I took this picture way back in June 2016 before I knew who it was by. I liked it at the time – I don’t photograph everything I see, and many pieces don’t make it into this blog…I have a little bit of editorial control. It is of course by Hire, and shows his trademark jagged Gothic form.
There is a symmetry to this piece, and if you look closely, you will be able to make out the letters HIRE. Nice one.
This is an old one going back a year, but what a great piece to be able to pull out of the archives. It s a stunning piece of writing from Epok, with all the things we expect from him, strong lines and sharp angles merging with round edges and curves. A geometric style that is pretty unique to Epok.
I dug this out, because I am trying to finish the Upfest 2016 posts before Upfest 2017 at the end of this month. This particular work was sitting in my folders from 2016 which I have been trawling through and screamed out at me…’publish me’.
There are other oldies to follow. I can only guess that I didn’t publish this before, because I always have way more material than I can possibly post about on two posts a day.
This is an absolutely wonderful piece by Dibz, featuring a character from the animated television series ‘Pinky and the Brain’. This is actually ‘the Brain’ as Pinky is somewhat skinnier and more stupid looking. Lots more from the excellent Wikipedia page on this cartoon.
What I like about this work is just how fantastically sharp and clear all Dibz’s lines are, it is a really strong technical piece. He spends a lot of time perfecting his designs before committing them to a wall, and his black book is well worth looking at on his Instagram feed.
Care has been taken, even providing a neutral grey background to help the lime green and pink stand out on this piece. One of the best on this wall for a while. Incidentally, and quite by accident, it is on the exact same space as the previous post from Inkie.
Sometimes you get lucky and see pieces by great artists that come and go in the twinkling of an eye. This was a quick one sprayed by Inkie to celebrate the opening of the ‘Graffiti Nation’ exhibition at Upfest back on 28 April 2017.
Inkie told me that he had sprayed it quickly that day and had also worked on his contribution for the exhibition an the day as well. A busy man. This is a wonderful work, simple in its colour selection but with such beautiful writing and lines.
When I look at something like this, it appears to have an effortlessness about it, the work of someone completely in command of his craft. It was painted over fairly swiftly.
It seems that street/graffiti artists tend to have peaks and troughs in their activity. I suppose that, like the rest of us, life, jobs, family and so on just get in the way a bit. I introduce this piece with this observation because Sled One, who was extremely productive last year, seems to be a little quieter. This may just be a false perception, and I am not seeing his stuff as much as I used to – I might be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
This is of the usual high standard that Sled One attains, it appears, with such ease. This wildstyle writing is so very easy on the eye, like much of his work. I particularly like the ‘accent’ lines he uses to emphasise the letters or that wisp around the piece giving it a sense of animation. I will not tire of his outstanding work.
There was a time when every few posts that I wrote was another work from the productive master of writing – Deamze. He is still as productive as ever, but his pieces are having to compete for space with the dozens and dozens of other Bristol artists that I try to cram into this website.
This is a piece from under the M32 motorway, not far from the M32 Spot. This is an area that Deamze appears to favour, and there are always several of his pieces nearby. This piece is in his format of a cartoon character accompanying some highly designed wildstyle writing.
As with so many of his pieces, I am not too sure who the cartoon critter is. I thought at first it might be Wally Gator, but it isn’t…it appears to be a dragon. Any ideas? Another classy piece from the Bristol master
I don’t know an awful lot about Pad303, other than I guess he works out of London judging from the amount of work he does in Leake Street Tunnel.. I stopped to chat with him as he was finishing this piece, and what a fun and affable bloke he is.
This is a fine piece, with a lovely bit of 3D wildstyle writing, and a hooded figure full of motion and energy kicking the lettering. I love it when artists combine styles like this, showing the breadth of their skills. A great Upfest piece.
OG Hush is an artist based in Cambridge who specialises in 3D graff writing, but also works on photorealistic images and abstract work. You can get a feel for his work from his Facebook pages. This particular piece was sited near the North Street Green, and part of a long hoarding containing work from several artists.
His 3D writing is in the same general style as Zase and Loki, and really stands out from the crowd. The letters are reasonably clear to read, spelling HUSH, and in keeping with much of the rest of this wall has a Chinese feel about it. Great work.
OG Hush is not on the list of artists for the 2017 festival, so it might be some time before we see his work in Bristol again, which is a pity.
So here is our weekly dose of Laic217. Reverting back to the format that Laic217 used when I first became aware of his work a couple of years ago. His name and a character . The big difference over the two years is the whole quality of his work, which has improved ten-fold.
His techniques are producing more forgiving textures in the features of the characters, and the clothes are well studied, with beautiful folds and creases. In my view this is an artist who is constantly improving. However, he is sticking to his themes of bucket hats, acid, smileys, flaming spray can and of course facial distortions.
I have just been to the cinema to see The Mummy (Cruise and Crowe…6/10) and although these eyes are stacked vertically, there is something unsettling about multiple eyes. (In the film, the evil character has two pupils and irises in each eye). A digression I know.
Let’s hear it for the local RAW (Read and Weep) artists…Ryder and T Rex. I think one of my favourite things about Upfest is that it combines high-end street art with local graffiti art, and bridges all the divides that may be out there in the world of street/graffiti art – at the very least for a few days.
Ryder and T Rex often paint together, and their collaborations can be seen plastered all over Bristol. They have a particular penchant for spraying vans and caravans. I fear they are rather too under represented on this blog, something I will have to rectify.
For now though , take time to appreciate the magnificent ‘fairground influenced’ writing of Ryder and the cheeky, possibly clumsy, dinosaur from T Rex. A popular combo from the Bristol
Natural adventures 