Natural adventures

7895. Cumberland Basin

Zake, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, August 2026

Zake has come along such a long way from his early column pieces under the M32 back in 2018 when I first came across his work. This year he has turned up the dial with a variety of really different character pieces that each tell a bit of a story.

In this piece, Zake has painted a cartoonish demonic character playing some mystical pipe. Behind him is a group of hooded characters, looking a little creepy to me, with lanterns held on sticks. Perhaps out protagonist is summoning them to do their evil deeds. Something a little different from Zaake.

7894. M32 roundabout J3 (792)

Roma, M32 roundabout, Bristol, August 2026

Roma has settled into a rather nice rhythm of painting and is also settling into a fairly consistent letter style. Her distinctive overlapping letters are quite pointy, although she has painted smoother letters in the past, and her ‘O’ and ‘A’ have an additional embellishment at the top.

In this piece she has chosen to paint over a particularly busy piece – by Biers – which does distract a little from her own work. Perhaps a bit more background would help to delineate her work from the existing work of others. I know that this is a stylistic approach used by many writers, but my view would be to consider the wall, not only the letters. The blended fill and horizontal stripe of stars is fabulous and well executed. Upwards and onwards.

7893. M32 roundabout J3 (791)

Bloem, M32 roundabout, Bristol, August 2026

Photographing this piece by Bloem, even with the shadows cast across it was a smart move, because the next time I visited to get some better pictures, it had been over-painted – which was a great pity. I have noticed that quite often, fresh pieces get painted over not because of any vindictive mission on the part of another artist, but because they genuinely have no idea how long a piece might have been on a wall for. People like me, who visit spots regularly have a much better idea of what is new and what is old.

Bloem’s work is really quite exceptional. She has in a relatively short space of time learned her craft and clearly has a great gift for spray painting walls. The gift is twofold though, her can-control is one thing, but combined her worderfully creative mind allows her to paint her outstanding artwork with confidence and ease. These letters, spelling BLOEM, are painted in her favoured blue tones and are beautifully designed and decorated. Another triumph from Bloem. If only the sun had drifted behind a cloud, just for a minute.

7892. Purdown (105)

No fuss, no bother. What you see is what you get from this throw up piece by Butch. There is no pretension from this graffiti writing, simply his skeleton format, without frills. Often a piece like this would struggle to make the cut for Natural Adventures, but I like his work and include it when I can.

I’ll be popping up to Purdown this morning for a dog walk, it is one of the few graffiti spots where both the dog and I get what we each need from a walk. The yellow and black letters overlapping from the left reflect the parcherd grass and contrast with the wide dramatic sky. A nice straightforward piece.

7891. Dean Lane skate park (939)

I like to publish as many pieces by Werm as I can, because it has been an amazing privilege to be able to chart his journey since his arrival on the Bristol street art scene. Over the years, he has navigated his way through various styles, learned a lot and always looked to adapt and improve, to the point now where we see a mature and confident graffiti writer who seems to be enjoying his craft.

This is an amazing piece, bursting with colour and energy. The letters themselves are incredibly clean and tight, close to perfection, but I think the thing thart brings the whole alive is the contrasting spotty background, introducing a whole different colour regime and softer edges counteracting the sharpness in his letters. A great piece of graffiti writing from Werm.

7890. Elton Street (33)

Jody, Elton Street, Bristol, August 2026

Another wonderful framed piece in the Elton Street gallery, this time from Jody. What is so fascinating about this piece is not so much what Jody has painted, but what is absent beyond the confines of the frame – we are getting a peek into something much bigger.

Jody has painted part of a portrait, which looks very much in the futuristic comic style, with the eyes and nose clearly in view. The rich colours hint at a dark and shady scene, probably nighttime. There is some great detailing reflecting the way of graffiti writing, with lots of splats and drips, that appear to be so at home in this piece and don’t in any way disrupt the portrait. Skillful and intriguing work from Jody.

Greater burdock

Sticky hooked seed heads

bring out my inner mischief

asking to be thrown

by Scooj

7889. Cumberland Basin

Nice One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, August 2026

Another classic piece from Nice One, who, it has to be said has generally had quite a quiet few months painting on the streets. It can be hard to know sometimes what impacts on the peaks and troughs in activity from different artists, and one can only hope it is for good reasons.

This combnination piece cleanly separates a superb portrait sketch from the beautifully picked out and typical letters ‘Nice One’. The portrait piece resembles a bust or statue and the sketch-like quality of the lined feels like this piece has been directly lifted out of an artist’s workbook. To create that greyscale pencil drawing look at this scale using spray paints is fantastically skillful and perfectly executed by Nice One. Outstanding.

7888. M32 Cycle path (322)

Mage, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, August 2026

About 20 years ago I bought a Nike sweatshirt which didn’t have the tick logo, just the word Nike, and it was the exact same colours as the letter fills in this piece by Mage. This piece reminds me of that top, which I was very fond of, and I can’t unsee it in this piece.

Sometimes Mage’s execution can look a little rushed, but not in this piece, everything is absolutely on-point. The clean dynamic two-colour fill is attraxctively presented, and supported with a whuite drop shadow and fine black border. Some greeny-yellow dusting creates an interface between the letters and the former occupant of this spot. I am not too sure about the colour selection of this, but I am splitting hairs a bit. A very nice tidy piece of writing from Mage.

7887. St Mark’s Avenue (14)

Bethan Richards, St Mark's Avenue, Bristol, July 2026 — Bethan Richards, St Mark’s Avenue, Bristol, July 2026

Typically, when I think of an avenue I have in my mind’s eye a semi-rural tree-lined straight road leading to or from a special town or estate. St Mark’s Avenue brings that idyll instantly back down to earth. It is a narrow back alley, full of bins and until recently rather grubby and neglected, but thanks to a small local community group, it has been transformed with planters for pollinators and some rather fetching street art from local artists along the way.

This piece, by Bethan Richards, an artist I haven’t come across before, fits the allocated space so very well. The illustrative design style reminds me a little of Zoe Power, a Bristol artist who is well known on the mural scene. There are lots of nature connection themes in an urban landscape, which really captures the essence of the improvements being bade by community groups in this area. Lovely work.

	paulh121 on 7892. Purdown (105)
	scooj on 7771. Exeter Road – Upfe…
	scooj on 7892. Purdown (105)
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	paulh121 on 7892. Purdown (105)
	scooj on 7771. Exeter Road – Upfe…
	scooj on 7892. Purdown (105)
	paulh121 on 7892. Purdown (105)
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