Tag: Balloon

7102. Knowle West (7)

Joe Greenaway, Knowle West, Bristol, July 2025
Joe Greenaway, Knowle West, Bristol, July 2025

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
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!

6609. Gloucester Road

Hazard, Gloucester Road, Bristol, September 2024
Hazard, Gloucester Road, Bristol, September 2024

I found and photographed this piece a little while ago, and perhaps should have waited and got some better pictures, once the site in front of it was cleared. The huge mural was an unsigned mystery, and so I have held back on posting it. Once again, I have Paul H to thank for his detective work in finding out that it is by Hazard. Well, well, well, who’d have thought it?

Hazard, Gloucester Road, Bristol, September 2024
Hazard, Gloucester Road, Bristol, September 2024

Hazard has a particular style that is quite easy to pick out, but this commission on the side of the Anchor pub on Gloucester Road is nothing like her usual style, and I don’t think I would have ever guessed it was by her, especially as she left Bristol about two years ago.

Hazard, Gloucester Road, Bristol, September 2024
Hazard, Gloucester Road, Bristol, September 2024

There is so much to like about this mural, which tells the Bristol story, with balloons and the Clifton Suspension Bridge, some colourful Georgian houses, a swan, a gull and of course an anchor. It really is a magnificent mural, but I simply don’t understand why she didn’t sign it… curious. Driving south along the Gloucester Road, this piece has quickly become something of a landmark.

6132. Upfest 2024 (29)

Sepr, Upfest 24, The Nursery, Bristol, May 2024
Sepr, Upfest 24, The Nursery, Bristol, May 2024

I have mentioned before that Upfest has a blend of local, national and international artists every year, but what is noticeable this year is that many of the Bristol-based artists have been given large feature walls to paint, which is great to see, and to be able to showcase some of our own homegrown talent.

Sepr, Upfest 24, The Nursery, Bristol, May 2024
Sepr, Upfest 24, The Nursery, Bristol, May 2024

This is an outstanding mural from Sepr, who is no stranger to the pages of Natural Adventures – you can see more of his work in this gallery. The green colour palette is masterfully worked in this cartoon-style balloon ark. There is a wonderful story unfolding here of animals sharing a balloon trip (balloons, like street art, being one of Bristol’s USPs) under a warm sun. Sepr has designed the piece to work around the doors and windows of the house, which interestingly has no window above the door, allowing more mural space. In my view, this is a masterpiece of stylised cartoon street art that brings smiles to the faces of passers-by. Awesome.

6075. Upfest 2024 (12)

Cock Dicks, Greville Smyth Park, Upfest 24, Bristol, May 2024
Cock Dicks, Greville Smyth Park, Upfest 24, Bristol, May 2024

Cock Dicks is a Bristol-Based artist who occasionally transfers her skills to the walls in Bristol alongside the Bristol Mural Collective. In this piece for Upfest 2024, up at the Greville Smyth Park Bowling Club, she has painted a mural containing the most iconic emblem of Bristol, some hot air balloons.

Cock Dicks, Greville Smyth Park, Upfest 24, Bristol, May 2024
Cock Dicks, Greville Smyth Park, Upfest 24, Bristol, May 2024

I was lucky enough to meet Cock Dicks, whose mischievous name is derived from her surname (Dicks) combined with her mother’s maiden name (Cock), while she was painting this piece and told her that I had written about her art on Natural Adventures before, and she seemed to be surprised that I knew that she had painted with the Bristol Mural Collective occasionally.

Cock Dicks, Greville Smyth Park, Upfest 24, Bristol, May 2024
Cock Dicks, Greville Smyth Park, Upfest 24, Bristol, May 2024

Using brushes rather than spray cans, Cock Dicks has created a rather loveable collection of balloons, each with big eyes and differing expressions cleverly portrayed by the shape of the eyebrows and mouth and angle of the eyes. This is a piece for all the family, and captures the spirit of Bristol and Upfest perfectly.

Weightless

.

Love will lift your heart

take you on new adventures

gifting weightlessness

.

by Scooj

4922. Gloucester Road

DNT, Tymb and Mr Klue, Gloucester Road, Bristol, December 2022
DNT, Tymb and Mr Klue, Gloucester Road, Bristol, December 2022

Not very far away from where I live is this magnificent new mural, which I only became aware of when I was doing a little Christmas shopping. The mural captures so much of why I love living in this city. It is not only a big bold piece, but it is a big bold statement too – ‘the free city of Bristol’, which tells you a lot about the independent sentiment that Bristolians have.

DNT, Tymb and Mr Klue, Gloucester Road, Bristol, December 2022
DNT, Tymb and Mr Klue, Gloucester Road, Bristol, December 2022

The mural is a collaboration between DNT, Tymb and Mr Klue. I know the work of DNT and Mr Klue intimately, but have not encountered Tymb before. The decorative border is the work of DNT, I would think, and the castle is probably by Mr Klue. The fact that it is uncertain who painted what makes this piece in my eyes a true collaboration between the artists, where their work merges. A piece to be proud of.

2591. Upfest 2018 (162)

More from Upfest 2018 with this fine trio of paste up balloons by D7606, each one with a face of Twiggy on them. D7606 pasted up 10 of these balloons (complete with string) to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Upfest.

D7606, Upfest, Bristol, July 2019
D7606, Upfest, Bristol, July 2019

I have a feeling that they are still intact after almost eighteen months, probably because they were secured high up and out of the reach. These three take my total posted up to six. Did I find them all? Actually I’m not sure, as I still have so many pictures in my Upfest folder yet to post. Keep watching this space. Always a pleasure to find D7606’s work.

1740. Frogmore Street (8)

I was moved to dig out this old wheatpaste from my archives when I saw the wonderful Upfest 10th anniversary balloons that had been pasted up all over Bedminster by D7606. It can happen a lot when you have so many unpublished photographs, and I regularly scour my files to see if there are anty gems that I may have overlooked…well this was one of them.

D7606, Frogmore Street, Bristol, September 2015
D7606, Frogmore Street, Bristol, September 2015

This blue balloon with the face of Elizabeth Taylor was pasted up over my absolute favourite piece of street art in Bristol and one that inspired me to write this blog, by JPS. Such a great wall and a clever place for D7606 to position his balloon. I am pleased to bring the pictures out of archive.

1419. Shoreditch, London (5)

The first time I saw work by Unify was when my wife had spotted a piece in Cotham, Bristol next to a Nick Walker ‘Vandal’ piece on the wall of the Highbury Vaults. At that time I had no idea the artist was based in London. How much I wish he would return to Bristol and leave us some of his spectacular stencil pieces.

Unify, Shoreditch, London, February 2018
Unify, Shoreditch, London, February 2018

His pieces tend to be quite small, and often in a portrait orientation…maybe it is the way he likes to cut his stencils. I love this teddy with a balloon composed of ‘unify’ tags, something a little sad and also happy occurring. Another thing about tjhis artist is his eye for selectingh great walls. This one is pretty much perfect.

High Flyer

 

Reaching for the stars

is as much as minions

can ever hope for.

 

by Scooj