My ongoing project at the moment is to produce works depicting street art and graffiti in and around Bristol, preserving them for history as street art is by its nature, ephemeral and will get painted over in due course. Bristol is a centre for street art and graffiti and we have just had Upfest on the street where I live, North Street. Artists from all over the globe descend on my street for one weekend each year to produce the most amazing and stunning works. Google Upfest, which stands for urban paint festival. I now have, again, a wealth of images to use as backgrounds for my Bristol City Roving woman or similar. You can see my work along these lines at Great White Art gallery in Bristol (http://greatwhiteart.com). I am working along similar lines for the Cape Town gallery, State Of The Art (http://stateoftheart-gallery.com). They are now in brand new wonderful premises at 50, Buitenkant having moved from Shortmarket Street. Having said all of the above, I have slightly deviated from street art into portraying an iconic image for Bristol lovers in this piece. The Bearpit Bear stands on a busy roundabout in the centre of…
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The start of a new piece which always excites me. This one is for Cape Town and features a wonderful street art seen in Woodstock. It is 80 x 80 cm. I just loved the way the air conditioning unit has been incorporated into the elephant listening to its radio. I would like to think it is a heavy rap theme. Originally I was going to place my trademark woman to the right of the canvas, but have since decided she should be walking past the elephant who I would like to think is giving her a leery smile. My juvenile sense of humour showing here, but I think it works. Street art and graffiti is a theme which is going to appear more in my work in the months to come. It is ephemeral art which by its very nature means it is going to be painted over. I want to preserve some of this amazing art in my paintings and if I can introduce a little touch of humour and lightness into the work, so much the better. I am doing the same in Bristol and you can see more of my work there at http://greatwhiteart.com. I…
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‘Bristol Blonde At The Bearpit’ new work in progress. 26/07/17
I have to admit this painting could never work in reality. The iconic Bearpit Bear in Bristol stands on a massive roundabout in one of the busiest parts of the centre of Bristol. There is no way anyone could stand so close to this Bear. I have wanted to paint it for a long time, but have again set myself a difficult task. I felt the Bear on its own was not what I was after, and having completed my three Bristol City Rover paintings involving a brunette, decided it was time for a blonde. Please see the originals at http://greatwhiteart.com, Great White Art gallery on Perry Row in Bristol The Bear is deliberately turned away from this young woman to spare its blushes as she bends over to pick up an orange. I decided on an orange purely to add a dash of colour to the piece. An onion wouldn’t have worked as well….. I shall probably paint three works again depicting local Bristol scenes involving my blonde. I like using street art and graffiti as a background, as I want to preserve them for the future. Street art by its very nature is ephemeral. If you would like…
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