I am Stephen. I live in Bristol, UK. I decided to shorten my profile...to this: Wildlife, haiku, travel, streetart, psychogeography and my family. Not necessarily in that order.
So many of the combination pieces painted in Bristol leave me wondering who the painted character might be portraying (there are often modern cultural references to cartoon productions of the 1970s to now), but every once in a while the character is one I am familiar with, and this is one of those moments. The character in this Haka piece is Percival Proudfoot Plugsley or Plug member of the Bash Street Kids from the children’s comic Beano.
Haka, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2025
Indeed, this is not the first time Haka has incorporated Plug into one of his pieces and other members of the comic strip. The letters are classic Haka letters, nicely overlapping and filled with two colour shades and some yellow decorations. Some nice shout-outs too, including the ever-present tribute to CK1.
I made a special trip down to Dean Lane to snap up some pieces by the PWA crew on the swimming pool wall, but was rather disappointed to see that they had been swiftly painted over, but as the saying goes, ‘you snooze, you lose’. There is no mercy and no rules when it comes to painting over other people’s work, but I do wish sometimes that bombers and writers in particular were a little bit more mindful about where they painted.
Teykem, Dean Lane, Bristol, February 2025
I have never come across Teykem before, and don’t have much in the way of background about his work. This piece has all the elements of graffiti writing, some nice letter shapes, and stripy drop shadow, but I would need to see more to know if this was a good example of Teykem’s work or not. It is, however, always good to introduce new artists to Natural Adventures.
A couple of quick ones today. It is the morning after my mother’s 90th birthday party, which was a hugely enjoyable event in Farnham Castle in Surrey, but we need to have breakfast, check out and then drive back to Bristol. As I said yesterday, Nice one has been smashing it with his combination pieces already this year, and this is another new piece up at the Purdown anti-aircraft battery.
Nice One, Purdown, Bristol, February 2025
At first, it might not look like a combination piece, but you can just spot the top half of his Times New Roman ‘N’ and the dot of the ‘i’ at the bottom of the piece. The First World War dogfight scene is just something you don’t see anywhere in Bristol and confirms Nice One as one of the most original and exciting artists around. Fabulous work.
This was the first ever haiku I wrote. It was in honour of my mother on her 80th birthday 10 years ago. I had flu at the time and that period coincided with the birth of Natural Adventures. I used the haiku to open my speech at her party last night, so I thought I would share it again here today.
Nice One, Greenway Bush Lane, Bristol, January 2025
2025 has seen Nice One upping both the frequency and quality of his game. He has painted several new pieces full of imagination and something quite refreshingly different from what we are used to seeing about the place.
Nice One, Greenway Bush Lane, Bristol, January 2025
This piece in the new spot, Greenway Bush Lane is in two halves. Nice One teases us with his letters, which disappear behind the second part, which is a striking picture of a tall ship sailing on a choppy sea and a headland in the distance. Classy work from a nice man.
In my view, Grimes has been one of the real joys of the Bristol street/graffiti art over the last year, and he is already smashing it in 2025. This is a wonderful piece on the Cycle path behind the Black Swan, and is really a beauty.
Grimes, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, January 2025
When Grimes sets about his work, it feels like he has thought very carefully about how it is going to look. The colour selection is near perfect, and the letters, spelling GRIMES have been stretched a little to fit the proportions of the wall. There is so much energy in the piece, and tons of beautiful detail throughout. Another fine piece from the artist.
3Dom and Sled One, St George skate park, Bristol, January 2025
One of the great ‘walls’ in Bristol, this monolith rises out of the St George skate park like something out of ‘2001 A Space Odyssey’. On the other side of the wall is a slim ramp. Pieces that are painted here tend to be higher-end works and usually have quite a long lifespan. I think I probably need to do a ‘One Wall – Many Faces’ post for this wall, simply because it has such a great heritage of artwork.
3Dom and Sled One, St George skate park, Bristol, January 2025
This piece is a collaboration by 3Dom and Sled One, and is a top drawer work, so typical of the artists, who have collaborated before, but perhaps not so intimately as in this skull work. There is often a lot of symbolism or a story to tell in their work, but I am not sure that I can interpret it – ideas breaking out of a soulless brain, perhaps. The top half is by 3Dom and the lower half by Sled One. And just to add to the magnificence of the piece, they have painted some amazing water droplets for good measure.
Jaksta is the best caricature street artist around, and on his birthday he painted this wonderful piece opposite a collaboration (already posted) with Ryder created on the same day. The cartoon character is Donkey Kong, from the Mario Brothers video games stable. The DK on the tie has been changed to NK, although I don’t know the significance of these letters.
Jaksta, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, January 2025
The piece itself is a loyal reproduction of the gorilla character, complete with a barrel over his shoulder. What is quite funny is that in spite of being a superb caricature artist, Jaksta hasn’t done a caricature of Donkey Kong, instead keeping him as he is represented in the video games. Nonetheless, this is a fine birthday piece from Jaksta.
Doors 296 – Doors of Peterborough (Part IV), April 2024
The truth is, I forgot that today was a Thursday. I have so far had a week of wall-to-wall meetings and have struggled to come up for air. Add to that an evening out last night (on a school night) and my head hasn’t really been in the right place.
I don’t have too much to add to the words about this series of doors from Peterborough, as these are the fourth selection, and I have said much about the city before. These doors were all within the grounds of the Cathedral and of the Cathedral itself. I hope you enjoy them.
Peterborough Cathedral, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, April 2024
Norman arch and door, Peterborough Cathedral, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, April 2024
Small side door, Peterborough Cathedral, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, April 2024
Gateway and door into the Cathedral grounds, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, April 2024
Buildings and doors in the Cathedral grounds, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, April 2024
Private door in a wall, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, April 2024
Door between ancient gateways, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, April 2024
Closer view of door between ancient gateways, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, April 2024
A final set of Peterborough doors to come next time and then onto something else. Have a good 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.
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