Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, February 2025
Mr Crawls has been having a productive and creative winter, turning out a suite of stylised cartoon character birds. This one is accompanied by some monolithic letters ‘NS’? I don’t know what the letters are all about, but he has incorporated them skilfully.
Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, February 2025
The skeleton bird design is one that Mr Crawls has used before and to be honest is a little bit sinister, not his usual cheery bird representation. There is a lot to like about mr crawls’ work at the moment, and his expanding repertoire keeps things interesting.
Mr Crawls, Kool Hand and Daz Cat, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2025
This is something of a rarity, a character collaboration. Often you get combinations of characters and graffiti writing in small or large collaborative efforts, but exclusively character pieces is unusual and just how brilliant is this collection from Mr Crawls, Kool Hand and Daz Cat?
Mr Crawls, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2025
Mr Crawls has hit the ground running this year with some outstanding pieces and a slight change in direction or modification of his characters. He is always looking to move things forward and adding new ideas around his central theme of a bird wearing a hat. This most recent phase I would describe as stylised cartoon work.
Kool Hand, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2025
Another artist who has been busy over the winter is Kool Hand, and what a good artist he is, I have just updated his gallery and there are some really fine pieces to enjoy there. This piece features a three-quarter profile of his famous orangutan character, this time in green. Crisp and clean and really well presented.
Daz Cat, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2025
An artist whose work has become more sophisticated and complex over the last few years is Daz Cat. In the early days his cat pieces were fairly two-dimensional, and although fun to find, had plenty of headroom for improvement. Now Daz Cat is operating at an entirely different level, turning out first class portrait pieces (mostly of cats) with every outing. This smiling cat is a perfect example of his work, so full of character and detail and a enjoy to behold. Below is an example of his early work to give you an idea of what I am talking about. This is a very fine character collaboration.
Every now and again, I like to delve into my archives to see if there are any pieces that somehow were overlooked at the time, and I am always surprised by what I find. The next few posts are from 2016 and include this beautiful magpie by Aspire.
Aspire, City Road, Bristol, March 2016
Aspire was one of my favourite Bristol artists in Bristol, and his depictions of birds in particular struck a chord with me as a trained naturalist. For a few short years, his work brightened up our streets before he packed his bags and moved to London, where I am told the streets are paved with gold. Fortunately, Aspire does return from time to time, but I miss his portfolio of stunning birds and their surroundings. As well as being a superb portrayal of a magpie, we also see evidence of his pixel clusters, something of a trademark for the artist. Those were the days!
Slightly coincidentally, I published a gallery of Mr Crawls’ work this morning, which included this wonderful bird character as the most recent picture in the gallery. Scroll back eighteen months or so, and this piece feels like it is a modernised version of one of the first pieces I saw by Mr Crawls. Something that both he and his painting partner Mote have done exceptionally well is gently upgrade their styles, and this one may be setting the scene for Mr Crawls for the year to come.
Mr Crawls, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025
The bird portrait is highly stylised, rather than caricature, and the boxy look creates a completely different sensation for the viewer. Even though the lines are straight, for the most part, Mr Crawls has managed to squeeze out some expression and emotion in the bird’s face. There is a lot to like about this style, and I’ll be interested to see if he takes us in a new direction.
Mr Crawls, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025Mote and Mr Crawls, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, December 2024Mr Crawls, Dean Lane, Bristol, October 2024Mr Crawls, Redcliffe Way, Bristol, October 2024Mr Crawls and Mote, Redcliffe Way, Bristol, October 2024Mr Crawls, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2024Mr Crawls, Purdown, Bristol, August 2024Mr Crawls, M32 Spot, Bristol, July 2024Mote and Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol,July 2024Mr Crawls, M32 roundabout, Bristol, August 2024Mr Crawls, Ashton Avenue, Bristol, July 2024Mr Crawls, Ashton Avenue, Bristol, July 2024Mote and Mr Crawls, Jubilee Street, Bristol, July 2024Mote and Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2024Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, May 2024Mr Crawls and Mote, Cattle Market Road, Bristol April 2024Mr Crawls, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2024Mr Crawls, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2024Mr Crawls, Brunel Way, Bristol, March 2024Mr Crawls and Mote, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024Mr Crawls, River Avon, Bristol, February 2024Mote and Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024Mr Crawls and Mote, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, February 2024Mr Crawls and Mote, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, January 2024Mr Crawls, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2024Mr Crawls and Mote, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2024Mr Crawls and Mote, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2024Mr Crawls, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2023Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2024Mr Crawls and Mote, Jubilee Street, Bristol, December 2023Mr Crawls, M32 roundabout, Bristol, December 2023Mr Crawls and Mote, Dean Lane, Bristol, December 2023Mr Crawls, St Werburghs, Bristol, December 2023Mr Crawls and Mote, Peel Street Green, Bristol, November 2023Mr Crawls, Dean Lane, Bristol, November 2023Mr Crawls and Mote, Brunel Way, Bristol, October 2023Mr Crawls, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, October 2023Mr Crawls, M32 Spot, Bristol, October 2023Mr Crawls, St Werburghs, Bristol, September 2023Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, September 2023Mr Crawls, Brunel Way, Bristol, September 2023Mr Crawls, M32 roundabout, Bristol, Agust 2023Mr Crawls, Brunel Way, Bristol, August 2023Mr Crawls, St Werburghs, Bristol, May 2023
Mr Crawls and Mote, Dean Lane, Bristol, October 2024
Although they appear to have slowed down ever so slightly, Mote and Mr Crawls continue to keep us entertained with their creative monster collaborations. This one on the swimming pool wall has quite a festive feel about it, although it is a little early for Christmas, not that anyone told the supermarkets!
Mr Crawls, Dean Lane, Bristol, October 2024
Set on a gold background, which is a progression from their recent penchant for chrome, Mr Crawls has painted one of his bird characters, it might be a penguin, looking mighty cold, wearing a woolly hat and with icicles dangling from its bill. The coloured blobs dotted around the character work incredibly well, adding a dimension our feathered friend.
Mote, Dean Lane, Bristol, October 2024
Mote has created a monster unlike any other, but which holds a certain fascination in its unusualness. Some aspects of the character resemble ET, but I think that this is coincidental rather than planned. There is something a little haunting about this monster, which I guess is appropriate for the Halloween period.
Mr Crawls and Mote, Redcliffe Way, Bristol, October 2024
A quick one today as I need to get myself sorted for a day of fishing. This is a magnificent pair of characters from Mr Crawls and Mote… the gift that keeps on giving. The piece can be found on the hoardings opposite Temple Meads station.
Mr Crawls and Mote, Redcliffe Way, Bristol, October 2024
The trademark chrome background helps to lift the characters and give them prominence. A bird with a hat from Mr Crawls, and a lovesick monster from Mote. What’s not to like about these characters?
The curved wall in Dean Lane skate park is one of the most iconic and popular in Bristol as evidenced by the thick layers of paint that periodically peel off, often more than a centimetre thick. You can get a feel for the popularity of the wall from my updated ‘one wall many faces’ gallery of this wall
Mr Crawls, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2024
Mr Crawls has done us proud with one of his bird characters that have become so familiar around the city. One of the things that I love about his work is that he is constantly evolving and that even though he may return to former themes and subjects he always incorporates new elements that he has picked up along the way. This is a particularly attractive bird.
This is a wonderful one-off piece that simply appeared in Exeter Road recently, and is something of an enigma. It is by an artist, Greg Stobbs, who from what I can make out is an illustrator. It turns out on digging a bit deeper that Greg Stobbs is Squirl of Squirl Art, who has appeared on these pages in the context of his Upfest pieces.
Greg Stobbs, Exeter Road, Bristol, September 2024
I am guessing that the piece is a commission, perhaps brokered by the Upfest team. However it came to be painted, it is absolutely wonderful and straight out of the children’s picture book style of street art. The branch and bird look very much at home on this rather tatty wall, and I very much hope that we see more of Greg Stobbs’ illustrative work in Bristol before too long.
Natural adventures 