Brunel Way – Page 13 – Natural adventures

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Fade, Jody and Dibz, Brunel Way, Bristol, August 2023

We are blessed in Bristol to have so many outstanding graffiti artists, and I have to remind myself how privileged we are to be able to enjoy such awesome free art, that most towns and cities in the country simply don’t get to experience. Three of the best artists, Dibz, Jody and Fade combined to give us this amazing Ghostbusters triptych, alongside Ryder, whose piece I will post soon.

To the left in spooky blue and green colours is writing by Fade, but just to confuse things, he has written DIBZ in a sot of mutual respect thing going on between the artists. Underneath are the letters RDA and RFK, which, if I am honest, I don’t know what they stand for, but are presumably crew names. Great crisp clean letters with a glow of green ghostly ectoplasm.

In the middle is a piece by Jody, which convinces me that he is one of the most talented and versatile character/portrait artists in Bristol, has painted Slimer, the iconic ghost from the film franchise. The fact that this year Jody has painted a range of pieces including a demon, a hooded woman, a renaissance portrait (using brushes) Barbie and now Slime, simply demonstrates that he can turn his hand to pretty much anything.

To the right, the letters from Dibz are as perfect as ever. Dibz has been smashing it all year long and shows no signs of slowing down. He is painting so fast that some of his pieces are getting left behind in my archive – an unthinkable state of affairs. Yet another epic wall in this year of epic walls.

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Mr Underbite, Brunel Way, Bristol, August 2023

Absolutely brilliant! It feels like a long time since Mr Underbite last hit the streets and here he is on a wall that he has occupied at least twice before now. Looking splendid on a lavender background, this black and white version of our hero looks very fine.

There are a number of similarities between the look and feel of Mr Underbite, and Asre’s character portraits from a year or two back, but I think I have come to the conclusion that they are not the same artist. In this piece our hapless friend is wearing a flat beanie, the best kind, which we used to call a Bennie hat, after the character in Crossroads. Indeed, the rather unflattering name that the squaddies in the Falkland Islands bestowed upon the Falklanders was ‘Bennies’ a term that had become naturalised by the time I arrived there in 1987.

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It was while he was finishing off this writing/character piece that I first met Bean, and what a decent bloke he is too. We chatted for a while, and I was impressed by his knowledge of other artists in the city, which believe me, isn’t always the case with graffiti writers or street artists, who can sometimes be locked into their own work or crew and immediate friends.

I don’t know where Bean refined his skills before coming to Bristol, but he has definitely hit the ground running with immaculately finished work. This piece combines his character skills with a lovely piece of writing in great colours. The whole thing might have benefited from buffing the wall, to help it stand out a little from the fairly busy wall beneath it. There is an awful lot to like about this piece, and indeed the others that are adjacent to it. For a short while, this stretch of wall was ‘owned’ by Bean. I am definitely enjoying what he has to offer, and look forward to more from him.

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It was a great pleasure to meet Bean for the first time recently, and this was one of the three pieces he has painted side by side under Brunel Way on three separate occasions. It really is important to emphasise just how good an artist Bean is, and what a significant impact he is making on the Bristol scene in such a short time, having only arrived in the spring this year.

Bean is equally comfortable with characters or writing, and here he has combined both. His original characters are creative and imaginative and always on point. Solid fills, great shading and sharp lines contribute to well worked and finished pieces. This particular character appears to be popping out of a spray can, like a Jack-in-a-box, holding a spray can of the same colour. The letters are fabulous too, with great fills and some cool shading at the edges to give a 3D effect. Altogether this piece showcases the talents of this remarkable artist.

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Mr Crawls, Brunel Way, Bristol, August 2023

It turns out that Mr Crawls is much more than a one trick pony, as I suspected, and has been painting different variants of his bird portrait mega-tags. The first one to appear in Natural Adventures was a Gull called Gul, then a parrot. This fun bird is ‘The Goose’.

The Goose can be identified by the shape of his beak, his rather droopy eyes, and a distinctive winter hat with ear flaps. The cartoon character has been painted beautifully with clean lines and strong solid fills. I have the set of three birds so far, and plenty of unpublished gulls… I wonder what other designs Mr Crawls might have up his sleeve.

5429. Brunel Way (223)

This piece from Conrico is the second in a long wall paint jam collaboration with a dystopian future theme. The first piece was a ‘Terminator-style’ crocodile but Kool Hand. Conrico, who has a wonderful natural style, has painted a female figure handling a futuristic gun and standing in front of a four-wheel drive vehicle with its headlights on.

There is tons of atmosphere in this piece, and in common with other Conrico pieces, there is a great story going on here. The dark buildings in the background and rubble to the left of the piece, speak of a war zone, in the narrative of many films in this genre. I can’t help thinking that there is a little bit of Sarah Connor (The Terminator) in the character, which intentional or not is a good thing. A nice touch is a shout out to Dibz and Fade whose epic piece was painted over during this paint jam.

Kool Hand, Conrico, Werm, Korbe and Daz Cat, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2023

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Kool Hand, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2023

Only a few days ago I was talking about the frequency of epic paint jam walls, and this is another example from a Bristol group of artists, including the ever improving Kool Hand. The artist returns to one of his favoured animal characters, a crocodile, for this fun animated piece, which perhaps takes a little inspiration from the Terminator movies.

The crocodile, with a peeled back face, revealing a robotic skeleton, is holding a ‘boogie box’ or ghetto blaster on his left shoulder and clutching a spray can in his right hand. The piece is nicely finished, and is a bit of a ‘stretch’ piece for Kool Hand whose work is becoming more diverse and creating narratives. The full collaborative wall is below:

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It was an enormous pleasure to meet Bean for the first time recently in this exact spot. He was painting a third piece alongside this and another one. The young artist hasn’t been in Bristol very long, but his character pieces have already made an impression, and he is fast building a reputation. It is funny that some artists don’t seem to know too much about the other artists around them, but it would seem that Bean is aware and admires the work of many artists in the city, and much of our conversation focussed on the art scene here.

This piece depicts, in a fabulous cartoon style, a young man complete with spray can in hand, setting about spraying some graffiti. There is something almost old-school about this piece that makes it the work of more than just a character piece, there is a sense of heritage blended with the contemporary. The piece is great fun and really nicely finished. If he carries on like this, Bean has a fantastic street art future ahead of him.

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Fade and Dibz, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2023

Only a few days ago I spoke about how many whole-wall epic collaborations there have been this year, and this huge wall is all the more impressive given that the whole thing was painted by only two artists, Fade and Dibz.

Fade appears to be something of a force of nature with both the quality and quantity of pieces he has been painting recently, and he appears to be equally comfortable with writing and characters. I have to confess that I am not 100 percent certain who painted each element of the wall, but I’ll have a go. I think the fox and the MOFO writing in white are by Fade.

The vampire style character I have a feeling might have been painted by Dibz… it certainly has the crispness and quality that I would associate with his work, although equally, Fade might have crafted it.

The next section of writing would appear to be by Fade, but having said that it might be by Dibz, doing that thing where he writes another artist’s name. The cartoon duck is fabulous, but I can’t place him.

The next section of writing is definitely by Dibz… there are very few artists who could replicate his superb wildstyle graffiti writing.

Rounding off the whole collaboration is a little scene with a cartoon dog and mid-west style farm house painted to perfection. The whole collaboration is utterly awesome and frankly it is difficult to process how they managed to pull it off so well. Bravo!

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Fade, Dibz and Rusk, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2023

2023 has been the year of epic collaborations, under Brunel Way, at Dean Lane and at other spots in Bristol as well. Quite why there have been so many collaborations and paint jams this year is not clear, but perhaps it has something to do with being in a post-Covid era where friendships have been refreshed and cemented. Friendships and relationships have perhaps never been so important as we navigate our way through a period of political and social instability with the terrifying backdrop of war, and the biodiversity and climate crises.

Fade, Dibz and Rusk have joined up to paint this Pink Panther themed wall. Fade has hit the ground running since arriving in Bristol a few months ago, and is fast becoming a regular presence on the walls of south Bristol. Equally at home painting letters or characters, Fade has created a fabulous Blue Aardvark accompanied by some superb pink writing spelling out FADE, all finished immaculately.

In the middle of the collaboration is some outstanding writing from Dibz flanked on the left with a beautifully depicted Pink Panther and on the right by Rusk’s Inspector. The blue and pink colour combination once again proving to be an absolute winner.

Finally, to the right, is the Rusk piece painted in a typically classy style from one of my favourite writers in the city. Rusk’s continuous, joined-up letters are filled with pink and tan colours that fade beautifully, the bottom half of which has a kind of metallic bronze appearance. This is a highly accomplished and enjoyable collaboration from some of Bristol’s very best. We are truly blessed.

	Cethru Cellophane on 7412. BB Gallery (11)
	scooj on 7408. Greenbank (177)
	Cethru Cellophane on 7408. Greenbank (177)
	scooj on Thursday doors – 15 Janu…
	scooj on Thursday doors – 15 Janu…

	Cethru Cellophane on 7412. BB Gallery (11)
	scooj on 7408. Greenbank (177)
	Cethru Cellophane on 7408. Greenbank (177)
	scooj on Thursday doors – 15 Janu…
	scooj on Thursday doors – 15 Janu…

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