It is quite by accident, but wholly appropriate, that I should follow up a piece by Bnie with a piece by Evey. The two artists are part of the RBF crew and often paint alongside one another.
Evey, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, September 2022
I consider this to be Evey’s best piece that I have seen so far. The green palette set on the red background works exceptionally well and makes it difficult not to notice the piece. Large bold letters, filled with a clever array of greens and a thick black 3D border combine well. There are some nice sharp lines, in particular at the base of the first ‘E’ and the white highlight is subtle, but helps to lift the letters. Upwards and onwards… it is great to watch on at the improvement as it happens.
This is the first piece I have posted by Vozie, an artist from Cardiff, and inspiration to many female artists in the area. Up until this year I hadn’t really been aware of her work, but since Upfest, I have noticed a few of her pieces about the place.
Vozie, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, September 2022
Vozie is an extremely good writer, as this piece demonstrates and has all the features you might expect to see from a talented and experienced writer. The whole piece is really tight, with stunningly crisp lines and borders, but it is the design, colour selection and faded fills that ooze class in this piece. I am so pleased to introduce Vozie to the pages of Natural Adventures with an absolute belter.
Laic217, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, September 2022
This piece from Laic217 was painted while I was away on my family summer holiday, but I was more than aware of its existence due to the fact that it was all over the Bristol Instagram feeds that I follow. Of course, on my return home, I made a beeline for the spot in Cumberland Basin.
Laic217, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, September 2022
There is something rather striking about the portrait piece, and I have a feeling the background pattern has a lot to do with it. The portrait itself is a classic piece of Laic217 art, disturbing and menacing, with the figure clan in a full mask and goggles. It has a dystopian future feel about it.
If you take a look at Pl8o’s work over the last few years, it is clear to see that he has made significant progress, added characters to his work and great sophistication in his letters, which are becoming more and more elaborately disguised.
Pl8o, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2022
This recent offering from Pl8o Is beautifully designed and carefully painted with some interesting colour transitions vertically and horizontally. It is the letter designs that steal the show though, he really seems to be putting a lot more thought into these designs. A nice piece from Pl8o.
Dave Sharp and #DFTE, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2022
Sometimes street art is edgy, sometimes political, and sometimes just great fun, and this collaboration by Dave Sharp and #DFTE falls into that latter category. The two pieces on a black buffed wall leap out at you, and it is a sour old soul that couldn’t find something to like about it.
Dave Sharp and #DFTE, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2022
To the left is a fabulous SpongeBob SquarePants piece, by an artist I don’t think I have come across before, Dave Sharp, and what a great job he has done, bringing the children’s cartoon character to life. To the right is a typical philosophical phrase from #DFTE, albeit in a much larger format than his smaller framed pieces. “Happiness is being confidently weird” – I think I can live with that. Nice drips, by the way.
From time to time, the street art community is rocked by the death of one of their fold. It might be felt by everyone or by just a few close friends. When it happens, it is common to produce tribute pieces for the departed friend, and some artists keep the tribute alive for days, weeks, months or even years, for example Haka keeping the memory of his friend CKone in our minds in most of his pieces even now.
Stivs, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2022
This is one of several tribute pieces for Sear by Stivs, and there are several other tributes about the place. I haven’t ever really encountered Sear before, but he was a graffiti writer and close friend of Stivs’. This piece is a fine tribute, beautifully structured and proportioned and the colour combinations perfect. A work of love.
Sometimes, when a piece has been tagged, you have to look beyond the tag and see the piece for what it is underneath the disrespectful scrawl. Inca (the mole) is an artist whose work I simply don’t seem to come across all that often, so when I do, I like to publish it, even if tagged.
The Mole, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2022
Inca on this occasion has painted his mole character, although sometimes he writes INCA, so it helps to know what to look out for. Inca’s mole character is most endearing, and the simplicity of the piece supports the maxim that sometimes less is more. The mole outline seems to have been superimposed on a sunrise landscape, with some lovely horizontal colour transitions, and of course, there is always the subliminal Ukraine flag when blue sits above yellow. A nice piece tucked away.
All I can think of when I see this creature is that it looks like a Mote version of Big Bird. I am pretty certain that it was not his intention, but like an earworm, I just can’t shake it off, so I’ll just have to settle for that.
Mote, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2022
There is no stopping Mote at the moment, and I seem to be meeting him on a fairly regular basis these days – our clocks appear to be in sync. I like the way that Mote really seems to take care with his work, and likes to buff the wall first, before carefully putting down the layers of his piece. Always finished nicely, his work is tight – no blurred lines, no sloppiness, tight.
This piece by Serm, tells a story not only about his work, but also about the street art scene in Bristol, or any other place with a graffiti culture. As a photographer and chronicler of street art and graffiti in our city, I and others like me, have a pretty good grasp of what is going on, of who painted what and when. It is an earned privilege to have this overview, but it is also a rare one. Most artists, quite rightly, are interested in finding a spot where they can paint their new idea, without much consideration for what was there before.
I came to photograph a new piece by Petro, but instead found this lovely piece by Serm. It is obvious that Serm didn’t know that the Petro piece was so new, otherwise he would have perhaps found another space. Serm has, however, broken a convention by painting over half a piece, which is considered to be a bit rude. A collaboration might have been a better option to paint over Petro’s piece. Enough background.
Serm, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2022
I have only seen a handful of Serm pieces and none of them with a character, so this was rather special. The writing is skilfully done in white with some shades of grey fills, but overall rather minimalist. The colour comes in the shape of the Yosemite Sam character on the right-hand side.
Serm, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2022
I am minded to do a gallery of cartoon characters, just for fun, because there have been so many painted by artists over the years, and all of them worth celebrating (of course time will be the limiting factor). The last time I saw a Yosemite Sam was in New York in October 2017, by Crash. This one by Serm compares very well to that one.
Anyone who reads this blog will know that Mr Underbite, who only emerged on the Bristol scene earlier this year, has become a firm favourite of mine. The character is nicely thought out and now the artist is playing with this concept in this fun piece in Cumberland Basin.
Mr Underbite, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2022
Mr Underbite has created a mash-up of his character (of the same name), with the SpongeBob SquarePants character Patrick Star, which is probably not a combination that would naturally spring to mind. The outcome is mildly grotesque, but both elements easily identifiable. I look forward to plenty more of these mash-ups, if indeed it is a direction that Mr Underbite chooses to go in.
Natural adventures 