Hemper and Hypo, M32 roundabout, Bristol, February 2025
Hypo and Hemper have been super-busy this February, Hemper in particular. This collaboration has taken up quite a lot of space on the long wall on the northern side of the M32 roundabout, and it is a really impressive production piece.
Hemper, M32 roundabout, Bristol, February 2025
Hemper has produced a stunning piece of writing to the left spelling out HEMS. He has a vibrant colour horizontal gradient running through the letters, and his subtle white trims and flashes give it all a super depth and lifts it away from the wall. I think that the B boy character is also by Hemper along with the urban landscape behind.
Hypo, M32 roundabout, Bristol, February 2025
Hypo, who often paints with Hemper continues the colour scheme bringing balance to the production. This might just be one of the best pieces I have seen from Hypo. The depth of his letters is great, and the graded fills perfectly done. I particularly like the interstitial spots between the letters. There is a superb ‘old school’ vibe about this collaboration.
Mr Crawls, Kool Hand and Daz Cat, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2025
This is something of a rarity, a character collaboration. Often you get combinations of characters and graffiti writing in small or large collaborative efforts, but exclusively character pieces is unusual and just how brilliant is this collection from Mr Crawls, Kool Hand and Daz Cat?
Mr Crawls, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2025
Mr Crawls has hit the ground running this year with some outstanding pieces and a slight change in direction or modification of his characters. He is always looking to move things forward and adding new ideas around his central theme of a bird wearing a hat. This most recent phase I would describe as stylised cartoon work.
Kool Hand, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2025
Another artist who has been busy over the winter is Kool Hand, and what a good artist he is, I have just updated his gallery and there are some really fine pieces to enjoy there. This piece features a three-quarter profile of his famous orangutan character, this time in green. Crisp and clean and really well presented.
Daz Cat, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2025
An artist whose work has become more sophisticated and complex over the last few years is Daz Cat. In the early days his cat pieces were fairly two-dimensional, and although fun to find, had plenty of headroom for improvement. Now Daz Cat is operating at an entirely different level, turning out first class portrait pieces (mostly of cats) with every outing. This smiling cat is a perfect example of his work, so full of character and detail and a enjoy to behold. Below is an example of his early work to give you an idea of what I am talking about. This is a very fine character collaboration.
I mentioned in my last post (Mr Draws chromie in the tunnel) that the colours blue and pink make perfect bed fellows. It is a bit of a cliché, but it is also true. DJ Perks has used the two colours to great effect in this recent piece in Lawrence Weston. I guess to be more accurate, this piece is pink and mauve, but the same applies.
DJ Perks, L Dub, Bristol, February 2025
DJ Perks has produced some very flat letters and by that I mean he hasn’t tried to give the letters depth with accent lines, instead preferring a straight forward drop shadow to project the letters out from the wall. The graffiti writing is accompanied by the letters ABC (Art Beat Crew). As ever top drawer stuff.
It must be fun ‘going big’ from time to time, and on a bad-weather day there is no place better than St Werburghs tunnel to spread yourself out a bit. Mr Draws has made the most of the space with this long piece of graffiti writing, which even with a wide-angle shot is impossible to photograph head on.
Mr Draws, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2025
Under the lights of the tunnel, this chrome piece takes on all sorts of colours, from silver through to gold. Decorative arrows point inwards to the letters spelling Mr Drawers, the long format version of his name. The impact of the letters is enhanced with a colourful background using that effective combination of blues and pinks. Going large can be fun.
Another work trip, another town to explore. This time I was on a team trip to plant some trees in the Derbyshire Dales for an EU LIFE project called LIFE in the Ravines. Our team work in government nature communications, and this was a chance for us to ‘get our hands dirty’ on the kind of work we talk about and promote all the time, but less frequently get to experience.
What this meant was that I had to stay overnight before the morning of our tree planting, which gave me the perfect opportunity to explore Buxton (the spring water place) a town I had never been to, and spend the early morning snapping a few doors.
This first set of doors from Buxton is not what I was expecting to find, but my visit just happened to coincide with a classic car auction near the botanical hot house, and the opportunity to photograph some car doors was simply too good to resist. I am not really a car person, for me they are a way of getting from A to B, so my labelling these cars might be way off the mark, and I would be happy for any car buffs to put me straight. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did:
Jeep with no door, (is a bonnet a door?), Buxton, Derbyshire, April 2024
What car is this with the nice red door? (E type Jag?), Buxton, Derbyshire, April 2024
Convertible Volkswagen beetle with roof ‘door’, Buxton, Derbyshire, April 2024
Green door, green classic car, Buxton, Derbyshire, April 2024
Door of a boxy classic car (MG?), Buxton, Derbyshire, April 2024
Four door classic car with lovely curves, Buxton, Derbyshire, April 2024
Four door Jaguar, Buxton, Derbyshire, April 2024
This has to be some kind of Citroen van with rear doors (unseen), Buxton, Derbyshire, April 2024
A rather attractive four door family car (Austin?), Buxton, Derbyshire, April 2024
Vintage two door, four seat car, Buxton, Derbyshire, April 2024
Two-seater vintage car with an extra door on the toolbox, Buxton, Derbyshire, April 2024
A classic Landrover with classic Landrover doors. At 16 I was taught to drive on one of these by my 14-year old cousin on my uncle’s farm in Cornwall, Buxton, Derbyshire, April 2024
I expect that is enough cars for now. I am on holiday next week, but will try to post something if I get time. If not I’ll see you in two weeks. 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.
It feels like an age since I last photographed anything by Taboo, but the fresh wall on Greenway Bush Lane, seems to be an inviting prospect for street/graffiti artists in the area. In this piece he has teamed up with another artist (I don’t know who) to create this very pink collaboration.
Taboo, Greenway Bush Lane, Bristol, February 2025
Taboo’s anti-style letters spell TABOO, with the irregular letters partially disguised, especially the ‘OO’, also the T and last O are painted in red paint and seem disjointed from the rest of the piece. His letters are characterised by a distinctive midline running through them, a technique used by a lot of anti-style writers.
Unknown artist, Greenway Bush Lane, Bristol, February 2025
At first, I thought the dragon (having a pint – and why not?) was part of a combination piece by Taboo, but on closer inspection realised it is in a very different style, and is using black rather than blue to pick out the detail. I can see the letters HB Nick, but unfortunately that doesn’t get me very far. A nice collaboration on this rather exciting wall.
Every now and again, Donz ventures beyond his L Dub ‘manor’ and visits the centre of Bristol, and this little wall is one he has painted before. With views of the Clifton Suspension Bridge, and some cover from the rain and (in summer) the sun, this is a tidy little spot, adjacent to the long wall in Cumberland Basin.
Donz, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, February 2025
This graffiti writing is typically colourful, and set on a plain, neutral background, that helps to give focus on the letters. The seemingly random colour patches are semi-blended, as if they were thrown at a canvass. The piece is finished with a bunch of little circle decorations. Interesting to note, that even without a drop shadow, the writing manages to offer some depth.
It can be quite a challenge photographing pieces when I am walking the dog, because he doesn’t much like standing around, and will often pull on his lead, just as I am taking a picture (annoying). This is particularly challenging at the Purdown spot on account of the small herd of goats which live within the enclosure, which send the dog into a frenzy of sniffing, pulling and general desperation to find the beasties.
DFC1848 and Skem, Purdown, Bristol, February 2025
On my last trip to Purdown, I saw this rather nice collaboration from DFC1848 and Skem. I am very familiar with DFC1848 and his work, but I don’t think I have posted any pieces by Skem before. These two monsters straddle the writing in the middle spelling out SKEM. I particularly like the way Skem’s monster interacts with his letters as DFC1848’s monster cheekily watches on. A nice collaboration from a pair of ‘out-of-towners’.
Natural adventures 