Another quick one. It is easy to forget, from his superb graffiti writing portfolio, that Werm, when he first started, used to paint a lot of characters, so to see him paint this excellent Halloween pumpkin character shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise.
The concrete slab is the perfect shape for this piece, and is beautifully framed by its surroundings. The artwork itself is very neat and tidy, with brilliant depth created in the teeth especially. A very nice pumpkin piece.
A super-quick post this morning. I am visiting my mother, and have been catching up leaving little time to write today’s posts. This is a lovely piece from Slim Pickings (Tes) in the tunnel for Minto’s birthday paint jam.
Over the last year or two, Slim Pickings has been switching up his style, and breaking away from his familiar rounded letter style. This is a wonderful example of his variation, although, the cloudy background is more consistent with his typical style. So good to watch him evolve.
At first sight, this wide piece by Mr Draws looks a little confused, but look a little closer and you will see a compelling scene unfolding of four blue whales drifting gently across the wall.
Each of the whales has some red splodges and drips which I guess symbolise blood. They could be a reference to the savage whaling, so dominant in the 1970s when the International Whaling Commission stepped in and massively curtailed the hunting and slaughter, or could reflect other challenges our oceans face due to pollution and climate change. Powerful and evocative stuff from Mr Draws.
2025 has without question been a year of visitors and new artists breaking onto the Bristol stage. Such an influx of talent is a reflection of Bristol’s street art culture and national/international reputation and is a blessing for me, although at times it can be a curse trying to track down who some of the artists are.
This is a stunning combination piece by Rafat Oner, who came to celebrate Dibz’ 50th birthday and wrap up his tribute with a Halloween theme for good measure. The letters RAFAT are beautifully filled with a funky black and purple design and a double green and orange drop shadow, pulling in all the colours of Halloween. The black and white portrait of a girl is a little disturbing where her face distorts on the left. Two further creepy characters are emerging from the ground. All in all a wonderful piece with lots going on to admire.
By now, regular readers will know that I am very fond of the work of Creamylines and will note that I am thrilled by the uptick in his activity this year. This particular piece, underneath the busy M32 motorway, is a little larger than most of his work to date.
Unusually, this piece is dominated by reds and purples, where many of his other pieces tend to be yellows, greens and blues. The piece is crammed full of people, eyes and mountains, all set below a glorious red rising sun, with his customary silhouetted birds. A piece full of connection with nature and our surroundings.
On a column a few meters away, I found this small piece by Creamylines, which although dogged with graffiti that reads “Do you remember who you are?” “Everything and nothing”, gives us a sense of a slightly more refined work from the artist, which might have been painted with a brush rather than spray paints. All good work from the busy artist.
Posh’s work has been something of a revelation this year. He manages to maintain a house-style which is like an elaborate sketch/scribble with both his graffiti writing and his character pieces. He also has a knack for inserting his characters large or small into places, seemingly just for the hell of it.
This piece features a couple of Posh’s finest caricature characters, with bow ties, top hats, canes and monocles. They represent the epitome of poshness, which is exactly what he is setting out to do and does so well. There is so much life in the piece, and we can only imagine what hollow conversation is going on between the pair. Great work by Posh.
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Diamond encrusted
grass tips, fallen leaves glisten
day melts the moment
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by Scooj
Doors 333 – Doors and views of Sti Fadma in the High Atlas Mountains, Marrakesh, Morocco, January 2025 (Part XIII)
We managed to escape from the busy bustle of Marrakesh on a day excursion south to the High Atlas mountains. Our driver, who was half Arab and half Berber, explained to us that we would be heading into the mountains which is mostly populated by Berbers, often called Imazighen (“free people”).
The drive only took a couple of hours, transporting us to a stunning high valley along the course of the Ourika River Valley. Here we stopped to take a hike up into the mountains to reach the lowest of several waterfalls cascading down into the valley below. The small town of Sti Fadma, with its restaurants lining the river banks, was the starting point for the walk and to which we returned for a well-earned lunch.
Because we were visiting Morocco during the low season, the mountains weren’t all that busy and there was no traffic on our journey. Our driver said that from March onwards, the temperatures in Marrakesh become unbearable, and people flood out of the city and head to the mountains, which are a bit of a honey-pot and attract enormous crowds of people seeking a cooler climate. I’m glad that we chose a quieter time, and for us Brits, anything over 24 degrees is considered warm/hot, so there were no complaints from us at all.
Not so many doors this week, but some lovely views of the mountains and Berber settlements. I hope you enjoy them.
This is probably one of the least doorsy Thursday Doors posts that I have uploaded ever, but I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless. Next time, we visit a garden on our way back to Marrakesh from the mountains. Until then, 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 weekly Thursday Doors post.
As you might expect, there was a great turnout from the great and good of the established graffiti writing/street community for Dibz’ 50th birthday celebration paint jam, including an appearance from the brilliant Soker.
It took me a while to establish that this wonderful piece was indeed by Soker, as it is unsigned, and the letters, of course, spell Dibz. There are one or two small giveaways that it is Soker’s work; The high-quality finish, The black star in the ‘D’; the small accent rectangles at the top left and top right; and the green drips around the piece. I was thrown off the scent slightly by the white accent lines that create a sense of round letters, because that is not something I associate too much with Soker. Classy work.
What a pleasure to find this tidy three-quarter profile of a trademark orangutan by Kool Hand at Horfield skate park. The piece was painted alongside a wonderful pair of cats by Daz Cat. A quick look at an updated gallery of his work gives an insight into his progress over the years.
The green-faced character has particularly large teeth, and looks a little more ferocious than some of his renditions of the ape. Two things stand out for me in this piece; the confident solid fills and lines all neat and tidy, and the slight angle of the portrait, moving away from the straight on face, which is where it all started.
Natural adventures 