The activist armed with a sketchbook and a purple biro

While many hunkered down in the comfort of the indoors during the flailing winter months of 2021, a small number of people braved the bitter weather and hit the streets of Bristol.

From resisting a family’s eviction from their home in Easton to a vigil on College Green to remember sex workers who have lost their lives to violence, dozens of people publicly assembled to protest what they saw as the social injustices engulfing Bristol.

Among the thongs of chanting crowds at these displays of collective action, you would be forgiven if you missed a quiet and contemplative figure hovering in the background, armed not with a placard or megaphone, but with a sketchbook and purple biro.

Dayne Griffiths outside Bristol Crown Court at a demonstration held in solidarity with the Colston 4 – photo: Rose Morelli

“In many ways, I’m not heavily involved in the protest scene,” Dayne Griffiths told Bristol24/7 over a coffee on a recent morning.

“I’m not chaining myself to anything. I am not one of the Colston 4 on trial, that’s for sure.”

Dayne is a champion of what he calls “high intensity life drawing”, a strongly immersive way of creating art that sees him putting pen to paper at numerous demonstrations each week.

He can usually be spotted at protests in Bristol, not delivering speeches or thrusting billboards in the air, but drifting at the margins quietly scribbling in his sketchbook.

At an eviction of a mother and her two children in Easton, Dayne sat silently on the pavement opposite the house to draw – photo: Betty Woolerton

The protest in Easton stopped a mother and her young children from being evicted – photo: Betty Woolerton

Is Dayne’s artwork a fundamental part of his activism? “For sure,” he answers.

The 30-year-old from Filton said his sketching strives to humanise figures of protest and, in turn, the issues at stake.

“When I can create artwork that can go online and be spread and draw people in, people who might not necessarily attend a protest can view my art,” Dayne explained.

“You are viewing them through a lens of visual art rather than a lens of left or right wing news outlets that are trying to evoke an emotion out of the images they are choosing. A more visual, playful approach can help people to view these situations through new eyes.”

Dayne also illustrates live music performances across Bristol – illustration: Dayne Griffiths

Dayne explained that he first developed his low-key but intricate artistic style by sketching the performances of musicians at open mic nights while he was studying for a degree in illustration in Swansea.

For him, the music and the movement of people “ties into the rhythm of the pen”.

Whether sketching at gigs or protests, Dayne aims to “capture life in its essence” in a way that a photograph cannot.

“Art awakens the brain to really focus on what it’s seeing and gives the artist an easy opportunity to express stuff that a photographer would have to work a lot harder for,” he says.

His sketches aim to go beyond the purely visual and “capture the energy” of the scene.

“Art as a visual medium gets transfixed by what you can see which is only natural but there is so much more to the moment you’re capturing. Whether that’s a performance or a protest, the mark-making and the beat of your hand reflects what is happening.”

Dayne aimed to capture the ‘high-intensity’ levels of the ‘kill the bill’ protests of 2021 – photo: Betty Woolerton

Dayne grew up in the village of Llansadwrn in west Wales and came to Bristol as part of his journey to sobriety three years ago, not looking back since.

He lovingly described his adopted city as having a “powerful heartbeat that responds to the world… When there’s injustice in Britain, you can feel it in the streets of Bristol.”

To see more of Dayne’s work, visit www.facebook.com/daynegriffithsillustration

Main photo: Rose Morelli

Read more: Jubilant and emotional scenes in Bristol as Colston 4 acquitted 

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