It feels like Maybe has slowed down just a tad with his frequency of work, but the quality has certainly improved since his early pieces first started appearing on the columns under Brunel Way.
Maybe, Brunel Way, Bristol, January 2021
This is a fine piece of two faces, one smoking a cigarette and the other a face in the smoke. The composition is thoughtful and tells a story, and the soft colours typical of the work of the artist. I recently published a gallery of Maybe’s work, so if you like this piece, the gallery is certainly worth a squint. One of the finds of 2021.
It is plain to see that coming back to work after a week away has hit me pretty hard, and I wasn’t able to prepare two posts before work this morning, and I have had to wait until now to get this second one out today. My apologies.
Enn Kay, Brunel Way, Bristol, January 2022
This is a nice and simple monster column piece from Enn Kay very nicely done. I do like monster painters, and we now have a couple vying for space in some of the Bristol spots. Enn Kay has managed to upsize his sketches really well, and each monster is different. There is plenty more to come from this new and prolific artist.
Painted a little while ago on a column shared with Andy Council is this magnificent crocodile piece from Rowdy. My first photographs of the piece weren’t very good so I have had to delay this post a while until I managed to get something a little better. The light conditions under Brunel Way are always a challenge.
Rowdy, Brunel Way, Bristol, January 2022
The bright and contrasting colours of this piece make it stand out, and it certainly grabs your attention, but I am not too sure what the significance of the medieval-style heraldry is all about. The crocodile gives away the artist, and it is always great to see a new Rowdy piece, as they don’t appear all that regularly. This is a fun column piece.
With this post I am going to reacquaint you with relative newcomer to Bristol Enn Kay, and the second of his recent Octopus monster pieces. Although I haven’t yet met the artist, I understand that he has only been painting walls since December last year. That is incredible when you think about it, as it can take years to reach this standard. Enn Kay is an illustrator who has been drawing his characters for a while, so he is familiar with them, but upscaling to spray paint and walls is no mean feat, and he has achieved it very well indeed.
Enn Kay, Brunel Way, Bristol, January 2022
The octopus-monster is set on a backdrop of stylised clouds, already introducing another layer of sophistication and his initials to the left are nicely done too. I love the mouth and teeth with the zig-zag running through it. There are many cartoon signature illustration techniques in this piece and Enn Kay has executed them really well. Look forward to more from the artist, I think he has a hunger for spray painting.
An artist whose work I really rate, but never seem to have many photographs of is Conrico, or Conrico Steez as he signs himself. I think that part of this discrepancy is that he paints many of his pieces in places that I don’t tend to go all that often. Anyhow I managed to snap this rather fun column piece under Brunel Way recently.
Conrico, Brunel Way, Bristol, December 2021
If I am honest, circular column pieces are a pain in the backside because of the difficulty in capturing the whole thing in one shot. I often think that it would be good if phones could do panoramas the opposite way round… if that makes sense, then columns would be a piece of cake. The character face has that Conrico life about it, derived from the style he uses which is like drawing with spray paint. Good to see.
Since changing his moniker from Eman to Werm, Werm has been getting busier and busier and is constantly developing his writing styles and his characters. One thing for sure is that he is a fast learner and adds weight to the saying ‘practice makes perfect’… he practices a lot.
3F fino and Werm (Eman), Cumberland Basin, Bristol, December 2021
This writing and character combo, by LRS crew members 3F fino and Werm, is under Brunel Way in, where the light conditions are always a massive challenge for taking photographs. The character is by 3F fino and I think is a bear or something from Star Wars or something. The writing by Werm uses his currently favoured heavy block letters, spelling WERM, which can be seen in multiple spots around the city. In recent years, the LRS crew have certainly made themselves highly visible in the city.
I mentioned in a recent post that Mudra has taken to painting columns, which is all well and good in terms of diversity and experimentation, but is a real pain for anyone, like me, wanting to capture the pieces (I was going to say on film) digitally.
Mudra, Brunel Way, Bristol, November 2021
This one under Brunel Way is a classic Mudra character, full of colour, with a red nose, glasses and a yellow moustache, and signed with his @ signature on the character’s forehead. Mudra has a style that is all his own and has made a strong impact since first hitting Bristol’s streets, just over a year ago – sometimes it feels like he has been forever, but he is still a relative noob in the city.
The Maybe (or MaybePaints) factory continues to churn out more high quality and charming face pieces under Brunel Way. Maybe has definitely carved out a niche for himself in Bristol’s street art scene and is becoming established for what he does, and all of this in under a year.
Maybe, Brunel Way, Bristol, September 2021
Due to his prolific painting I have to group his pieces. If I didn’t ether wouldn’t be enough room on Natural Adventures for anyone else. This first column piece combines ideas that the artist has had, with a series of three interlocking faces, the central orange one being sandwiched by two planetary space scenes.
Maybe, Brunel Way, Bristol, September 2021
Another theme running through Maybe’s work is aggregating profile faces into geometric shapes, and in this piece he has three kissing pairs on three sides of a cube, which is very nicely done, adding perspective to his work.
Maybe, Brunel Way, Bristol, September 2021
The third piece in this group is probably my favourite and is a little less structured. It is more of a story-telling piece with one of his face characters communicating or taking a selfie on his cell phone across an oceanic sunset. Beautiful and tranquil, it should perhaps be entitled ‘face time’. All great stuff from an artist I have yet to meet.
Zake is fast becoming one of the most prolific artists in Bristol. His wonderful stylised faces are appearing all over the place with regularity, and of course improving all the time. This lovely recent piece is at the curved end of the concrete support wall under Brunel Way.
Zake, Brunel Way, Bristol, November 2021
Zake’s work is typified by his extraordinary understanding of light and shadow, and the features on his faces are accentuated by the shading, gaining real depth. Often, his work will be under-lit or side-lit, but this one has a fairly uniform front-lit aspect. This piece is beautifully presented too.
I knew about this piece, by Lemak, a long time ago, but never actually knew exactly where it was. I never found out at the time and then forgot it had even existed, so I was super happy to find it a week or two back, and although it has been a bit tagged, the quality of the piece shines through.
Lemak, Brunel Way, Bristol, November 2021
Lemak is an artist who spends a lot of time in his studio, but occasionally he treats us with one of his highly complex multi-layered stencils on the streets. I’ve not seen anything new since lock down, but that doesn’t mean to say there hasn’t been anything.
This piece, on the Greville Smyth Park side of Brunel Way was painted way back in April 2019 and features Daddy’s Lil Monster, Harley Quinn, a DC comics character. Superb work from a superb artist.
