A quick couple of posts today. I am recovering from shingles – a very nasty affair – and return to work this morning with a rather large backlog of emails and messages to action. This mortal coil!
I have always had a big soft spot for Butch’s work, and this combination piece on the roundabout is a real beauty. His overlapping full cap letters are somewhat eclipsed by a dog/rabbit(?) riding a bicycle at haste. It is a wonderful piece of cartoon illustration full of energy and humour. Love it.
Tera, like many other artists, has awoken from his winter ‘recess’ and is painting with energy and regularity this spring, which is so good to see. This is a wonderful piece painted alongside fellow tattoo artist Kid Crayon.
The combination piece has a demon as the focal point with lettering either side of it spelling TERA. The light conditions and the style of Tera’s painting makes it a little difficult to make out the demon clearly, so I have included a close up of the central part to show off his detailed artwork.
It is fairly clear and obvious that Tera is a Tattooist who has picked up street art and is upscaling his work, and his co-worker Kid Crayon is an artist/designer and street artist who has down scaled his work into the tattoo art form. The more, the merrier I say.
Oh! My heart sings every time I see a new Kid Crayon piece. It is looking like 2026 is shaping up to be a productive one for the artist, and it seems like he has freed up a bit more time to paint than in recent years, which from my perspective is a good thing.
Kid Crayon has written his letters, each with a different colour and style, which makes for an interesting piece with plenty to look at and admire. SkyHigh is another artist who often adopts this approach. In this combination piece a character replaces the ‘O’ and floating just outside his mouth is the signature crayon – which is always good to see. More to come soon from one of my Bristol favourites.
You have to look hard to find this piece by Weas painted on the swimming pool wall behind the now lush hedge. The passageway here is quite narrow, so the photographs are on full wide-angle mode to capture the whole thing.
I think that I prefer Weas’ full combination pieces over his mega-tags that litter the streets of Bristol… there is even one on a utility box in my street. These more extensive pieces show us what he can do when he spends a little more time painting. The letters WEASEL in black across the bottom are accompanied by four (three purple) ghost-like characters weaving their way about. It is versions of these characters that are a familiar sight in the City. A nicely executed piece, hidden from view.
This is a curious piece by Tera painted at a recent paint jam on the roundabout. It doesn’t really matter how much I try to enhance the image, it is difficult to properly see what is going on without getting up really close. I think that Tera was so into creating the piece (perhaps with a tattooist’s mindset) that he has lost some of the clarity and story in the heavy detail. That is not to say it isn’t a fine piece, rather that it is difficult for the viewer to appreciate.
The combination piece has a dark and rather evil demonic character in the centre, with three eyes, large fangs and a long tongue. It is holding two swords that frame the middle section of the piece. The letters either side of the character spell out TERA, in a nicely crafted style. Overall, Tera shows his raw talent with this piece, but for me, it is a little busy and could do with toning down a bit. Lots more to share from him as he has been out and about a fair bit this spring.
It has taken me a long time to figure out the letters in this writing, and I am not too sure I would have done so without Paul H’s recent posting of a piece by the artist. The letters spell VERMO, but you have to study them pretty hard to figure it out, as they are deliberately deceptive. Once you know them you can see them, but it is that first time of working it out that takes the time.
I have a lot of Vermo’s pieces to share from my archives, but I decided to start with this combination piece alongside the river. Unusually this piece of writing includes a character, where most of his pieces contain only the ‘floating’ letters that are made up of component shapes, for example, both the ‘E’ and the ‘M’ are composed of three ovals of increasing size in different orientations. I wouldn’t quite know how to classify Vermo’s writing, but it might fall into the category of abstract graffiti writing, a bit like Mr Klue, but quite different in appearance. Watch this space for more from Vermo.
I wasn’t expecting to find much at L Dub the last time I went there, because I had it in my head that it tends to be fairly quiet there during the winter months. My assumption was rather scuppered though when I came across quite a few pieces I had never seen before, including this lovely classic style combination piece with a modern look by Veks.
The character is an update on the more traditional b-boy look, wearing a two blue tone hoodie and offering a fist bump with the letters ACAB tattooed on his knuckles. The writing too has a modern feel to it, spelling VEK!. The fill of the letters has a stone or rock appearance, with a couple of cracks running through, and the yellow (gold) drop shadow does an extraordinary at lifting the piece from the wall. Overall a great modern classic.
This spring has seen a surge of pieces by Kid Crayon, which from my perspective is always very welcome indeed. This X-Men piece was painted as part of a collaborative wall with SPZero76 and Tera.
This combination piece has a slightly different look from the curvy writing we are used to seeing from Kid Crayon who has adapted his style a little to fit with an X-Men appearance, which he has wholly bought into, so much so that he has dropped his signature floating crayon. The character is Cyclops, with his destructive laser eyes. Fun stuff.
Over the winter, Dibz has been reasonably quiet, but it is noticeable that the frequency of his newly painted pieces is beginning to pick up a little. Here he has teamed up with Rusk to create this fine combination collaboration
The collaboration is one of those where the colour palette is what joins them, with Dibz providing the writing and Rusk the character. This was an early birthday piece for Soker, so the letters spell SOKER. The colours blue and gold (yellow) work well together, and as ever, Dibz work is immaculate.
Rusk has plumped for a character piece rather than letters, but he is equally at home with either. The classic character with baseball cap and spraycan is holding a rather growly dog on a tight leish. The words say ‘every dog has its day’ – perhaps an oblique reference to Soker’s birthday. Altogether a nice piece from the pair.
This is the second piece that I found by Sumo in rather quick succession. I have been told that the artist might be one that is well known on the pages of Natural Adventures, but until I have confirmation, I’ll not mention who, if at all, because some artists value having multiple personas.
Basically, what you see is what you get with this combination piece by Sumo. A large wrestler accompanied by the letters SUMO. I particularly like the well observed Hawaiian shirt worn by the big guy. Definitely something a little different around town.
Natural adventures 