I have not yet met Lewse, which is regrettable, really. Everywhere you go in Bristol, the chances are that you will encounter a Lewse piece, and some of them have been about for a while. I think there is a lot of respect out there for Lewse’s work, and quite rightly so.
Lewse, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, November 2022
This is a rather wonderful piece of writing with a character in tow. The letters are large, clear, regular and superbly filled and finished and are bookended by the head and tail of Disney’s incarnation of Lewis Carroll’s Cheshire cat. Great colour scheme, and so very easy on the eye. Anither keeper from Lewse.
It looks like Creamylines is here to stay. When his initial burst of work appeared under the M32, I wasn’t sure if he was an itinerant artist who dropped a load of pieces before moving on, but it looks like he is living in Bristol, and this piece under Brunel Way kind of underpins that assumption.
Creamylines, Brunel Way, Bristol, November 2022
Creamylines is a very different kind of artist, painting landscape scenes in fragmented sections, looking almost like a jigsaw puzzle. His pieces have an uplifting feel to them and incorporate the natural landscape with people, a theme that reminds us of our strong connection with nature, and perhaps a desire to sustain and enhance this connection. Love his work.
This magnificent pipe-smoking monkey by Tack Jucker, must be one of the most overlooked pieces in Bristol. It is on a warehouse door and is incredibly feint. I don’t know if it has always been this way or whether it has been bleached by the sun. I don’t even know how long it has been there, but am please to have spotted it.
Tack Jucker, River Avon, Bristol November 2022
Photographing street art is all the more gratifying for the surprises that you encounter, and this piece definitely fell into that category. Had it been painted on a buffed background, it would have been much more noticeable, but instead, it simply blends into the graffiti swirl and remains hidden. Tack Jucker is a great artist, and finding his work is always a genuine pleasure. Gallery coming soon…
A graffiti writer, whose work I simply don’t get to see enough of, is Rusk. I think this is mainly due to the fact that he paints a lot of walls I simply don’t get to see. When he paints in the more regular spots, there is a good chance I’ll get to see his work, and there are plenty of examples in this gallery. The problem is he likes to paint in different and unusual places, so I have to resort to his Instagram stream to enjoy much of his work.
Rusk, St Werburghs, Bristol, November 2022
This is a lovely piece painted in the tunnel for Bnie’s birthday paint jam is a beauty. The letters spelling RUSK are beautifully proportioned, but it is the fill that steals the day. A graded horizontal colour transition with stripes of adjacent colours thrown into the mix. The yellow/orange transition reminds me of the colour swirl in marbles… is that just me? This is another fine example of Rusk’s great writing.
I have been dreading this decision, and putting it off until the last minute.
I have run out of storage space on Natural Adventures, and need to decide whether to pay for an upgrade, and another 6 year’s worth of storage for my photographs, or to start up Natural Adventures II, at risk of losing continuity.
I think I know what I have to do, because writing this blog is important to me, and probably worth paying for, but I have some reservations.
In my mind’s eye, I had published loads of pieces by Bogat. It turns out that this is only the fifth, so there must be a fair few lurking in my archive. I wonder if a way to flush out some of these ‘lost’ pieces is to have an amnesty, whereby I just publish a bunch of pieces by multiple artists, in one post, from a particular month, as a kind of ‘lost souls’ gallery, and write less about each individual piece. Something to think about.
Bogat, New Stadium Road, Bristol, November 2022
This particular piece is an absolute cracker from Bogat, and very probably his best so far (of those that I have seen). It was painted a part of a paint jam in this rather grubby underpass, but I think all the artists pulled out the stops with their work – perhaps there was a bit of a competitive element to it all. I could also interpret this piece as a bit of a homage to Laic27, because many of the elements of his work are replicated here.
There are a handful of artists whose work fills me with a little tingle of excitement each time I came across their work, and Pekoe is right up there with the best of them. Her portraits feel like part of the furniture of the Bristol scene, and represent what is so good about the range and diversity of the city’s street art.
Pekoe, St Werburghs, Bristol, November 2022
This piece was another RBF contribution to Bnie’s birthday celebrations a week or so back. A three-quarter view portrait with a blue face and ginger hair… what’s not to like about this colourful piece? The downturned mouth makes the woman look a little grumpy perhaps, but there is a friendly sparkle in the eyes. Pekoe has added in some clever shading, both on the face and in the hair, to give the whole portrait depth and texture. This is another fine piece from the wonderful Pekoe.
Doors 200 – some Bristol street art and graffiti doors.
This week, I am delving into my archive to bring you some street art and graffiti doors. If I am honest, this is a bit of a cheat, because they are doors that have already been published on Natural Adventures, but in the context of a street art blog post. All I am doing here is corralling a few of them together into a Thursday doors piece, but that is OK, isn’t it?
These doors were originally photographed in December 2021 and January 2022, I hope you enjoy them:
Big Hev, Devon Road, Bristol, January 2022
Stika, Devon Road, Bristol, January 2022
3F fino and Werm, Devon Road, Bristol, January 2022
Zubyblue, St Marks Avenue, Bristol, December 2021
Stinkfish, Stokes Croft, Bristol, December 2021
Dabuten Tronko, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, December 2021
qWeRT, North Street, Bristol, December 2021
So that’s yer lot this week. I’ll try to find time to upload some Bristol doors for next week. Until then, may I wish you all a fabulous weekend.
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 Thursday Doors post.
The last time I was down here, there was an almighty flood caused by a burst water main, the result of which made visiting this spot rather difficult, because the slip road (where I park) was closed due to repair work by Bristol Water. Perhaps if they had had Bob the Builder on site, they would have fixed it in half the time. The reference, for anyone who might have missed it, is that this piece is a fabulous rendition of the children’s TV character Bob the Builder, by the ever-youthful Haka.
Haka, Brunel Way, Bristol, November 2022
I believe that Haka is doing this great thing for his children, Jesse I think is one of them, and being a brilliant dad. He is painting characters from children’s books and from television, all over the city, which is such a cool dad thing to do. If I had the talent, I’d love to do something similar, although my children are pretty much grown up now. This piece is beautifully painted in typical Haka style, and definitely brightens up this dark corner under Brunel Way.
Natural adventures 