Natural adventures

5267. Dean Lane skate park (602)

Dibz and Cheo, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2023

Well, well, well, how nice to see Cheo back again painting on the streets of Bristol. I wonder what has coaxed him out from what feels like a much too long absence, but whatever it is, it is great to see some fresh work from him. This is a superb, how could it be anything else?, collaboration from Dibz and Cheo.

To fit the collaboration on this wall, Dibz has contracted his style somewhat, and I am not certain his writing says DIBZ, but I can’t quite make out what it does say. Everything about the writing is close to perfect – this guy performs miracles with a spray can. Cheo has painted one of his characters, complete with baseball hat and ski goggles. The t-shirt says Neo Geo, which is lost on me, and of course we have his signature bee – it is great to see Cheo out and about, and I look forward to seeing more from him over the summer.

5266. Weston-super-Mare

Hazard, Weston Wallz, Weston-super-Mare, May 2023

A little tricky to photograph, but wonderful to behold is this beauty by Hazard which was painted in 2022 for Weston Wallz. The atmospheric portrait piece was painted last year, but I think it was probably after my visit, so this was the first time I got to see it.

Hazard has adopted her duplicate portrait theme, with a second ‘ghost’ face hidden in the hair, and she has cleverly incorporated the sea and waves into the piece, in keeping with the maritime location. The rich tones used in the piece are very easy on the eye, and there is a serenity and calmness to it. Weston Walz brings so much to the town… imagine how bland and indeed rather depressing this wall would have looked before Hazard painted it. It is no wonder that the citizens of Weston-super-Mare are so proud of their murals.

Lobe

A gallery of stylised portrait pieces by Lobe, an artist who used to live in Bristol where she painted regularly between 2019 and 2020.

Instagram: @lobe_ita

Lobe, Armada Place, Bristol, February 2020

Lobe, St Werburghs, Bristol, December 2019

Lobe, M32 cycle path, Bristol, November 2019

Lobe, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2019

Lobe, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, October 2019

Lobe, M32 roundabout, Bristol, September 2019

Lobe, M32 roundabout, Bristol, June 2019

5265. Weston-super-Mare

Aspire, Weston wallz, Weston-super-Mare, May 2023

In the last, very sunny weekend of May, Paul H and I took a trip to Weston-super-Mare to have a look at some of the murals from Weston Wallz (a festival organised by Upfest) painted this year and in previous years. It is apparent everywhere in this Victorian seaside town that there is an immense sense of civic pride in the murals, and there is no doubt that they are seen by the local authority and others as part of the rejuvenation of the town and a visitor attraction. The power of street art.

The first piece we saw as we walked from the station towards the sea front was this magnificent, large mural by Aspire, on Station Road. Aspire is no stranger to Natural Adventures, and his bird pieces are always a fine addition to any street art festival. This beautiful great tit piece, painted in 2022 follows a theme that Aspire has been working on for a couple of years, which is to position nature and human impact side by side creating a slightly uncomfortable juxtaposition. Beautiful artwork with the trademark ‘pixelated’ patches, makes this a wonderful introduction to Weston Wallz for anyone arriving on the train.

5264. Montpelier

Cartoonneros, Montpelier, Bristol, May 2023

I expect that these stencils by Cartoonneros have been here for a little while, but I don’t pass by this way all that often, and only found them last weekend. I expect that they were left here when Cartoonneros last visited Bristol and painted the same pipe stencils in Moon Street.

The pipes are a take on the famous Rene Magritte painting ‘ceci n’est pas une pipe’. I am guessing that the bottom stencil features musicians, but I am not savvy enough to work out who they are. I love it when visiting artists ‘drop in’ and leave their little gifts for people like me to find – it keeps things interesting.

5263. Dean Lane skate park (601)

It has to be said that Werm has managed, in a relatively short space of time, to create and amplify his unique style on the Bristol scene. His work is constantly improving and developing, and he is starting to work on collaborative walls with some of the more established artists in the city.

Werm is favouring a style at the moment which has extensive elaborations on the letters WERM that form the central portion of the piece, almost as though the letters are growing roots and shoots. He is also managing to fill his letters with nicely painted colour transitions, five in this instance. Werm was painting alongside the very experienced Turoe on this wall, and has picked up on a shared background of sky blue and some of the bricks of the wall picked out in a darker blue. A graffiti writer on the up.

Fire

Thick, dark smoke billows

and drifts slowly across town

the dread of a fire

by Scooj

5262. M32 Spot (164)

Kid Krishna, M32 Spot, Bristol, May 2023

I simply can’t keep up with Kid Krishna at the moment, and I think I am going to have to do a ‘sweep up’ post of pieces that I haven’t posted so far this year, because all of them deserve to be featured here on Natural Adventures. Not only is he incredibly prolific, but he manages to spread himself far and wide, although mostly north of the river, to be fair.

There is nobody else like Kid Krishna, both in terms of the person and his art. His lettering, although it is often such a mash-up, spells CRIE, and you can see a little CRIE at the bottom right-hand side of the piece. The letters TPN and NKA also usually make an appearance in his work too. In recent months, the letters have been incorporating fragments of character artwork, and there is a cat incorporated here. The white letters with green and yellow accents and decorations work incredibly well on the black background. This is a magnificent work from Kid Krishna.

5261. M32 Cycle path (218)

Solar, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, May 2023

Some artists manage to keep themselves very much to themselves, and that is true of most of the PLB crew, including Solar. I have been featuring Solar’s work for a few years, but have never met the artist and have never found out anything about them. That is fine and how some like to keep it, as anonymity is an important part of illegal graffiti and street art.

I like to post pieces by Solar because they are very different to most of the stuff you see from day to day, often writing with thick letters in a blocky style but with an organic feel to them. Solar has gone full-solar on this one, with a sizzling sun-drenched background around the strong white letters. Nice work from an artist slightly underrepresented on Natural Adventures.

5260. Upfest 2022 (70)

One of the admirable things that Upfest manages to do is combine the national and international interest from artists around the globe with local artists who paint the streets of Bristol week in and week out. The artists are treated equally (although some get allocated ‘premium’ walls), and there is a fabulous sense of community.

This piece by local artist Maybe (Maybepaints), who only started painting on the streets about 3 or 4 years ago, doesn’t look out of place shoulder to shoulder with established international artists. The piece is, as much contemporary street art tends to be, a commentary on the state of our environment, with supermarket plastic bags drifting in the ocean.

Maybe is a lovely man – much taller than I had expected – who has developed his own techniques, combining freestyle painting with stencils, to create these remarkable ‘other worldly’ places and scenes. You can see his progress over the last few years in this updated gallery of his work.

	paulh121 on 7611. St Werburghs tunnel…
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	paulh121 on Sea Spurge (Euphorbia par…
	M. on 7606. M32 roundabout J2 (…

	paulh121 on 7611. St Werburghs tunnel…
	cjsmissionaryministe… on Morning motivation
	hitandrun1964 on Sea Spurge (Euphorbia par…
	paulh121 on Sea Spurge (Euphorbia par…
	M. on 7606. M32 roundabout J2 (…

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