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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I have changed the title to this piece from ‘Bristol Shitty’ to Make Bristol Shit Again’ as I felt it gave the impression Bristol is a bad place to visit or live in. Far from it. Bristol is a vibrant, buzzy city full of artists who come up with tongue in cheek posters like this one in Stokes Croft. I have had a few queries from people who follow me on Twitter from abroad who think I am mocking Bristol. Far from it again. The Brits have a self-deprecating, laid back sense of humour, hence this poster and why I like it so much. I am nearly done with this work, but need to tone down the background a little more to make the red poster and the woman stand out more, hence no visible writing on any of the other posters. I also need to refine the lower part of the painting more, the legs, pavement and bricks. I just got too tired last night, so another couple of days. My aim is to try and preserve in my paintings some of the stunning street art that is around in our cities, because of course street art /graffiti is…
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I saw this red poster in ‘The People’s Republic of Stokes Croft’ in Bristol recently and it made me laugh out loud. Bristol is a GREAT city and full of great scenes like this, so I felt a painting coming on. I am painting a series of artworks involving street art and graffiti all around Bristol, but always with my trademark woman somewhere in the foreground. I shall also be painting local iconic backgrounds such as the wonderful BearPit Bear. I am excited. In fact I got so excited, I went in search of fluorescent oil paints for the posters on the wall behind the woman. These do not seem to exist in the UK, so have spent all my worldly wealth on 5 tubes of brilliant colours from America which look amazing. However I will now have to tone down the colours, as the woman risks being swamped by such bright zinging tones. I will only be painting in the detail of the Make Bristol Shit Again poster to create emphasis and will leave the other posters indistinct. I will eventually get the lettering right, so please bear with me. The shoes are based on a fantastic pair of…
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