Mr Penfold and Mul, East Street, Bristol, April 2025
This is a recent picture of a piece that I think was painted during Upfest last year, when Mul was visiting and dropped a few pieces about town. Here he has teamed up with Mr Penfold to create a fun and colourful collaboration.
Mr Penfold and Mul, East Street, Bristol, April 2025
Mul is known for his heart characters with legs and an eye. I’m not sure where Mul calls home, but occasional visits to Bristol are always very welcome. Mr Penfold is perhaps more commonly associated with his abstract commissions on shopfronts, but he intermittently produces these wonderful cartoon characters, presumably for fun. A tidy collaboration.
I am writing this from a tired Travelodge in Warrington, having watched Arsenal lose to PSG in the second leg of the Champions League Semi Final in an equally tired and slightly empty Irish Pub. I have had a long day, and still have this blog post to write. At least I am writing about this fabulous Mad Hatter piece in the tunnel by Mr Klue.
Mr Klue, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2025
I think Mr Klue painted this as a bit of an extra, after he has finished another piece that I watched him complete. He is on a roll this year and has been churning out some great pieces. I particularly like these little characters that he paints and I have seen several of them over the years. This character is a little more solid than his ephemeral abstract writing and manages to convey a certain amount of mystery and intrigue.
I am always reminded when I see this character, of a wonderful double LP that me and my sister had as children, which was a musical version of Alice in Wonderland, and thanks to the Interweb, here is a picture of it. Try and find an online version to listen to, you won’t regret it.
Alice in Wonderland album cover. A brilliant musical version with a star-studded cast.
It is a pity that Slakarts doesn’t appear to have much time for painting his stylised character pieces these days, but on the upside it probably means that he has a busy work and social life that is keeping him occupied. It is a bittersweet problem that real life can get in the way of the things we love to do with our ‘free’ time.
Slakarts, M32 roundabout, Bristol, April 2025
This is a welcome return of the Slakarts face that is so familiar, as you can see in this updated gallery of his work. The character face has two tongues, a duplication device often used by Slakarts, is bordered with a strong, thick red line and filled with nicely worked patterns in yellow and white. A welcome return from Slakarts.
It is always a pleasure when DFC1848 comes to visit, and sometimes I even manage to catch up with him, but unfortunately not on his most recent visit, during which he dropped a few pieces about the place, including these ones.
DFC1848, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2025
He has become an accomplished character painter, coming up with a raft of different cartoon-style creatures for us to enjoy. I’m not sure what this little fellow is, a beaver? A meerkat? It doesn’t really matter. The animal is holding up a placard which simply reads ‘smile’. Unfortunately, yellow text on a white background is a real ‘no no’ in the world of communications, as for many people it is difficult to pick out the writing.
DFC1848, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2025
Not content with his first creature, DFC1848 also painted a ‘sticker’ character a few yards away, for good measure. Decent fun stuff.
Minto has a very distinctive style, and his writing tends to be a vehicle for combining a collage of characters and icons, bringing together an eclectic selection of thoughts and ideas into a single piece.
Minto, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, April 2025
In this piece, Minto has gone for some solid fills, a different colour for each letter, and has used the parallel horizontal lines on the wall to proportion everything. His character looks a little sinister to me, as if he is up to no good. This is a well-presented piece from a very accomplished graffiti writer.
Tucked away behind the iron fence of the swimming pool at Dean Lane is this fabulous collaboration combination piece from Werm and Zake. Werm, more than adequately providing the symmetrical letters, and Zake offering a couple of different cheeky characters peering over the top of them.
Werm and Zake, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2025
The horizontal band colour scheme, painted on an off-white background, works really well, and Zake has cleverly incorporated the band of colour into his characters. I’m not quite sure what it is about it, but this feels like a really classy piece to me, and I really like it.
This is an outstanding piece of graffiti writing from Minto, and is a great example of what is not there as being as important as what is there – if that makes any kind of sense. There is a lot of empty space alongside multiple illustrations and decorations throughout.
Minto, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2025
The letters spell out MINTO, and there are some regular motifs that the artist has used before, such as the character and a pair of sneakers at the base of the letter M. I’m not sure whether there is a coherent story or whether the piece is simply a collection of ideas and thoughts bundled up together. Either way, there is plenty to look at in this energetic piece.
Although I have only posted one other piece by Coloquix before, I am familiar with the artist’s work, and have been following their Instagram feed for years. I was surprised to find this painted shutter piece, because More often I am used to seeing wheatpastes by Coloquix.
Coloquix, Kitchen Street, Liverpool, March 2025
The stylised character is the trademark of the artist, and here she nestles in a quarter moon with a friendly face. The horizontal bars of colour run across the piece nicely and overall it is a happy soulful piece and a good find during my stroll in Liverpool.
In the Dean Lane skate park there are a lot of ramps and slopes that provide a perfect canvass for street artists. There are two drawbacks: the first is that they are a challenge to paint and the second is that they get scuffed up pretty quickly by the skating, scootering and biking activity.
Zake, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2025
I think I got to this cheeky Zake portrait piece reasonably soon after it was painted, because it is in quite good condition. This is a classic Zake portrait, with lots of expression, and plenty of contours and depth. A fine small piece from the cartoon character specialist.
It will not have escaped regular readers’ attention that I am thoroughly enjoying the development of Lis (Le Imposter Design). Her work is increasing in both volume and scope, and she is broadening her horizon from the ‘safe space’ of mushrooms and toadstools.
Lis, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, April 2025
I didn’t really notice this piece the first time I walked past it, and it was only on returning along the path a few minutes later that I stopped and registered it was by Lis. It is a rather nice monster character piece, looking like a teddy bear that is having a ‘bad hair’ day. Lots of fun, and experimenting with something new. Such has been her prolific painting, I will soon be able to publish a gallery of her work, which should give an indication of her rapid transition to spray paints. Keep it up, Lis.
Natural adventures 