July 2024 – Page 2 – Natural adventures

6225. Dean Lane skate park (736)

Zake and Face 1st, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2024

I’ll let you into a small and rather unimportant secret… I wrote this post yesterday because today I am going to visit Cheltenham tomorrow for the Cheltenham Paint Festival, which this year has an extraordinary line up, so expect some rather nice posts in about 2-3 weeks time. I am so pleased for Dice67, AKA Andy Davies, who has been running the festival since its inception, which is just becoming bigger and bigger with each year.

This is a rather nice collaboration from PWA duo Zake and Face 1st in the narrow bit between a building and a skate ramp, hence the rather odd angle in the top photograph. Zake has painted a character yelling, painted with as much relief and texture as it is possible to get.

Face 1st has painted his name in rather fetching reds and pinks with some interesting cross-hatching in the ‘c’ and in the hair of the laughing girl. I like the way that Face 1st has been experimenting with his writing a lot lately, although I miss his full body character pieces – I guess you can’t have it all!

6224. Cumberland Basin

Ments, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2024

This piece from Ments, painted as part of a wider paint jam, is a joy to behold. I am always going on about how we just don’t see enough of Ments’ work these days, and here is the second piece since May, the other being at Upfest. There is no doubt that Ments has pulled out all the stops with this one.

His characteristic ‘organic’ writing is full of mystery and shapes and textures of planet earth, like chemistry mixed up with geometry and art – a delightful combination. From what we see, there is no way of knowing what the letters spell, but it is probably a good guess to imagine that it says MENTS. There is so much to admire in the intricate details and interactions between the forms and colours in the piece. Outstanding.

6223. Dean Lane skate park (735)

Recently I have managed to miss out on a couple of Hire pieces, because I have just been too slow, and for some reason, his work has been getting overpainted quite quickly lately. I think it is bad timing on his part more than anything more sinister than that. So I was particularly pleased to catch this one.

I have been an enormous fan of Hire’s since the first pieces I saw, many years ago. He consistently turns out brilliant graffiti writing and occasional rabbits to such a high level of precision. In this piece he has used the willing combination of pink and blue to create his HIRE lettering, but what I particularly like here is the interaction between the letters and the brown background, which is impacted by, and augments the letter shapes. Very nice work from Hire.

6222. Cumberland Basin.

The Art of Sok and Smak, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2024

In the seventies I might have described this piece as ‘smashing’, and as a child of the seventies I am going to describe this outstanding collaboration between The Art of Sok and Smak as smashing. I was lucky enough to meet with and chat to both artists the night before they painted this wall as part of a larger jam, at Merny’s exhibition opening, which had a great turnout.

The two artists have worked together perfectly to produce this character/writing combination. Smak’s writing is absolutely sensational and in addition to that, he has created a perfect tropical sunset backdrop with The Art of Sok’s character presented in the foreground – beautifully comnposed.

The Art of Sok, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2024

During his short trip to Bristol, The Art of Sok, who it turns out is a lovely bloke, dropped a few pieces about the place which I will naturally post in due course. The cartoon-style character is pretty much perfect in its precision, which is how The Art of Sok rolls. He told me that he likes to get his finished pieces to resemble as closely as possible his draft, so it is all very much worked out in advance, and he has the skills to execute his plan to the letter. This is an excellent collaboration.

6221. M32 Spot (189)

This is the second piece by Nuke to appear on Natural Adventures, although it was the first to be painted, in chronological order, of the two. I’m not too sure if the two pieces were a one (two)-off and left during a visit to the city, or whether we can expect more to follow. I suspect the former.

His work, even though I have only seen the two pieces, is instantly recognisable in the delivery of a character/writing combination that has a haunting and slightly dark vibe about it. There is a blending between the ghostly portrait and the wildstyle letters, that works really well, and the colours reflect upwards from the base, and the white light is projected from the top left. Very nicely done.

6220. Greenbank (128)

It feels like Daz Cat is pushing all sorts of boundaries at the moment and painting with a freedom in both style and content that is a pleasure to witness. There is a lot going on in this free-flowing story-telling piece in Greenbank.

I can see a lady surrounded by purple/lilac cats, but the intriguing part of this piece is the two ‘robot’ arms that rather randomly seem to have landed in amongst them and are smoking from the arm sockets. There is a story which is skilfully illustrated, but it is a story belonging very much to the artist – as viewers we can only concoct our own stories. Great work from Daz Cat.

Swallow-tailed moth

Lured by a false moon

a nighttime visitor comes

conspicuous hue

by Scooj

6219. Brunel Way (280)

One of the great joys of being a street art hunter and chronicler is the sheer number of endorphin ‘mini-snacks’ one gets exposed to on each exploratory walk. Some artists elicit slightly more excitement than others, and there doesn’t seem to be any logical explanation for why that might be. One artist whose work I particularly enjoy seeing is Nips, and it feels like there is progression with every new piece.

I would say that Nips is a bit of a fills specialist, keeping her general letter shapes constant, while experimenting with colours and patterns in the fills and in that respect, she has excelled in this stunner. Her selection of colours and outstanding designs within the letters is utterly joyful. The whole thing looks rather like a sophisticated wallpaper design, and that is meant as a compliment. Nips continues, I am pleased to say, with her trademark face appearing as the dot of the ‘i’. More endorphins please.

6218. Jubilee Street (9)

Mote and Mr Crawls, Jubilee Street, Bristol, July 2024

I had a lovely evening a couple of weeks ago, visiting the opening of Merny’s art exhibition in Midland Street. Parking in the area was a little troublesome, so I parked a bit of a distance away, but used the opportunity to visit a little graffiti hotspot that I don’t go to all that often. I was rewarded with finding this Mote/Mr Crawls collaboration tucked away on a wall in Jubilee street.

I think that this piece might be a few months old, because I haven’t seen Mr Crawls’ skeleton-neck bird for some time, although the paintwork does look pretty fresh. This pairing has endured really well and brought the best out of both artists, which is great to see. They also tend to visit pretty much every available spot in the city, unlike some artists who may not stray too far from their favoured spots, which adds to their appeal… you just never know when you might stumble across their work.

6217. Dean Lane skate park (734)

Kid Crayon, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2024

I am hugely encouraged to see that Kid Crayon had rediscovered his appetite for painting on the streets, or perhaps he has had a slight lull in his commercial work, whatever the reasons, he has painted several pieces of late, including this surfing polar bear behind the railings at Dean Lane.

The combination piece features a rather cool polar bear surfing on an orange board in a sea of bubbles. The words Kid Crayon create a fine backdrop for the bear. Readers will know how much I like Kid Crayon’s work, however, this piece seems to lack something from my point of view. I think that maybe the black background isn’t right, or perhaps the bubbles don’t quite work, I don’t quite know, but when it comes to Kid Crayon I do set my expectations very high, so am probably just being a bit hyper-critical. More to come soon.

	paulh121 on 7352. Cumberland Basin
	Sheree on 7352. Cumberland Basin
	paulh121 on 7350. Hillgrove Street (9…
	Bill Bisgood on Thursday doors – 11 Dece…
	scooj on Thursday doors – 11 Dece…

	paulh121 on 7352. Cumberland Basin
	Sheree on 7352. Cumberland Basin
	paulh121 on 7350. Hillgrove Street (9…
	Bill Bisgood on Thursday doors – 11 Dece…
	scooj on Thursday doors – 11 Dece…

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