Andy Council and Ulow, St Werburghs, Bristol, November 2025
A quick one today, written late last night because we are on our way to Milton Keynes today for a family gathering. This superb Halloween collaboration from Andy Council and Ulow was part of the celebration paint jam for Minto’s birthday.
Andy Council and Ulow, St Werburghs, Bristol, November 2025
To the left is an amazing wizard hat by Andy Council, made up of a spooky graveyard scene. There is so much detail in this piece, but it is suffering a little from the low light levels in the tunnel. Next to the hat is a menacing pumpkin character by Ulow, which is the perfect Halloween monster. Both pieces are outstanding and a fitting tribute to Minto.
Andy Council, Gloucester Road, Bristol, October 2025
Towards the Horfield end of the Gloucester Road you will find the Horfield Dry Cleaners. Above the shop is a wonderful mural by Andy Council that has been there for well over a year, I just haven’t had an opportunity until recently to photograph it.
Andy Council, Gloucester Road, Bristol, October 2025
In all honesty, the photographs don’t do this piece justice at all, because the colours and detail are a little lost. It might have been better to zoom in on different elements of the mural to convey the artwork more fully. If you look carefully, you might spot a turtle, an octopus, a manta ray, an ammonite and a manatee with a football pitch on its back. Each of the animals is crafted with Andy Council’s technique of stitching component parts together to create a recognisable whole. A great mural.
Andy Council and Acer One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2025
Andy Council and Acer One are a classic painting duo, with utterly different styles and subject, but their work, counterintuitively, seems to be wonderfully complementary. There is no jarring of styles, or competition for space or the limelight – the two artists seem to be comfortable with themselves and each other.
Andy Council, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2025
Andy Council has painted one of his gorgeous dinosaurs, selecting some beautiful colours and stitching the whole creature together with small components, like a Lego model. The little dots of green add so much to the piece. The collaboration was painted as a tribute to Tickz, who will be very much missed by the graffiti community in Bristol.
Acer One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2025
Acer One, who has been relatively quiet this year, has painted one of his iconic peace and love stamps in yellow and white or gold and silver, depending on your interpretation. This is a difficult wall to paint, especially with a designed graphic like this one, and the recesses in the walls present a challenge that Acer One has risen to. A fine collaboration and fitting tribute.
Andy Council has painted this exact spot a number of times, and I can only think that the shape and size of the wall suits his pieces really well. I had to make a return visit, because I arrived only moments after he had completed the piece, but there was a dirty great big shadow running right through the middle of the piece. Obviously, I managed to get some better pictures the second time.
Andy Council, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2025
The creature looks like a cross between a dinosaur and the Alien creature from the film series. It is, as you’d expect, beautifully crafted from a load of component parts that come together beautifully to make the whole. The writing to the left ‘Rising Trichomes’ I think might be a reference to cannabis buds, and not, as I first thought, the dinosaur species name, haha. A fine piece from Andy Council.
Andy Council and Acer One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2025
There is never a time when it isn’t a genuine pleasure to come across an Acer One/Andy Council collaboration. These two have been painting together for a long time, and although their styles couldn’t be more different, there is a harmony in their work that is probably supported by their familiarity with one another.
Andy Council, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2025
This wonderful composite creature piece by Andy Council is stitched together in his unique style. Andy has said that he is aiming to paint one dinosaur piece each month to celebrate 20 years since he painted his first. If this feathered velociraptor is anything to go by, we are in for a treat in 2025. I like the way that the cloudy puffs span across to Acer One’s piece.
Acer One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2025
Acer One is constantly inventing ways to dazzle us with his graphic lettering and design. Always executed to perfection, his pieces are quite different to anything else we see in Bristol. In this piece he has combined peace and heart symbols to come up with a single entity. It is beautiful and meaningful, and I expect we’ll see more of this icon from Acer One. A fine collaboration.
Sepr and Andy Council, Sussex Street, Bristol, December 2024
This is a wonderful political commentary collaboration from Sepr and Andy Council, who are unhappy with the Government’s attitude towards the situation in Gaza. On the left Sepr has painted a passive protest piece featuring a dove sitting on an olive branch. It is both witty and poignant and is beautifully painted.
Sepr, Sussex Street, Bristol, December 2024
To the right, Andy Council presents on of his ‘stitched together’ composition creature pieces, which this time is a snail, perhaps representing the slow speed of any progress on ending the Israeli occupation and systematic demolition of Gaza. The snail is painted in the colours of the Palestinian flag. Brilliant stuff from the duo.
Andy Council, Sussex Street, Bristol, December 2024
Conrico, Acer One and Andy Council, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, May 2024
You might be able to detect that I have been rooting around in my archives again, which I like to do every once in a while, because there are so many pieces that I’d like to share, but that get left behind. How this amazing collaboration from Conrico, Acer One and Andy Council ever got omitted I’ll never know, but I am making up for it now.
Conrico and Acer One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, May 2024
Conrico and Acer One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, May 2024
The three part piece is a wonderful co-creation in which all the distinctive elements come together seamlessly. The landscape background with hints of an oriental coastal scene is by Conrico and creates a wonderful setting for the letters of Acer One, that spell out WABI SABI in two sections either side of the centrepiece by Andy Council,
Andy Council, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, May 2024
The central portrait of a roaring tiger has everything you’d expect from a piece by Andy council where each of the elements of the tiger are ‘stitched’ together to form a coherent and, frankly, stunning whole. I think that the rose pink clouds emphasising the tiger head were painted by Conrico. The overall collaboration is a triumph of three very different styles coming together to create something truly excellent.
It must be nice (Hamilton earworm alert), to have talented friends who honour your birthday with a celebratory paint jam. On this occasion it was Andy Council’s special 50th birthday and he was joined by several artist friends in Dean Lane.
Andy Council, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2024
This was his own birthday piece which is a wonderful starling painted in his inimitable style. The stylised bird exaggerates the superb iridescent colours that starlings have which you can only really see when you get up close. This is a great piece, on a slightly awkward section of wall, but Andy Council has nailed it. Happy belated birthday.
Rowdy, Andy Council and Acer One, Purdown, Bristol, August 2024
You don’t expect to see production collaborations up at Purdown, so it was wonderful to see this ‘take-over’ by Rowdy, Acer One and Andy Council on the concrete slabs of the derelict anti-aircraft gun emplacement. The light conditions were tricky on both occasions that I went up there, and the photographs don’t really do justice to this creative display.
Acer One, Purdown, Bristol, August 2024
Starting in the Centre and on the margins, Acer One has painted one of his mind-boggling impossible triangle pieces, displaying great technical skills and accuracy. This is the third such piece I am aware of that he has painted in this spot.
Andy Council, Purdown, Bristol, August 2024
Andy Council, Purdown, Bristol, August 2024
On either side of Acer One’s centrepiece, Andy Council has painted his trademark ammonites in living-fossil form, each using his composite method to stitch together the creatures from components to make a whole. The dusky pink background used by Acer One and Andy Council works very nicely with their respective colour schemes.
Rowdy, Purdown, Bristol, August 2024
Rowdy, Purdown, Bristol, August 2024
Finally, bookending the collaboration, Rowdy has joined in the fun with a fabulous collection of Bristol crocodiles. More than any other active artist in Bristol, I think that Rowdy represents that raw, quirky, subversive and original talent that underpins the whole graffiti/street art scene in the city, and long may it last. This is a fabulous production piece from the trio of great artists.
Fade, Andy Council and Acer One, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2024
What I love about recording and writing about street/graffiti in Bristol is the enormous array of quality, experience and styles that I get to see – it is never boring, and I love to try and represent it all here. This is an extraordinary ‘high-end’ production from Fade, Andy Council and Acer One. I get the feeling from the balance of the piece that Fade may have been an opportunistic addition to this piece, but has integrated perfectly with the colour scheme and tone,
Fade, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2024
Fade, using all his experience, manages to create such a tight finish to all of his work, and it feels like there is never any part of it that is untidy or out of place. His letters spell FADE, and are filled beautifully in black fading to brown. The writing is set on a stunning grey/brown cloud that runs through the whole collaboration.
Andy Council and Acer One, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2024
The balanced symmetry of the Acer One and Andy Council element of the collaboration is what makes me think that Fade was an add-on. It comprises one of Acer One’s designs that he is currently favouring, which is accompanied by two of Andy Council’s famous Ammonites.
Acer One, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2024
Acer One has come up with this incredibly clever and intricate concept, where two words are incorporated into one design – something he has done before, but is now more refined. Some of the words are easier than others to see. The upper chrome lettering spells ACERONE and the lower black letters spell COUNCIL. If you block off the upper or lower part, it is easier to read the names.
Andy Council, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2024
I love it that Andy Council will often return to his ammonites in his mural work. They obviously hold an important part in his work because his signature incorporates one. These creatures are ‘composites’ made up of elements ‘stitched’ together in Andy Council’s unique and inimitable style. This is overall a brilliant production, and a precursor to a larger one including Dibz and Jody… watch this space.
Natural adventures 