Squire is another artist who has had a good 2025. I know little of him, and I expect he might prefer to keep it that way. These days he tends to collaborate with another artist, but I don’t know who it is and can’t read the letters, so to date I haven’t posted any.
This is a decent chrome piece with a thin white and thick red border, set on a yellow backdrop. These are good, strong colours which help to draw the eye. Looking forward to more from the graffiti writer in 2026.
Productivity underneath Brunel Way, a flyover which offers several concrete walls and pillars, has dipped in recent months, due to the ‘occupation’ of the main walls by high-end productions or tributes, both of which tend to have longevity. The knock-on effect is that people don’t go down there to paint much, and nothing will change for a while, until those walls get tagged or re-painted.
Fortunately, the odd piece is still being painted, mainly on the pillars and smaller flat surfaces and this is yet another beauty from Creamylines who, it has to be said, has had a purple patch this year. The landscape in this one is mountainous, and reminds me of the film title ‘The Hills Have Eyes’… I wonder why. All the ingredients are there for a classic Creamylines piece, and I like the addition of his text ‘Drawing Everythings’.
This futuristic cityscape by Conrico has made it straight into my favourites for 2025. It was painted over the central section of a three-way collaboration by Sled One, Oust and Stivs, and if you look closely to the right side of this piece, you’ll see a shout-out to Oust.
There is so much depth in this piece, not only literally with the deep perspective of the street scene, but also emotional depth. Conrico depicts a world without humans, who have been replaced by AI robots, who have inherited the ordinariness and drudgery of their human forebears. It feels like a direct replacement, rather than the shiny new world we are being promised by Elon Musk and the like, and presents an alternative view of the future.
The mural is full of pathos, perhaps epitomised by the touching scene in the foreground where a robot is crouching to pet a cat, a real cat. All of this scene is painted with Conrico’s unique style that looks like the whole thing was painted with brush strokes. This is a truly outstanding work. Bravo Conrico, Bravo!
Hurrah! I have waited a long while for Haka to continue his series of Children’s picture book pieces, and here, underneath the busy Brunel Way flyover, is a superb piece from the Janet and Allen Ahlberg book series ‘Funnybones’. This is not the first Funnybones piece that Haka has painted, and I genuinely hope it isn’t the last.
What I like about these pieces by Haka is the way he remains loyal to the original artwork while having just a hint of his own style in there. The ‘forever’ shout-out to CK1 and to Jesse and Remy negates the need for a signature, but he has signed the piece nonetheless. Great work from Haka.
I came across this outstanding collaboration, intending to photograph its predecessor by Dibz and Fade who I had watched painting their collaboration, but as I have said, you snooze, you lose in this game and when I returned it had been painted over by this masterpiece. I think that this is probably my favourite collaboration of the year so far, oozing with talent.
To the left, Sled One has painted one of his magnificent cartoon-style creations, heavily loaded with political commentary. The piece is reflecting the rather unsettling rise of the appropriation of the St George Cross to represent anti-immigration (and for some, racist) sentiments, purporting to be patriotism. This is another division stoked up by the right wing parties, Reform and the Conservatives, as a wedge issue from which they expect to benefit.
Anti-immigration and racist sentiments are not particularly well-supported in Bristol, and Sled One has illustrated a large shoe squashing a gammon (“gammon” is a derogatory slang term for middle-aged, often ruddy-faced, white men who are perceived as being nationalistic, anti-immigrant, and particularly supportive of Brexit) attempting to paint a St George cross on the sole of the shoe. He is being squished. If only it was that simple to moderate this rise in anti-foreigner narrative masquerading as patriotism.
The middle section of this triptych is a superbly colourful piece of graffiti writing by Oust, spelling out OUSTER. Beautiful letters, beautiful fill colours, some nice flame bursts and bubbly background. A first-class piece of writing.
On the right is an outstanding cartoon portrait piece by Stivs, which I think is one of his best, and that is a high bar indeed. The stylised portrait draws on the Japanese anime genre and has so much movement and attitude about it. The piece is beautifully executed and looks like it could be a still from a film.
As I said before, an outstanding collaboration. Bravo! Sled One, Oust and Stivs.
This little wall (the remains of a waterworks outbuilding) can be seen from the Brunel Way flyover, and so it is quite easy to spot when it has been repainted. I confess that when I first saw the piece from a distance, I thought it was by Mote, having many of the characteristics of his artwork. On closer inspection, though, I had doubts and considered it might be a Mote/Mr Crawls combo. It turns out that it is a Mr Crawls solo piece.
The character is unlike anything I have seen from Mr Crawls before, and the hatching in the pupils of the eyes (a Mote thing) definitely caught me out. The ghostly character looks slightly downbeat, but has something about it that makes it quite compelling. It will be interesting to see if this is an idea that Mr Crawls will develop further.
This tidy little piece of graffiti writing is Dirtygypo’s contribution to a tribute wall painted in honour of Dorns recently. I betray my lack of knowledge at times like this when I say that I am not entirely sure that I ever met Dorns nor featured any of their work in Natural Adventures. What is clear from this wall is that Dorns was well-loved and respected by many in the graffiti community in Bristol.
What is deeply frustrating from my perspective is that I find it quite easy to read the letters DORNS in this piece, but I can’t decipher the letters used in Dirtygypo’s normal writing. There are some great colours in this piece, and a rather special 3D drop shadow in purple with pink dots. A thin white highlight enhances the feeling of depth. RIP Dorns.
The DoorDie club have painted a few collaborative walls this year of which, this might be the best. We are familiar with Kid Crayon and Tera’s work but perhaps less so with the remaining collaborating artists, Umbrelle, Emchoux and El Ruby Tatoo.
We start with an eye-catching black and white vampire portrait from Umbrelle, which includes a fine pair of bat wings. Alongside this character piece is a smaller vampire by Emchoux. Both artists are tattoo artists, which explains their work as resembling tattoo flash sheets.
Next up are two pieces of writing from Kid Crayon in a Gothic style, resonating with the vampire theme, which spell out ‘do’ and ‘die’, he didn’t have room to paint the ‘or’. It is unusual for Kid Crayon to write letters like this, but he has done a great job.
Taking up centre stage is a satanic piece by Tera. It is worth noting that Tera has only been spray painting for a few months, and is already turning out epic pieces like this one. There is a bit of glare in the photograph which is a little unfortunate.
The final piece in this collaboration is by El Ruby Tattoo, featuring a character who looks like a female fawn, complete with horns and pointy elf-like ears. A perfect end piece to this impressive collaboration.
I like artists whose style is so unique, and their theme unwavering, that I derive a warm, comforting feeling when I see their work. Creamylines is the epitome of this. You know that you are going to get a landscape or scene with a rising or setting sun in the style of a stained-glass window, scattered with little treats and surprises along the way.
Creamylines has presented this landscape in a portrait format to fit onto the concrete column. The colour palette has stuck to blues, yellows, greens and purples and has quite a different appearance to some of his other pieces that include reds and oranges… more sombre, perhaps. Lots of hidden faces in this one and plenty of birds. There is a little clue to his approach to his art is at the bottom: ‘drawing everythings’.
I am a little bit short on time for today’s posts, so this is going to be a quick one. I think that this might be the last piece in a delightful display of stencils painted by RA on a visit to Bristol, probably in July, on the columns under Brunel Way.
This incredible spider piece might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it has style and impact through its design and powerful red and black colour selection. It would be great to welcome RA back to Bristol sometime.
Natural adventures 