I saw this wonderful street art by Liz Clayton (Instagram lizc_illustration) at The Tobacco Factory on North Street in Bristol where I live, and I felt a painting coming along in my head. Upfest is an urban paint festival that is held every year on said North Street. Street art artists and graffiti artists from all over the world descend on my street with their aerosol cans and create individual and magnificent art on every available blank wall or hoarding available. I feel it is a great shame that these works get painted over so quickly or abandoned. Street art by its nature is ephemeral. I decided I would like to preserve some of these works in my own paintings with my trademark woman in the foreground somewhere. I tag in the artist and ask for their blessing beforehand. With this piece, still in its early stages, I have changed the eyes to be looking slyly at the young woman just checking on her shoes, hence the title. I am looking forward to adding in all the detail of the skull without making it overpower the muted tones of the young woman. I may have to add a…
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This is a quicker, looser work I completed yesterday. I originally took a cropped shot of part of ‘Voices Of The People’ (See last week’s blog for details), put it up on Instagram and generated lots of interest. The result is this work. I have called it ‘Untitled’ because I don’t think it needs a title. As the viewer can’t see the phone the girl was holding in the original piece, I can’t call it ‘Voices Of The People, part 2’ or whatever; it wouldn’t make sense. I like the abstract quality to this painting and enjoyed painting in a looser style with bigger brushes for a change. With any future street art inspired paintings, I think I will do an extra smaller, more abstract cropped piece alongside it. Always like trying something new. If you would like to be kept up to date with what I am doing in the next few months please sign up to my Newsletter at the top of the Home page. I am also on Twitter, Instagram and have a Facebook page called Miche Artist. This work is 20 x 16″, 50 x 40 cm and is oil on canvas, not deep…
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This piece is now finished and is 24 x 24″, 60 x 60cm, oil on deep cotton canvas. Like a lot of people, I think we are all obsessed with social media, and our smartphones in particular. I would like to say it is only the young who are so obsessed, but it is definitely crossing over into my generation, the older market. Sometimes this is a good thing, as we can, as artists, get our work seen across the world at a touch of a button without having to pay for an expensive marketing campaign. Sometimes not so good, when we spend more time looking at our phones than at each other. Hence this painting. Upfest (Urban Paint Festival) takes place on the street where I live in Bristol each year and this particular artist’s work struck a chord with me. He’s on Instagram as stefano_chies and his ad logo is ‘Sign’, as in my work. I have placed my trademark woman in front of the hoarding, completely oblivious of this wonderful art, as she is of course, totally engrossed on her phone. I am interested in preserving street art and graffiti in my paintings as they…
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Something a bit different. I am very interested in street art and graffiti and here in Bristol I am surrounded by a wealth of talent in that field. I live on North Street in Bedminster and every year my street plays host to Upfest. Upfest is an urban art festival and artists from all over the world descend on North Street and cover buildings, walls and hoardings with superb streetart and graffiti. I love watching their progression and always feel a little sad that these wonderful works get painted over in time. That is the ephemeral nature of streetart. So what I am aiming to do is to preserve some of these works in my paintings for history. I am starting with Bristol, but I have in mind other cities such as Cape Town where I used to live, London with the vibrant art of Camden Town and Brick Lane. I could paint in any city in the world and am open to offers of artist residencies… This particular hoarding was a temporary structure featuring the work of the artist ‘Sign’. I shall be putting his signature onto the phone under the red mouth as it features in…
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This title came to mind from the Black Eye Pease cd, Elephunk, but I had to be careful of copyright! Once finished, this piece will be available through Cape Town gallery State Of The Art at their new premises at 50, Buitenkant. (Http://stateoftheart-gallery.com) I saw this wonderful street art in Woodstock and is listed as being by Falko One and called ‘I can’t live without my radio’. I know nothing about his work yet, but see on Instagram he is listed as #falkoone, so I salute you Falko. He seems to like painting elephants so look up his wonderful work. I am incorporating Streetart and graffiti into my paintings to preserve them for the future. I think it is such a shame they get painted over, but that is the nature of street art I suppose. I would like to paint work in other cities, London, Amsterdam, the possibilities are endless. When I paint street art paintings for Bristol gallery Great White Art (http://greatwhiteart.com) I more often than not have my lady in red sliding past the colourful background. As a result, I have come up with the generic title ‘Bristol City Rover’ for these works. What could I call…
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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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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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