An explosive and colourful piece by Nips on the long wall at Greenbank was a very welcome sight, especially as the turnover at this spot seems to have slowed down a litle, so finding anything new there is always rewarding.
Nips, Greenbank, Bristol, September 2024
Once again it is the fills that delight and Nips seems to specialise in beautiful designs and colour palettes for her letters. As ever, the letter form tends to remain reasonably regular from piece to piece, although the dot over the ‘i’ allows scope for variation, and here she has placed a simple heart icon in the pink circle. I am not 100% convinced by the green and blue border, the green in particular gets a little bit overwhelmed by the purple fills. Nice stuff from Nips.
Regular readers may recall that I am not a fan of posting work that is in effect advertising, but it seems that it is becoming all too common, whether promoting music or art. I guess I am more forgiving if an artist is promoting their own work, or helping out with mates, but it it still doesn’t sit very comfortably with me. It is a fine line between advertising for mates and corporate advertising. I suppose if money doesn’t change hands then it is ok. Somehow, though, the promotional aspect seems to disrupt the freedom of the artist, because there is a different driver or purpose, and this is reflected in their style and content.
Kid Crayon, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2024
Kid Crayon manages to gain leniency from me because I love his work, and in this piece he promotes n exhibition ‘Art on wax’ that happened way back in July. I expect the delay in posting the piece was down to my prevarication. It is well painted but in my view insincere. There you have it.
Silent Hobo, Little Bishop Street, Bristol, July 2024
One of the earliest pieces I posted on Natural Adventures was the previous incarnation on this wall also painted by Silent Hobo. It was a piece that lovingly depicted Bristol youth, something that Silent Hobo is renowned for.
Silent Hobo, Little Bishop Street, Bristol, July 2024
On renewing this piece, Silent Hobo has once again presented us with a positive and optimistic vision of Bristol, with music and DJ’ing being front and centre. I rather like the girl in the background hugging an enormous frog… who’d have guessed? Welcome to St Pauls!
Silent Hobo, Little Bishop Street, Bristol, November 2015
Dibz, Jody, Urge, The Art of Sok and Fade, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2024
This is another stunning production piece, led and bookended by Dibz and Fade, incorporating work from Jody, Urge and The Art of Sok. The themed colours of orange and light blues works exceptionally well in this spot that can have a tendency to be a bit gloomy.
Dibz, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2024
Starting with Dibz on the left (and rather annoyingly, capturing that shaft of light which makes an appearance in the afternoons), the collaboration gets off to a great start, with as sharp and tidy wildstyle graffiti writing as you would expect from Dibz.
Jody, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2024
With five artists in the line-up, and three of them writers, the character pieces appear in the second and fourth slots. This astonishing Godzilla piece is by Jody, who has been on fire since joining up with Dibz and Fade over the last year or so (although, to be fair, he is always on fire, but perhaps more so recently).
Urge, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2024
Next up is a piece by Urge, who I know nothing about, but whose writing looks completely at home with the Bristol artists. I guess that Urge was visiting, or passing by, and got invited to join in. I love it that Bristol artists are so welcoming of others from around the country.
The Art of Sok, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2024
The fourth slot is taken up by the Art of Sok, whose distinctive style of cartoon characters, while so utterly different from the other four pieces, somehow manages to complement them very well. His characters are always beautifully presented in as close to a perfect state as they could be.
Fade, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2024
Things are rounded off by Fade, who along with Dibz ‘owns’ this manor. His beautiful letters, immaculately filled with two shades of blue and bordered with an orange 3D drop shadow, reflect the writing that comes before it. This is a very classy production piece from these five artists. Bravo!
It is quite unusual to find a Hire piece outside the Dean Lane skate park area, but here he is joining in the fun with the World Wall Stylers ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ paint jam, and although his piece isn’t as overtly on-topic as most of the pieces, it is nonetheless a part of the whole wall.
Hire, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, August 2024
The wonderfully crafted letters spell out HIRE, but I was sorely tempted to fib and say they spelled RABBIT. A feature I haven’t noticed about his work before is the long shadows that have been cast from the tips of his letters, which seem to lift the piece a little. This is a nice reversion to his more spiky style that sets him apart from other writers.
The mini street art festival in Muriel Alleyway at the end of July brought together artists from the Bristol Mural Collective and one or two others to decorate this back lane and its walls, garage doors and shutters. Bethcub (Beth Kirby) is a Bristol-based artist who discusses issues of the female body and the female experience through drawing, painting, murals and 3D mediums.
Bethcub, Muriel Alleyway, Bristol, July 2024
I have featured her work at least once before on Natural Adventures, but it is pretty safe to say that she doesn’t paint street pieces all that often. You can see from the picture above that Bethcub has used a sketch of her piece and upscaled it hugely.
Bethcub, Muriel Alleyway, Bristol, August 2024
This is a really interesting piece, because there is a lot of ‘white space’ which is so unusual to see in street murals, where often every square inch of wall is decorated. What this does is focus the attention on the subject of the piece. The observant among you might notice that she has painted over a piece originally by Rtiiika. Lovely to see work from different artists coming out to play.
After his slightly controversial topless piece, entitled Norks, a few weeks back, Stivs has followed it up with this fantasy piece, only this time the character has a hint of clothing in an effort to avoid the piece being scribbled over.
Stivs, M32 roundabout, Bristol, September 2024
Whilst this piece won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, it clearly demonstrates Stivs’ talent as a cartoon character artist as well as the best Calligraffiti artist in Bristol. I was lucky enough to catch up with him, and Corupt, as he was finishing off the piece, adding touches to the writing with such ease and complete competence. Another great piece by Stivs.
Wow, wow, wow! This is something rather different and special from Silent Hobo. Not only has he changed his style, but these pieces come as a set of three on three sequential columns under the M32 at the M32 Spot.
Silent Hobo, M32 Spot, Bristol, September 2024
The three pieces appear to be snippets from a conversation, and I rather hope for Silent Hobo’s sake that they are not autobiographical. The first column has a portrait of a man declaring “Baby I’m doing my best”.
Silent Hobo, M32 Spot, Bristol, September 2024
The second column is a reply from a woman saying those words that nobody wants to hear “Yes but…” Sounds like he might be in trouble. The portrait is remarkable, and really so different from the rest of his work. It is less cartoony and more realistic and has the appearance of oil on canvass.
Silent Hobo, M32 Spot, Bristol, September 2024
The third column is the killer blow… “You told me you were good”. Whatever the context of the conversation, I hope all works out well,. I am full of admiration at how skilful Silent Hobo has been to get viewers to invest so much in the characters in such a limited space. I suppose we can all construct our own stories about the three columns, but the artwork, which is remarkable, speaks for itself.
Le Imposter Design, Montpelier Park, Bristol, September 2024
As somebody who spends quite a lot of my spare time hunting down street/graffiti art, I find I get a great amount of pleasure when I find things that are slightly out of the ordinary, and this piece, the second I have posted by Le Imposter Design, is definitely out of the ordinary.
Le Imposter Design, Montpelier Park, Bristol, September 2024
Her small designs tend to be quite low down – I wonder if she sits while she is painting, because otherwise this would be back-breaking work. Here we have a little window into a world of toadstools painted with brushes and plenty of fine detail. I suspect I might have another of her fungus pieces in my archive, but it is un-signed. I really hope that Le Imposter Design continues with these little gems, because they offer something quite unique on the Bristol scene.
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