5874. Greenbank (108)

Laic217, Greenbank, Bristol, February 2024
Laic217, Greenbank, Bristol, February 2024

Laic217 seems to have a plethora of ways to surprise me. Often his pieces appear unannounced, and so discovering them definitely feels special, but what surprised me with this piece is that it immediately took me back to some of the very earliest pieces of his that I started photographing a few years back.

Laic217, Greenbank, Bristol, February 2024
Laic217, Greenbank, Bristol, February 2024

The character, for once, not a skull, is wearing a bucket hat with a satanic protection mask strapped to it. To the right of the portrait is a letter ‘L’ for Laic which has been hollowed out and blocked with a deep 3D drop shadow.

Laic217, Greenbank, Bristol, February 2024
Laic217, Greenbank, Bristol, February 2024

The face, with its harsh features, could only be by Laic217. I don’t know what it is about his style, but it is quite unique. Looking at the close up, it almost looks like it has been painted on a canvas with brushes, and maybe that is what gives Laic217 his uniqueness. This is yet another awesome piece from one of Bristol’s very best street artists.

5873. Brunel Way (260)

Mote, Brunel Way, Bristol, February 2024
Mote, Brunel Way, Bristol, February 2024

This fine column monster very nearly escaped my attention. Mote has painted so many columns under Brunel Way, that it becomes easy to miss new ones in the busy mix – there was certainly a double-take involved in finding this one.

Mote, Brunel Way, Bristol, February 2024
Mote, Brunel Way, Bristol, February 2024

Columns are fun to paint, but a real pain to photograph, especially the circular ones – square or rectangular columns are not so bad. This fish monster indicates a slight shift away from his bird monsters and has opened a whole new world of monster opportunity. I guess that Mote is going through phases or eras with his monster art. A nice modest piece.

5872. Dean Lane skate park (694)

Pekoe and Fade, Dean Lane, Bristol, February 2024
Pekoe and Fade, Dean Lane, Bristol, February 2024

It is not often that you find a Fade/Pekoe collaboration, but I have been photographing street art and graffiti writing for long enough to know that you should always expect the unexpected. I wonder whether this was a planned thing or whether they found themselves at the same place at the same time and decided to paint together. I guess I’ll only ever know if I ask them.

Pekoe, Dean Lane, Bristol, February 2024
Pekoe, Dean Lane, Bristol, February 2024

Pekoe has smashed it again with this wonderful portrait piece, and there is something about the presentation of her work these days that makes me think she is in a good place emotionally and that it is surfacing in her paintings. The subject has wonderful full lips, dark eyes, hoop earrings and an absence of tears. The decorative shapes help to break the piece up a little and add to it significantly.

Fade, Dean Lane, Bristol, February 2024
Fade, Dean Lane, Bristol, February 2024

You simply can’t hold Fade back at the moment – not that you’d want to – and his enthusiasm for painting walls is not only expressed in the quantity of the pieces he paints, but also in the incredibly sharp quality of his work. The letters here are very crisp, the transitions of the fills are exceptional and the 3D drop shadow nicely uniform. Fade comes across as a bit of a perfectionist, which is probably why he enjoys painting with Dibz so much. This is a very nice collaborative wall.

5871. Manchester, Northern Quarter

C215, Northern Quarter, Manchester, February 2024
C215, Northern Quarter, Manchester, February 2024

When randomly walking the streets of a town or city I am unfamiliar with, I am reminded of the iconic line from the film Forrest Gump “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get”, and that is pretty much how my recent stroll in Manchester unfolded.

C215, Northern Quarter, Manchester, February 2024
C215, Northern Quarter, Manchester, February 2024

I turned a corner and found this incredible stencil portrait piece by C215 staring out at me. He is an artist who has made a couple of appearances on this blog before, but I don’t think that he has ever painted anything in Bristol, surely it is time to change that (Upfest?). The stencils that C215 uses range from very small up to this kind of size, and he achieves this scaling without compromising his style at all. A memorable piece from my recent trip.

Biomass

Bivalves at Sand Bay, Somerset, March 2024
Bivalves at Sand Bay, Somerset, Marc

.

A billion billion

buried in our sandy shores

bivalve biomass

.

by Scooj

#DFTE

A gallery of short philosophical musings from the creative mind of Bristol’s #DFTE

Instagram: @d.f.t.e

all photographs by Scooj

#DFTE, Dean Lane, Upfest 24, Bristol, May 2024
#DFTE, Dean Lane, Upfest 24, Bristol, May 2024

#DFTE, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2023
#DFTE, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2023

#DFTE, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2023
#DFTE, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2023

#DFTE, Weston Wallz,Weston-super-Mare, May 2023
#DFTE, Weston Wallz,Weston-super-Mare, May 2023

#DFTE and Fishlock, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2023
#DFTE and Fishlock, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2023

Dave Sharp and #DFTE, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2022
Dave Sharp and #DFTE, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2022

#DFTE, Stokes Croft, Bristol, April 2019
#DFTE, Stokes Croft, Bristol, April 2019

#DFTE, Christmas Steps, Bristol, March 2020
#DFTE, Christmas Steps, Bristol, March 2020

#DFTE, Christmas Steps, Bristol, February 2020
#DFTE, Christmas Steps, Bristol, February 2020

#DFTE, Leonard Lane, Bristol, Jnuary 2020
#DFTE, Leonard Lane, Bristol, Jnuary 2020

#DFTE, Town, Bristol, March 2019
#DFTE, Town, Bristol, March 2019

#DFTE, Town, Bristol, March 2019
#DFTE, Town, Bristol, March 2019

#DFTE, Cumberland Road, Bristol, November 2019
#DFTE, Cumberland Road, Bristol, November 2019

#DFTE, Cumberland Road, Bristol, November 2019
#DFTE, Cumberland Road, Bristol, November 2019

#DFTE, Welshback, Bristol, September 2019
#DFTE, Welshback, Bristol, September 2019

#DFTE, North Street, Bristol, June 2019
#DFTE, North Street, Bristol, June 2019

#DFTE, St Werburghs, Bristol, March 2019
#DFTE, St Werburghs, Bristol, March 2019

#DFTE, St Werburghs, Bristol, March 2019
#DFTE, St Werburghs, Bristol, March 2019

5870. Manchester, Northern Quarter

Liam Bononi, Northern Quarter, Manchester, February 2024
Liam Bononi, Northern Quarter, Manchester, February 2024

Natural Adventures is a blog with three or four strands, the most dominant of which is the street/graffiti art of Bristol. I am finding it increasingly difficult to feature art from other cities and countries, that I would like to share, but without compromising Bristol posts. I have been pondering this conundrum for a little while and decided that my posts from other places will more likely be galleries, which makes sense because I don’t know very much about the artists in other places, This way I get to share a whole load more pieces. Having said that there are some pieces that simply deserve their own post, and this awesome portrait piece by Liam Bononi is one of those.

Liam Bononi, Northern Quarter, Manchester, February 2024
Liam Bononi, Northern Quarter, Manchester, February 2024

One of my Favourite ever Upfest pieces is by Liam Bononi, and I have posted a different piece from a previous visit to Manchester where the artist is based. His incredible photorealistic portraits are disrupted by fractures and cracks, creating distortions, which I would guess are metaphors for disrupted and fractured minds behind the faces. The artwork is meticulous and beautifully presented. This piece was tucked away in a street with low foot fall, and you’d certainly have to go out of your way to find it. I only found it, because I was conducting a forensic tour of the streets of the Northern Quarter in Manchester. Another piece in my favourites folder (which incidentally doesn’t actually exist anywhere other than in my mind).

5869. M32 cycle path (254)

Soap, Zake and Face 1st, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, February 2024
Soap, Zake and Face 1st, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, February 2024

Although street art and graffiti can be and is painted at any time of day and on any day, there is definitely a strong pulse of activity on weekends. At times, it can be more difficult for me to get out at the weekend than during he week, which might seem counterintuitive, but there is no rhythm to the weekends, and there is always so much to do. This fabulous PWA collaboration was painted at a weekend, but I didn’t get to see it until the following week on my rounds.

Soap, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, February 2024
Soap, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, February 2024

This one is a triptych with Soap on the left, Zake in the middle and Face 1st on the right, in the letters – character – letters format so commonly used in collaborations. Soap has painted a beauty, with big letters spelling out his name and a character from the cartoon series Adventure Time (I think) replacing the letter ‘O’. I m not too sure about the the bleeding heart, but I guess there is a story there, conscious or unconscious, somewhere.

Zake, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, February 2024
Zake, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, February 2024

In the middle is something rather different from Zake. We are used to seeing cartoon-style portraits, full of depth, so this bullet comes as a bit of a surprise. I am guessing that it is the bullet that is causing such carnage running through the whole collaboration.

Face 1st, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, February 2024
Face 1st, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, February 2024

On the right, Face 1st has painted one of his blocky FACE pieces of graffiti writing, with very deep drop shadows and a rather distressed face peering through the ‘A’. There is an indication of trauma here too, continuing the collaboration theme. The crew are carrying on in 2024, where they left off in 2023, and that can only be good news.

5868. Dean Lane skate park (693)

Fade, Dean Lane, Bristol, February 2024
Fade, Dean Lane, Bristol, February 2024

It is rare to find a Fade piece these days that is not immediately associated with a piece by Dibz and at times his work can be eclipsed by the overall collaborations they create, so it is great to see a fabulous standalone piece of graffiti writing from Fade, and this is a beauty.

Fade, Dean Lane, Bristol, February 2024
Fade, Dean Lane, Bristol, February 2024

Painted in greyscale on a black background, the impact of the letters has to be really strong, and it is. Spelling out FADE in  letters that pop out from the wall, especially along the bottom edge. A nice touch is the little black ‘ink’ trail all around the outside of the piece. All in all, a fabulous and rather special piece of graffiti writing.

5867. St Werburghs tunnel (409)

Kid Krishna, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2024
Kid Krishna, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2024

A little earlier in the year, Kid Krishna announced his return to the streets after a bit of a quiet period. Since January, he has been super-active and smashing it on walls all over the city, so much so that I am having to consider bunching a few of them together into a single post.

Kid Krishna, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2024
Kid Krishna, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2024

One of the things that Kid Krishna brings to his pieces is an incredible sense of colour, sometimes subtle and other times overt, but always carefully matched and incorporated. I have been puzzling over the character, and feel like I should know who it is, more than that, he was on some posters which I spotted in Nottingham, or something very similar. It will remain a mystery. This is a lovely fresh piece from Kid Krishna in the tunnel.