Dirtygypo and Posh, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, July 2025
Although this superb piece of graffiti writing from Dirtygypo isn’t really a collaboration, it does have a cheeky collaborative element from the inclusion of one of Posh’s distinctive characters, of which there appears to have been an outbreak of across Bristol in the last couple of months.
Dirtygypo and Posh, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, July 2025
As with many of Dirtygypo’s pieces, each of the letters are assigned a different colour and the word it interspersed with bolts of lightening. I won’t drift into trying to interpret the word this time, I’ll simply have to wait until I meet him to find an answer. All good stuff, and another fine piece from Dirtygypo.
Joe Greenaway s not an artist I know much about at all, so I went to his Instagram account to see if I could find out more. I didn’t find much, but I did discover that this paint jam arranged by Mind 49 was organised to raise funds for @thegrandappeal Children’s Hospital Charity. Further searches on the Interweb revealed that Joe Greenaway is an up-and-coming artist from St Ives in Cornwall (a place with a rich artistic heritage).
Joe Greenaway, Knowle West, Bristol, July 2025
The stunning greyscale portrait piece features a woman with a date ‘1958’, and I wonder if it might be a relative of the artist. Alongside the stunning portrait is a superb reference to Bristol in the form of balloons drifting over the Clifton Suspension Bridge. This is a beautiful piece that deserves to be shouted about. Oh, and damn the car!
This is a gorgeous column piece under Brunel Way, from visiting artist RA. Several wonderful pieces were deposited by the artist, all in the same area, and each of which really appeal to me. Anything to do with nature, and in particular insects, is going to grab my attention.
RA, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2025
In this strip, RA has used a stencil of an insect and overlaid it three times on a tall rectangle of lime green, which works perfectly for the dimensions of a column. The detail within each of the insects has been hand painted, probably using a Posca pen for the finer detail. The pink and green colours draw attention to the piece on a grey background. Very effective and quite different.
Painted as part of a World Wall Stylwer paint jam, this is an outstanding piece from Peanutsdeli, an amazing artist who makes it into the pages of Natural Adventures from time to time, but who lives in the Cheltenham area, I think.
Peanutsdeli, L Dub, Bristol, July 2025
In this character piece, and you’ll have to forgive me for not knowing the theme for this one, there is so much fine detail, something Peanutsdeli specialises in. Those sharp lines and definition around the muscles of the character are exceptional. A piece full of movement and dynamism. Peanutsdeli smashes it again.
I have only ever found a handful of pieces by Sam Brentnall, but it doesn’t take many to make a really strong impression. There is something very endearing about this simple naïve style, so clean and crisp. I think it must have been quite recently finished when I found it, because there are no mud splashes, goat damage or tagging to be seen.
Sam Brentnall, Purdown, Bristol, July 2005
The beautiful illustration is of a man with a hat playing a guitar, and to use up the space of the concrete slab, Sam Brentnall has playfully bent the neck of the guitar back on itself, in a way that only cartoon illustrations can. Refreshing and fun.
I guess that it was fairly inevitable that tribute pieces to the late Ozzy Osbourne would start to emerge, although in Bristol, I have only found two, of which this impressive piece by Tera is one. I see how much the musician meant to so many people, but I’m afraid I don’t count myself amongst them. I always thought he was a bit of an arse, and I was less than captivated by the puerile ‘fly on the wall’ documentary series about the Osbournes, but each to their own.
Tera, St Werburghs, Bristol, July 2025
What is incredible about this large portrait is just how quickly Tera has adapted to upscaling his tattoo skills to large walls, literally in a mater of months. There is some great use of positioning bright colours against the greyscale portrait, which creates a certain dynamism. This piece captures the mood of Ozzy perfectly, and I rather like the epitaph ‘Rest in Darkness’.
I am assuming that Smak has slowed on his graffiti writing due to demands on his commercial work, or at least I hope it is something positive like that. He hasn’t lost his touch in the slightest, and this is a complete banger painted during a paint jam for Frazzled Magazine.
Smak, St Werburghs, Bristol, July 2025
The beautifully disguised letters spell out SMAK, and it is the architecture and design of the letters that is so admirable. Every element and shape, colour sequence and detail is meticulously thought out and skilfully painted. Smak really is one of the very best graffiti writers around and can turn out exquisite work like this with apparent ease. An outstanding example.
This decent combination piece by Sub in Peel Street Green is, as far as the Mario character goes, ‘take two’ and he has done a much better job of it this time round, demonstrating the value of practice. I published his earlier piece about a week ago and have dropped the photograph at the end of this post for comparison.
Sub, Peel Street Green, Bristol, July 2025
The letters are large and chunky, as I would expect from Sub, and have a very solid feel to them. The colour gradient is nicely worked and the whole combination neat and tidy. The Mario character is really well painted, with plenty of subtle shading to help bring about some depth in the character. This is a fun piece from Sub.
Doors 320 – Doors of Marrakesh, Morocco, January 2025 (Part I)
In January this year, my wife and I decided to enjoy a winter break in Marrakesh, as we were desperate for some sun after a poor summer in 2024. Key to our choice of destination was that we could fly from Bristol airport, which just makes things so much easier for us. We brought our daughter along with us too, as she was on a break from University.
We hadn’t done too much research before the trip and were open to a wholly new experience. I had been to Egypt many years ago when I was in my late teens, but otherwise North Africa was something of a mystery to be discovered.
Marrakesh is a busy, dusty, and ancient city, with an incredible culture and heritage, and although our stay was short, we took in so many sights and activities. Of course, we were presented with thousands of doors, and in all my travels in the UK and abroad, I don’t think I have seen so many doors worthy of sharing on Thursday Doors. I expect this is going to be a long series of posts from Marrakesh.
In this first post, I will start with our hotel called Les Borjs de la Kasbah, a riad (a traditional, multi-story house or palace built around a central courtyard or garden), which was located at the south of the Medina, the old walled part of the city.
Floor plan of Les Borjs de la Kasbah, Marrakesh, Morocco, January 2025
This hotel had been lovingly restored over a period of four years by local craftsmen from a complex of six small town houses (dars) and one riad. The restoration included traditional doors and balcony windows, as well as tiles, fountains and other details. I hope you enjoy this collection of doors and get a small sense of the traditional style of the riad.
Small courtyard off the main courtyard, Les Borjs de la Kasbah, Marrakesh, Morocco, January 2025
Restored bedroom door,Les Borjs de la Kasbah, Marrakesh, Morocco, January 2025
Storage room door, Les Borjs de la Kasbah, Marrakesh, Morocco, January 2025
A room that opens into the central courtyard, Les Borjs del la Kasbah, Marrakesh, Morocco, January 2025
Another room that opens onto the courtyard – not a door in sight, Les Borjs de la Kasbah, Marrakesh, Morocco, January 2025
A third sitting room opening into the courtyard (ignore the TV, we did), Les Borjs del la Kasbah, Marrakesh, Morocco, January 2025
The main courtyard with plenty of doorways, just no doors, Les Borjs de la Kasbah, Marrakesh, Morocco, January 2025
Second floor stairway to the roof garden, Les Borjs de la Kasbah, Marrakesh, Morocco, January 2025
Roof garden view with the Atlas Mountains in the distance, Les Borjs de la Kasbah, Marrakesh, Morocco, January 2025
The swimming pool area, Les Borjs de la Kasbah, Marrakesh, Morocco, January 2025
Stunningly recreated balcony windows overlooking the pool, Marrakesh, Morocco, January 2025
This has been a deliberately gentle introduction to Marrakesh before getting into some hard core doors over the coming weeks. The hotel was the perfect base for some lengthy walks, mostly northwards, to some of the tourist hotspots, but the long walks meant that there were an awful lot of back streets and doors to get through on the way.
I thought I’d leave you with an earworm, that naturally I have in my head, because of the district we stayed in. Rock the Kasbah!
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.
