would seem that I need to do a little bit of homework here. What I can’t be sure of is whether these two are new on the scene or whether they have just been off my radar. Probably the latter… it happens a lot. Kity continues the colour scheme to give what is in its entirety a really pleasing collaboration.
Of course you’d expect Rezwonk to be quick out of the blocks once the lock down restrictions eased, I guess it is the clause that allows you to ‘exercise’ for as long as you’d like that has made the difference to street artists being able to paint pieces without stressing about the rules.
This is a complex REZER design in fairly basic colours, but it has been carried off with real style and panache. With pieces as complex as this, I just can’t get my head around how the artist sees what they are doing – incredible skills really. A high quality Rezwonk burner.
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