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Glastonbury Tor
beyond Somerset Levels
dark rain bearing clouds
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by Scooj
Mendip Hills
Month: October 2023
5577. Cumberland Basin
This is the third piece of graffiti writing that I have posted today. I do make efforts to try and mix up writing with street art and character pieces in my posts, because I completely get it that graffiti writing isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and is definitely an acquired taste. However, there are a lot of writers out there and sometimes there is just a lot to publish.
Werm is quite slow to change his basic designs, preferring to lock on to a particular idea and bash out dozens of quite similar pieces, before moving on to a slightly different design concept, and I think that this piece is a bit of a new transition. The yellow and purple colours are a good combination, and are actually ‘opposite’ colours, and the green glowing background accompanies them well. The letters spell WERM and are much bigger than of late, without quite so much expansion and fuss. It will be interesting to see where this transition takes us.
5576. Dean Lane skate park (651)
At one end of the long wall in Dean Lane, we can see Rusk doing what Rusk does best. It is a pity that he doesn’t paint as much as he used to, but his considered and meticulous approach to his writing is something that never changes.
There is nothing fussy or flashy about this writing, which spells out RUSK, but it is a high-class and beautifully neat piece of work. The winning combination of colours, green and orange, are magnificent, and the 3D drop shadow is excellent, with a vanishing point bottom centre of the piece. The writing definitely benefits from the grey buffed background and is finished with some nice green and yellow spots, although I am not convinced yellow was the right choice, although actually it might have been the perfect choice. It was a real treat to stumble upon this one.
5575. Brunel Way (241)
Collaborations between Dibz and Fade are fast becoming the most frequent on Natural Adventures, and they seem to be turning out at least one piece a week, which certainly keeps me on my toes. I try to post them all, simply because of their outstanding quality. Perhaps they will slow the pace a little over the winter months and I can turn my attention to other less well represented artists.
This piece, quite small by their standards, features Scrooge Mc Duck, holding not a bag of money, but instead a spray can. The writing says FADE, but it is difficult to disentangle who painted what in this collaboration, but I am pretty certain Dibz painted the character and Fade the writing. Another very nicely executed piece from this productive pair.
5574. M32 roundabout J3 (518)
My ‘Most Improved Artist of the Year Award’ for this year goes to Evey, whose work both in therms of quantity and quality has gone to a new level over the last twelve months, and her progress shows no signs of slowing down. I think that part of this improvement has to be down to the frequency of painting and practice.
This wonderfully colourful piece on the M32 roundabout includes a crown, usually an emblem reserved for the senior or established artists in a place, but I fully believe Evey has earned this. Evey manages to change both the design and fills in her letters with each piece she paints, demonstrating a willingness to push the boundaries. This is an eye-catching fill that asks to be looked at, and works especially well on the black background. There is so much more to come from this hard-working and talented artist.
5573. Sidwell Street Exeter
One of my most popular street art posts on Natural Adventures was a piece by Vhils on Exeter High Street (which I would link to if links were working on WordPress this morning), a very short distance away from this stunner by Sophie Mess. I love it when ugly corporate or retail buildings commission artwork to brighten things up, and what an impact this floral treat has had on an otherwise dull facade and home for pigeons.
Sophie Mess is an artist based in Devon, who tends to go big with her incredible floral creations, and indeed painted a vast iris piece on the Tobacco Factory wall for Upfest 2022 (yet to be posted here). This piece is simply amazing, so full of rich colours and textures and so utterly uplifting. Every shopping centre in the UK should have one of these. Exeter is blessed to have a piece like this in the heart of their shopping area, and yet the only people looking at it were people wondering what it was that I was photographing. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. LOOK UP!
Thursday doors – 19 October 2023, Todi, Italy
Doors 239 – Todi doors, Umbria, Italy (Part I)
I am currently at an event in Cheddar Gorge in Somerset, and have written this post in advance. An English autumn and a summer in Todi are worlds apart, and it has been something of a pleasure sorting out the doors this week, recollecting those parched Italian days, whilst sitting in a dark centrally-heated house in Bristol. The large family gathering we had near Massa Martana was a very special holiday and will remain with us forever. The location of the villa was close to Todi and to several other towns and cities in the west of Umbria and for the next few weeks of Thursday doors, I intend to share some lovely doors from the trip back in July.
This first set of doors is from Todi, on a day that was unbelievably hot and we were wilting in the midday sun – we managed to find some respite in the shady back streets. I hope you enjoy this modest selection that I hope will whet your appetite for more:
That’s yer lot for this week, but there is plenty more to come from this trip. Have a great 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.
by Scooj
Autumn visitor
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Setting the dog off
autumnal barking cycle
woof! Get off my land
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by Scooj
5572. John Street, Exeter
On our way home from Cornwall to Bristol, we stopped off in Exeter for a couple of hours while my friend had to deal with a flea crisis in his daughter’s student flat. I took the opportunity to wander about the city and using my street art sixth sense managed to find quite a few pieces, completely accidentally – no maps, no street art websites, nothing other than intuition and exploration.
Walking up Fore Street, which becomes Exeter High Street, I spotted a narrow lane on the right (a must for psychogeographers) which I turned in to, and was rewarded with a spectacular wall curated by ‘Enhance in Exeter’, and this magnificent piece by My Dog Sighs. To say that it was unexpected is an understatement, but I was rather pleased with myself for sniffing it out. The piece must be relatively recent, painted within the last couple of years or so, because it features his pigeon characters, which are newish in his portfolio. The expressions on the pigeon’s faces are wonderful, and the subtle touch of the breast plumage colours is a special touch.
These are the best pictures I could get. The street is very narrow, and there was some reflected light pollution, but was nonetheless chuffed to bits. More to come from this two-hour meander.
5571. M32 Cycle path (229)
A visit to Bristol by Wispa is always very welcome, and pretty much always unexpected as she seems to travel about the country quite a lot, and you can never be sure when she will be in the area – unpredictable I think you’d call it.
This is an absolute belter of a piece of writing from Wispa, painted as part of an RBF paint jam alongside the M32 motorway. There are two things that stand out in this piece for me, the first is the unbelievable sharpness of the lines, and outstanding finishing and the other is the bold colour selection, transitioning through a range of bold and strong colours. Bravo!
Natural adventures 