5289. St John’s Lane (1)

Laic217, St John's Lane, Bristol, June 2023
Laic217, St John’s Lane, Bristol, June 2023

I fell in love with this piece the moment I saw it. Of course, I am an admirer of Laic217’s work, and this piece brings together so many of his themes and his talent into one place. No skeleton this time, but a flesh and blood human character holding a spray can.

Laic217, St John's Lane, Bristol, June 2023
Laic217, St John’s Lane, Bristol, June 2023

I will focus on two or three elements of this outstanding piece; The flesh tones and shading on the face and hand are exceptional, demonstrating that he is not a skeleton one-trick pony. The chain around the character’s neck is really well done and there is a sense of weight, and that it doesn’t hang perfectly shows that Laic217 is thinking one step ahead. It is the shirt, though, that really thrills me. From time to time, Laic217 dresses his characters in patterned shirts, and somehow he manages to paint in the creases and folds, with disruption tom the pattern, in this case pink smiley faces. I have seen him use this technique before to great effect, and I think it is one of the things he does that sets him apart from others. This is a truly exceptional piece on a rather nice new hoarding.

Laic217, L Dub, Bristol, September 2021
Laic217, L Dub, Bristol, September 2021
Laic217, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2019
Laic217, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2019
Laic217, Wilder Street, Bristol, May 2019
Laic217, Wilder Street, Bristol, May 2019

Cruella

.

With her Wallace grin

charmless home secretary

plays to gallery.

.

by Scooj

  • I have never been a fan of Suella Braverman and her far right inflammatory racist rhetoric, but I caught a clip of a debate in the house yesterday in which she offered an insincere and inappropriately pitched ‘tribute’ to Caroline Lucas, the Green MP for Brighton and Hove, who will be standing down at the next election.

Suella Braverman seems to have a rather inflated impression of her own capabilities and wit, and came out with this toxic ‘tongue-in-cheek’ drivel, and was all the while appealing to her fellow Tories, smirking and grinning. Caroline Lucas has class, capability, competence and compassion that Braverman could never, ever achieve.

Braverman appears to be interested only in power, driven by hatred (an element of self-loathing I suspect too)

Lucas appears to be interested in justice (social, economic and environmental) and fairness, driven by compassion.

The two are polar opposites.

5288. M32 Spot (167)

Zake, M32 Spot, Bristol, May 2023
Zake, M32 Spot, Bristol, May 2023

I have a feeling that Zake might be slowing down a little, having had an incredible start to the year with an increase in both quality and quantity of his original character pieces. This incredible piece is painted on one of the columns (if not, a different face of the same column) where I first encountered Zake’s work back in July 2018, so it feels like a bit of a full circle, and my goodness, how he has developed over that time.

Zake, M32 Spot, Bristol, May 2023
Zake, M32 Spot, Bristol, May 2023

The long face (an inevitability on columns) has a double set of eyes, which are thankfully closed, and is spewing fiery water from the mouth. The colour selection works beautifully, and as ever Zake’s work is so full of depth, afforded by clever use of light and shade. This is a really striking piece, noticeable from quite some distance.

Zake, M32 Spot, Bristol, July 2018
Zake, M32 Spot, Bristol, July 2018

5287. M32 Spot (166)

3rdeye, M32 Spot, Bristol, May 2023
3rdeye, M32 Spot, Bristol, May 2023

I don’t quite understand why, but I have posted very few pieces by 3rdeye on this blog, perhaps because he only paints occasionally, but I’m sure I have more in my archives somewhere. 3rdeye pieces are a rare thing, especially outside of festivals, so it was a considerable surprise and delight when I stumbled across this piece a little while back.

3rdeye, M32 Spot, Bristol, May 2023
3rdeye, M32 Spot, Bristol, May 2023

Painted on a utility box and wall at the top end of the M32 Spot, underneath the motorway, 3rdeye has split the piece into two parts. On the utility box is one of his imaginary characters, perched on top of an eye with a thought cloud saying “sexual chocolate”. I have no idea what this means and won’t be asking.

3rdeye, M32 Spot, Bristol, May 2023
3rdeye, M32 Spot, Bristol, May 2023

On the adjacent wall, there are several cleverly concealed characters, painted in 3rdeye’s distinctive style, together with some letters, but I can’t quite make out what they are… it looks like E A E, but that doesn’t seem right. The piece is nicely signed at the top and demonstrates the strength in depth of talent in Bristol.

5286. Dean Lane skate park (607)

Dibz, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2023
Dibz, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2023

This outstanding piece by Dibz was painted alongside Werm and Veeez, both of whom are edging towards the ‘top table’ when it comes to collaborations. I have genuinely run out of things to say about Dibz and the quality and creativity of his work, and am tempted to not write too much more but simply let you enjoy this piece, which is so easy on the eye.

Dibz, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2023
Dibz, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2023

Dibz’ confidence and talent allow the viewer to wonder at the detail of the piece in the knowledge that absolutely everything is perfectly finished. The addition of pixels and stars embroiders, what is already an outstanding piece of graffiti writing.

5285. M32 roundabout J3 (480)

Kid Krishna, M32 roundabout, Bristol, May 2023
Kid Krishna, M32 roundabout, Bristol, May 2023

It took me two visits to get a clean picture of this piece by Kid Krishna, because his bike was parked in front of it the first time (while he was painting an adjacent piece). What is interesting is that the light conditions were different on each occasion, which affects the colours in the images.

Kid Krishna, M32 roundabout, Bristol, May 2023
Kid Krishna, M32 roundabout, Bristol, May 2023

Kid Krishna is smashing it everywhere he paints at the moment, and in a very short space of time has become a dominant force in the city. In this fascinating piece the writing, CRIE, is compressed into the central part of the work and is surrounded by fish designs, some realistic and some abstract. The piece demonstrates a strong artistic bent and creative mind. The explosion of ideas in his work is sometimes difficult to interpret, for example what is the man in the top hat, eating a sardine, all about? His work continues to surprise and delight… regularly.

5284. M32 roundabout J3 (479)

Hypo, M32 roundabout, Bristol, May 2023
Hypo, M32 roundabout, Bristol, May 2023

Tick-tock, regular as clockwork, Hypo keeps turning out new pieces, each of which is a welcome addition to his expanding and improving portfolio. I have definitely seen an improvement in his work in recent months, and although he has been around for a long time, I think he is reaching a new level.

Hypo, M32 roundabout, Bristol, May 2023
Hypo, M32 roundabout, Bristol, May 2023

Hypo continues to produce pieces with an element of symmetry to them, achieved through shapes and colour schemes. I have seen him use this kind of fill pattern in the past (Upfest 2017), producing what looks like a horizon on a landscape. Another great piece from Hypo.

Hypo, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
Hypo, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017

5283. Purdown (56)

Daz Cat, Purdown, Bristol, May 2023
Daz Cat, Purdown, Bristol, May 2023

A little bit about the mechanics of Natural Adventures, which might explain why there is a bit of a time-lag between a piece being painted and that piece being posted on the blog. I would guess that on a typical day I will come across 5–10 pieces of street/graffiti art that are new to me, and all of these go into a monthly folder. I then select from the folder pieces I’d like to feature on the blog and upload them in batches, so that I usually have at least a week’s worth of images ready to go, which gives me time to write the post in the morning before work, or the evening before.

So anything appearing on Natural Adventures will be at least a week old, and often considerably more. In exceptional cases I might fast track something special to the front of the queue, but that is rare. So if you are looking for ‘breaking news’ blog posts here, you are in the wrong place.

Daz Cat, Purdown, Bristol, May 2023
Daz Cat, Purdown, Bristol, May 2023

This is an interesting piece from Daz Cat in a spot that he likes to frequent. The blue cat character, with the yellow top, appears to be casting away an abominable creature with rabbit ears, horns, cat-like claws and a dragon tail – what is that thing? There is lots of movement in the piece, aided by the cream flashes, but its meaning is a little lost on me.

Looking at it again, the creature looks like it is by GYS? And the style is rather different from Daz Cat’s. There is nothing on Instagram that would help me work this out, though.

Bias

.

Desire to be fair

confuses fairness with fact

false equivalence

.

by Scooj

  • how the climate change debate was massively skewed in favour of fossil fuel interests, to our global demise.

Heracleum mantegazzianum

Giant Hogweed, River Frome, Bristol, June 2023
Giant Hogweed, River Frome, Bristol, June 2023

.

Towering giant

phytotoxicity risk

plant best left alone

.

by Scooj