Natural adventures

7698. East Street

During my rather long walks during Upfest I was lucky enough to find a few pieces that I hadn’t been aware of before, including this stencil piece by Stewy in East Street. Stewy’s work falls into two broad categories – wildlife stencils or portrait stencils of well known people.

This piece, squeezed in between a phone box and shopfront, features Martin Parr, an English documentary photographer and photojournalist who died in December last year. His major projects were rural communities (1975–1982), The Last Resort (1983–1985), The Cost of Living (1987–1989), Small World (1987–1994) and Common Sense (1995–1999). Stewy has a knack for producing these modest stencils of remarkable people in informal poses. Great piece, great placement.

7697. Leonard Lane (54)

John D'oh, Leonard Lane, Bristol, May 2026 — John D’oh, Leonard Lane, Bristol, May 2026

Leonard Lane is a narrow passageway that runs along the line of the old city wall in Bristol. It is a dark and dank place, but a good spot for graffiti right in the centre of town. If you don’t know about it, you won’t find it. It is one of my favourite spots, and John D’oh rather likes it there too.

This rather gloomy stencil incorporates words he has used alongside other images. This one with an old lady holding a sand glass is rather poignant, and reminds us to live life to the full. Watch out for more on this theme from John D’oh – to come.

Sub

A gallery of three letter graffiti writing documenting the rise and rise of Bristol-based artist Sub.

Instagram: @subsprays

All photographs by Scooj

Sub, M32 roundabout, Bristol, April 2026

Sub, Peel Street Green, Bristol, December 2025

Sub and Bloem, Frome Side, Bristol, December 2025

Sub, M32 roundabout, Bristol, November 2025

Sub, Monarch's Way, Bristol, October 2025 — Sub, Monarch’s Way, Bristol, October 2025

Sub, Peel Street Green, Bristol, July 2025

Sub, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2025

Sub, Greenway Bush Lane, Bristol, January 2025

Sub, M32 roundabout, Bristol, December 2024

Sub, M32 roundabout, Bristol, November 2024

Sub, Peel Street Green, Bristol, October 2024

Sub and Bloem, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2024

Sub and Bloem, Greenbank, Bristol, February 2024

Sub, Peel Street Green, Bristol, February 2024

7696. Kensal Road

When Upfest comes around, I tend to do a lot more exploring around south Bristol than usual, often trying to find outlying Upfest pieces. The upshot is I not only make contemporary Upfest discoveries, but also find a host of other pieces in streets that I rarely visit. This beauty by Farrah was one such lucky find.

This wonderful piece was painted by Farrah celebrating World Earth Day (22 April 2026), so I actually found it quite soon after it was painted, and it was looking wonderfully fresh. Using her special paint brush technique, she has painted the Earth with rainbow colours (not in the correct sequence, but very beautiful) drifting off into space. Cleverly, the eyes are drawn to a solitary bee in the middle of the piece, which becomes a physical and symbolic focal point. Brilliant work from Farrah, who is very present in the Windmill Hill area of the City.

7695. M32 roundabout J3 (775)

Silent Hobo and Logoe, M32 roundabout, Bristol, May 2026

Silent Hobo and Logoe have been painting together for a few years, and are obviously paint buddies. The first of their collaborations that I photographed was way back in April 2017, but I imagine they had been painting together for some time before that. This is a wonderful, colourful combination collaboration.

Silent Hobo, M32 roundabout, Bristol, May 2026 — Silent Hobo and Logoe, M32 roundabout, Bristol, May 2026

The character by Silent Hobo, looks like he is standing in the face of a force 9 gale with his cap blown off, his hair pushed backwards and his hands in front of his face. I am guessing that this force is coming off Logoe’s bright writing.

Logoe, M32 roundabout, Bristol, May 2026

This beautiful script writing by Logoe was painted on a recent visit that was a precursor to the pair painting for Upfest (to come). Perhaps this was a practice session, although these two don’t really need much practice to be fair. The script letters spell Logoe and are decorated with vertical pink and bronze stripes. The piece is set on a white patterned cloud with purple borders. Altogether this is a high-impact collaboration.

7694. Sparke Evans Park (152)

Conrico, Noise and Stivs, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, May 2026

This is a wonderful collaboration painted by Conrico, Noise and Stivs, who were participating in the World Wall Stylers challenge (Chapter 26) on reggae legends. Although these were painted in April, they were still looking pretty fresh in May.

Conrico, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, May 2026

First up is a lovely portrait piece by Conrico of Pablo Gad, a lyricist of ‘when I was a yout’ by Ed Solo. I grabbed that information off Conrico’s Instagram thread, without which I wouldn’t have known any of this. The red, gold and green are well represented, and the portrait presented in Conrico’s distinctive brush stroke style.

Noise, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, May 2026

The middle section is a lovely bit of chunky graffiti writing from Noise that also carried the red gold and green colours that stand out beautifully against the black background.

Stivs, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, May 2026

The collaboration is rounded off with an outstanding portrait of Lila Iké by Stivs. His portrait work is hitting new levels at the moment, which makes for very enjoyable viewing. Stivs is a little more subtle with his incorporation of the red, gold and green colours, incorporation them as part of the border surrounding the portrait.

All round, this is an outstanding collaboration.

7693. Brunel Way (358)

Logoe has painted a fair bit in Bristol this year, and as writing goes, this is one of his more conservative pieces without frills and decorations, just a straightforward example of script writing that he excels at.

The ‘wall’ in this case is actually a piece of canvas fabric that has been stretched between some fence posts, quite why I don’t know, in fact I’m not too sure what that bit of fence is doing in the first place, stuck under the flyover. Most of the pieces painted here tend to be fairly modest, perhaps it isn’t particularly inspirational. More to follow from Logoe.

7692. West Street – Upfest 2026 (15)

Liam Bononi, Upfest 2026, West Street, Bristol, May 2026

Where to begin? Liam Bononi is one of my favourite artists painting in the UK at the moment, and I have been lucky enough to find several of his outstanding portrait pieces during my travels around the country over the last couple of years. This piece, on one of the established Upfest walls is a real beauty.

Liam Bononi’s photorealistic portraits are so beautifully detailed, and he has a particularly refined talent for painting hands and faces, which are full of lines, wrinkles, blemishes and the like, presenting us with identifiable characters that look like they have lived a life.

In this piece, a mushroom collector is inspecting some mushrooms before I imagine he drops them into his plastic bag. An ordinary scene transformed into something spectacular. The artwork on the plastic bag is incredible, with every fold and shadow so detailed and a clever translucence about it. This is an incredible Upfest piece by Liam Bononi.

7691. Greenway Bush Lane – Upfest 2026 (14)

Octofly Art, Upfest 2026, Greenway Bush Lane, Bristol, May 2026

Octofly Art has visited Bristol a few times for Upfest over the years and her work has improved significantly over that time. She comes from Italy, from Valle Camonica in the North of the country, and graduated from the “Santa Giulia” Academy of Fine Arts in Brescia in 2014.

Her cartoon style is endearing and witty with a positive vibe and uplifting outlook. This caricature piece on the new wall at the back of Aldi, shows a sardine tucked up in its tin, with a pillow. The tin is tagged with Bristol to recognise the host city of Upfest. A fun piece, perfectly presented for this space. Below are a couple of her previous appearances at upfest:

Octofly Art, Upfest 22, Bristol, May 2022

7690. North Street – Upfest 2026 (13)

Mr Cenz, Upfest 2026, North Street, Bristol, May 2026

Mr Cenz is a well known British street artist based in London, whose work features portraits of women augmented with multiple layers of colour and design that are so distinctive that no signature is required on his pieces.

I love this elevated Upfest wall. Because of its aspect it can be viewed from some distance and has a great impact when walking towards it. When a spectacular piece like this one from Mr Cenz is painted there, it has a real wow-factor. Such a great artist balancing photorealism and abstract colour fusion in an outstanding way. A great Upfest piece.

	hitandrun1964 on 7696. Kensal Road
	M. on 7696. Kensal Road
	Wes Vinglun (aka) Ni… on 7696. Kensal Road
	Sheree on 7696. Kensal Road
	scooj on 7692. West Street – Upfe…

	hitandrun1964 on 7696. Kensal Road
	M. on 7696. Kensal Road
	Wes Vinglun (aka) Ni… on 7696. Kensal Road
	Sheree on 7696. Kensal Road
	scooj on 7692. West Street – Upfe…

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: