Lima Lima, Upfest 2026, West Street, Bristol, August 2026
This Upfest piece by Lima Lima is so completely up my street, and one of my favourites from this year’s festival. As a child I spent many hours in the London Zoo aquarium, and any other aquarium I coulld persuade my mother to take me. I would simply gaze into the dulled tanks, transfixed on the fish and other creatures that lived beneath the water. It sowed the seed of my ambition to become a marine biologist.
Lima Lima, Upfest 2026, West Street, Bristol, August 2026
Lima Lima has cleverly used this space, a filled in shop window, to make it look like a fish tank, and he has captured those tranquil dull blues perfectly, just as you’d expect in a large marine tank.
Lima Lima, Upfest 2026, West Street, Bristol, August 2026
I couldn’t find out much about Lima Lima other than that he paints in France. On his Instagram he writes in French, but that is not enough to be sure that he is French. I am so pleased that he made the trip to Bristol and brought something quite different to our streets that chimes so perfectly for me personally.
I am so happy that this ‘gallery’ in Elton Street has been reactivated. It is a perfect place to showcase artists’ work without it being quickly tagged or overpainted. A classy display of Bristol and visiting artists.
Mr Penfold, Elton Street, Bristol, August 2026
This piece is by Mr Penfold and picks up on his colourful abstract designs that are well known in the city and beyond. A coming together of sharp-edged solid filled shapes and softer ‘cow-hide’ designs, creates a contrasting melee that demands to be observed and figured out. Great work from Mr Penfold.
As is pretty much always the case, I am finding it difficult to keep up with the volume of graffiti and street art appearing on the streets of Bristol every day, and although I am posting this great piece by Awkward earlier this month, there are two or three that I still have in my archives from earlier in the summer, and I simply have no idea when to post them.
Awkward, Dean Lane, Bristol, August 2026
This is a nicely presented piece by Awkward, fesaturing a mildly creepy character with large eyes and skull-like features. The character is floating on a purple bubble background and includes a signature speech bubble with the word AWK WARD stacked inside. I’ll have to find time and space to post his other pieces.
Roma has had a strong year so far, and her letters can be seen liberally sprinkled at most of the hot spots around the city. Roma sits firmly in the stable of four-letter writers who build and practice and improve with each new piece; others in this group would include Desi (Veil), Mage, Luna and Lupa, all of whom are on an upward trajecory.
Roma, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, August 2026
I love the selection of her letters – ROMA, so she starts in a good place as far as I am concerned. In this piece, her letters overlap slightly from left to right and are contained within a black border. It is interesting to note that she hasn’t delineated between the fill and the white drop shadow, which is quite a risky thing to do, but she has done it well. The fills of orange and blue feel free and ephemeral, and I wonder if the lines and squiggles actually added anything. I’ll soon have enough of Roma’s pieces for a gallery.
One of the genuine pleasures of cataloguing street art over a long period of time is that you get to witness the comings and goings of certain artists as their lives take twists and turns. The Cat Came Back is a great example of an artist who made an appearance a few years ago and then all but disappeared until a month or so ago with a significant and welcome return.
The Cat Came Back, Purdown, Bristol, August 2026
The Cat Comes Back has come back rejuvinated and with great ambition. This is a clean piece and quite a statement, in so much as it is difficult to ignore. The cat fits the square concrete slab perfectly, and has all the attributes of a great cartoon character piece. Looking forward to more cats on our streets.
This particular spot at the very top end of Stapleton Road is fast becoming a favourite haunt of the three-way collaborations from Kid Crayon, Tera and SPZero76 (the UZI crew). Sometimes I present them as a trio and sometimes individually, it depends on how the mood takes me. This post is the individual contrubuition by Kid Crayon to a recent production piece.
Kid Crayon, Stapleton Road, Bristol, August 2026
The theme for the wall was the comic book 20000AD, a British weekly science fiction comic that included the most famous character Judge Dredd. This piece celebrates another character, Rogue Trooper. The block letters are in keeping with the larger-than-life style of the comic, and the barren apocalyptic background an added bonus. I never read the comics myself, although I now rather wish I had. A superb example of illustrative graffiti writing.
Well this was something I was not expecting to find. More of a poster than a wheatpaste, Mr Sleven has been at work with a sketch and then decided to stick it to a column on the north side of Cumberland Basin.
Mr Sleven, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, August 2026
This is a rather nice creation, emphasising peace and love, but the face itself has a glimmer of menace about it that is slightly unsettling. Great to see that Mr Sleven is active though. I realise that I have several of his recent pieces in my archive and shall strive to dig them out and post them.
Doors 368 – Doors of Saltaire, Part III – May 2025
So to the last of three posts from a very happy day in Saltaire in May last year. This selection contains residential doors and buildings that show a great insight into organised social hierarchical housing. I have mentioned in previous posts that Saltaire village was built from scratch by the Salt family, the local textile mill owners who dominated local society with their employment of workers and their immense wealth. I used AI to provide a couple of paragraphs about the architecture of the residences in the village:
When Sir Titus Salt began building Saltaire in 1851, he was not simply providing homes for his workers but creating an entire model community. Salts Mill opened in 1853, and house building continued through the 1850s and 1860s, with the village largely complete by 1871. Designed by Lockwood and Mawson, the houses varied in size and character according to the social position of their occupants. Ordinary workers lived in the long, simple terraces, while overseers and managers occupied larger houses, often with gardens. At the top of the hierarchy were the grandest homes, including larger semi-detached properties with more generous plots.
That hierarchy can still be read in the architecture, particularly in the doors. The workers’ houses, many dating from the 1850s, generally have simple, restrained entrances, while the larger and more prestigious houses have wider frontages and more elaborate doorways, with arched openings, stone surrounds and decorative detailing. The doorway was therefore more than a means of getting inside: it formed part of a visual language of status. Walking through Saltaire today, the changing scale and decoration of its doors offer a surprisingly clear glimpse of the social structure of Titus Salt’s Victorian community.
And now the doors:
White, blue and red doors in a terrace, Titus Street, Saltaire, West Yorkshire, England, May 2025Large red door and window above in end of terrace dwelling, Titus Street, Saltaire, West Yorkshire, England, May 2025Green door in a larger house, George Street, Saltaire, West Yorkshire, England, May 2025Mint green door, George Street, Saltaire, West Yorkshire, England, May 2025Three storey building and green door, George Street, Saltaire, West Yorkshire, England, May 2025Pink door and gate, George Street, Saltaire, West Yorkshire, England, May 2025Raised blue door (two storey terrace) and slightly more fancy black door and surround (three storey end of terrace), George Street, Saltaire, West Yorkshire, England, May 2025
It would seem that the Salt family had a grip on their workers, and while providing housing and amenities and facilities in the village, one could never realistically leave the grip of the mill, and workers were ‘owned’ for their lifetime. The model village was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of this social structure centred around the mill and its owners.
If you have made it this far, you probably like doors, and you really ought to take a look at the No Facilities blog by Dan Anton who has taken over the hosting of Thursday Doors from Norm 2.0 blog. Links to more doorscursions can be found in the comments section of Dan Anton’s weekly Thursday Doors post and his Sunday recap.
Yesterday my area (one of the last in the country) fell into a Temporary Use Ban (TUB), more commonly known as Hosepipe Ban. This is an administrative stage in the drought management process and is designed to slow the demand on water resources. Although the groundwater situation is generally good after a very wet winter, rivers and reservoirs are very low, and it will take a long period of persistent rain to recover them. All the while people are still using water in high volumes, hence the ban.
The sun and shade are once again my enemy in these pictures of a wonderful piece by j9449j – AKA All 4 Nothing. The colour tones are beautifully selected and matched through the whole piece, and while I have no idea what the letters spell, if there even are any, it matters not, the composition is fabulous.
j9449j, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, August 2026
J9449j (the name of his Instagram account when I first started writing about his work) has a wonderful abstract organic life in his work, with plenty of tufts of grass or plants and the odd flower making an appearance. The piece is enigmatic and intriguing – I’ve yet to meet the elusive artist. This is a classy work.
Natural adventures 