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.
Slightly coincidentally, I published a gallery of Mr Crawls’ work this morning, which included this wonderful bird character as the most recent picture in the gallery. Scroll back eighteen months or so, and this piece feels like it is a modernised version of one of the first pieces I saw by Mr Crawls. Something that both he and his painting partner Mote have done exceptionally well is gently upgrade their styles, and this one may be setting the scene for Mr Crawls for the year to come.
Mr Crawls, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025
The bird portrait is highly stylised, rather than caricature, and the boxy look creates a completely different sensation for the viewer. Even though the lines are straight, for the most part, Mr Crawls has managed to squeeze out some expression and emotion in the bird’s face. There is a lot to like about this style, and I’ll be interested to see if he takes us in a new direction.
Mr Crawls, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025Mote and Mr Crawls, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, December 2024Mr Crawls, Dean Lane, Bristol, October 2024Mr Crawls, Redcliffe Way, Bristol, October 2024Mr Crawls and Mote, Redcliffe Way, Bristol, October 2024Mr Crawls, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2024Mr Crawls, Purdown, Bristol, August 2024Mr Crawls, M32 Spot, Bristol, July 2024Mote and Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol,July 2024Mr Crawls, M32 roundabout, Bristol, August 2024Mr Crawls, Ashton Avenue, Bristol, July 2024Mr Crawls, Ashton Avenue, Bristol, July 2024Mote and Mr Crawls, Jubilee Street, Bristol, July 2024Mote and Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2024Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, May 2024Mr Crawls and Mote, Cattle Market Road, Bristol April 2024Mr Crawls, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2024Mr Crawls, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2024Mr Crawls, Brunel Way, Bristol, March 2024Mr Crawls and Mote, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024Mr Crawls, River Avon, Bristol, February 2024Mote and Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024Mr Crawls and Mote, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, February 2024Mr Crawls and Mote, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, January 2024Mr Crawls, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2024Mr Crawls and Mote, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2024Mr Crawls and Mote, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2024Mr Crawls, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2023Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2024Mr Crawls and Mote, Jubilee Street, Bristol, December 2023Mr Crawls, M32 roundabout, Bristol, December 2023Mr Crawls and Mote, Dean Lane, Bristol, December 2023Mr Crawls, St Werburghs, Bristol, December 2023Mr Crawls and Mote, Peel Street Green, Bristol, November 2023Mr Crawls, Dean Lane, Bristol, November 2023Mr Crawls and Mote, Brunel Way, Bristol, October 2023Mr Crawls, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, October 2023Mr Crawls, M32 Spot, Bristol, October 2023Mr Crawls, St Werburghs, Bristol, September 2023Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, September 2023Mr Crawls, Brunel Way, Bristol, September 2023Mr Crawls, M32 roundabout, Bristol, Agust 2023Mr Crawls, Brunel Way, Bristol, August 2023Mr Crawls, St Werburghs, Bristol, May 2023
One of the favourite books of my youth was Fungus the Bogeyman by Raymond Briggs, an illustrator and author who wrote some of the finest and most touching comic strip books of the time. Fungus the Bogeyman spanned the generations very cleverly, and is full of witty puns and literary references. On starting this post, I have been searching for my copy of the book, but seem to recall I leant it to a cousin years ago. I might just have to buy myself a new copy.
Haka, Brunel Way, Bristol, January 2025
Haka has captured the essence of Fungus the Bogeyman perfectly in this piece, and the spot itself is exactly the kind of place that you’d imagine the character to lurk on a damp, foggy night. As with all of his pieces featuring children’s characters, Haka has remained incredibly faithful to the original illustrations. My favourite piece of the year so far.
Desi and Lupa, M32 roundabout, Bristol, January 2025
Ladies of the PWA crew have started the year with some real momentum, and have broadly had a busy period. This conflation piece from Desi and Lupa looks gorgeous in the evening sun. In my experience, it is quite unusual for two artists to merge their names and share a style in this way, and I have to say I rather like it. Within the crew, there are all sorts of combinations that would be fascinating to see, although I sense that this might be a bit of a one-off.
Desi and Lupa, M32 roundabout, Bristol, January 2025
Desi has contributed the VEI, and probably L, and Lupa, the UPA. They have set the pink writing on a traditional purple brick wall background, and the Christmas hat from PWA’s Zake can still be seen behind the letters, providing some temporal context. A fine and true collaboration from Desi and Lupa.
It brings me great joy when I come across new Kid Crayon pieces. He has been reasonably quiet over the last couple of years, which in a way is a good thing, because it signals that his work is going well, and being an artist/designer having plenty of work is always a positive.
Kid Crayon, Dean Lane, Bristol, January 2025
This wall used to have three alcoves in it, and in fairness, was quite difficult to paint. For whatever reason, the council decided to fill the alcoves with breeze blocks, and I have to say that the unintended consequence was this new long wall, which artists have been enjoying ever since. Kid Crayon has used the full length of the wall to paint his letters in hi favoured pink. Each letter is in a distinct style, where the ‘O’ is a masked character incorporating a floating crayon. A nice tidy piece and great way to start the year.
I met Grimes for the first time while he was laying down the foundations for this exceptional chrome piece. I have to say it is so much better than I was expecting it to turn out, which is saying something, because when it comes to Grimes’ work, the bar is already set pretty high. The artist is a lovely man, and we chatted for quite a while. One of the things I found out is that he has been living in Bristol for seven years, so I think I am going to have to revisit my archives to see if I can find any of his older work.
Grimes, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2025
This piece simply oozes class, and energy. Sometimes Chrome pieces, although impressive, and ‘a thing’ they are prone to being a little on the dull side. Not so with this explosive piece by Grimes. The chrome letters, spelling Grime, are filled with some nicely worked traditional patterning, but it is the sparks and plasma threads running through the piece that take it to the next level. Excellent work from the graffiti writer of the moment (‘says who?’ says me!).
A few years ago, Daz Cat was painting charming cat portraits, but compared to the pieces he is turning out today, they were flat and unsophisticated and his work since then has elevated several levels. He is now turning out complex pieces that tell stories and have amazing depth to them.
Daz Cat, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025
This cat with ginger hair and plenty of attitude contains so many interesting features and details. I love the wristwatch and the zip on the tracksuit top, small things that add so much to the story. Also interesting is the creative border, which, rather than being a solid black line, is a dynamic red interface between the character and the background. A very nice piece from Daz Cat.
Last year, I made a work trip to Peterborough to run a workshop, and as ever when on my travels, I took the opportunity early in the morning before the workshop started to gather my thoughts and have a little wander around the place taking photographs and noticing things.
Peterborough is a Cathedral City in eastern central England, and although I have visited it before when I lived in Cambridgeshire, it was always on a night out or to an office, so I hadn’t really ever got to know the place. What surprised me the most wasn’t the incredible architecture around the cathedral or the clean and tidy streets, it was instead the levels of deprivation, and I was quite shocked. There were a lot of rough sleepers about the place and the tell-tale signs of a poverty-stricken society containing streets full of bookies, pound shops, gambling arcades and vape shops – ‘Aladdin’s caves’ of bright lights and hope.
I have to say I found the experience profoundly depressing, and a contemporary illustration of how the previous government of 14 years had failed people at the lower end of the economic spectrum. The first thing I saw as I stepped out of the station was a long queue of people with tatty clothes and plastic bags outside a foodbank. We should hang our heads in shame that foodbanks even exist in one of the wealthiest nations in the world, while the richest in our society just get richer.
On a brighter note, Peterborough had pockets of street art and, importantly to today’s post, plenty of interesting doors to admire. Let’s get cracking:
White garage doors, Peterborough, April 2024
An interesting door surround at the Tavan Moroccan restaurant, Peterborough, April 2024
Black door and fabulous stonework, Nacro Education, Peterborough, April 2024
1930 iron and glass latticed door, Peterborough, April 2024
Norman gateway and double doors (not a perfect fit), Cathedral Square, Peterborough, April 2024
Closer view of the Norman gateway and double doors, Cathedral Square, Peterborough, April 2024
Some nice symmetry around the black door of this 1837 building erected by Edward Wortly, an MP of the city, Peterborough, April 2024
Plenty more to come from this trip to Peterborough next time. May I wish you a happy 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.
Benjimagnetic, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2025
What a lovely clean and tidy piece this is from Benjimagnetic at the entrance to St Werburghs tunnel. Ordinarily, I would say that Benjimagnetic’s pieces spell out BEN, but I now know it says something different after Benjimagnetic corrected me the last time I mistakenly got it wrong.
Benjimagnetic, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2025
What I like about Benjimagnetic’s work is the way he deconstructs and then reconstructs his writing, so that it is composed of loads of design elements that come together in a novel way. Another artist who uses a similar deconstruction technique is Minto. Great colours in this piece and overall a classy bit of writing.
Natural adventures 