Cumberland Basin – Page 14 – Natural adventures

6233. Cumberland Basin

Karmone, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2024

Following on from the previous post, this piece by Karmone was painted during the same paint jam. Karmone is an occasional visitor to Bristol, from his home in Wales, and through his connections with Bristol artists, is invited to paint jams from time to time. As I always say on Natural Adventures, it is a constant pleasure to be able to welcome visiting artists to share their talent on our walls, adding to the mix.

Karmone has, like the others, followed the convention of colours for the collaborative wall, and added a sprinkling of orange and grey to liven up the base of the piece with some interesting yin-yang spherical designs. His letters are exceptional, spelling out KARM, with tidy fills and mid lines. The arrangement of the letters and the 3D shadows cast give them a great deal of depth and dynamism. Some great work from Karmone.

6232. Cumberland Basin

Rusk, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2024

Rusk is an established graffiti writer in Bristol who tends to paint in fits and starts these days. He is currently going through a rather productive phase at the moment, which is great news indeed. This piece in Cumberland Basin was created during a paint jam organised by Smak and the Art of Sok, a couple of weeks back.

The general colours of the collaborative wall were light blues and yellows, and Rusk certainly stuck to the task with this tight piece. Rusk is known for his dedication and diligence and his work is always beautifully turned out. The highlight of this piece for me is the purple thread that runs horizontally through all of the letters. A fine example of on-point graffiti writing.

6224. Cumberland Basin

Ments, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2024

This piece from Ments, painted as part of a wider paint jam, is a joy to behold. I am always going on about how we just don’t see enough of Ments’ work these days, and here is the second piece since May, the other being at Upfest. There is no doubt that Ments has pulled out all the stops with this one.

His characteristic ‘organic’ writing is full of mystery and shapes and textures of planet earth, like chemistry mixed up with geometry and art – a delightful combination. From what we see, there is no way of knowing what the letters spell, but it is probably a good guess to imagine that it says MENTS. There is so much to admire in the intricate details and interactions between the forms and colours in the piece. Outstanding.

6222. Cumberland Basin.

The Art of Sok and Smak, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2024

In the seventies I might have described this piece as ‘smashing’, and as a child of the seventies I am going to describe this outstanding collaboration between The Art of Sok and Smak as smashing. I was lucky enough to meet with and chat to both artists the night before they painted this wall as part of a larger jam, at Merny’s exhibition opening, which had a great turnout.

The two artists have worked together perfectly to produce this character/writing combination. Smak’s writing is absolutely sensational and in addition to that, he has created a perfect tropical sunset backdrop with The Art of Sok’s character presented in the foreground – beautifully comnposed.

The Art of Sok, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2024

During his short trip to Bristol, The Art of Sok, who it turns out is a lovely bloke, dropped a few pieces about the place which I will naturally post in due course. The cartoon-style character is pretty much perfect in its precision, which is how The Art of Sok rolls. He told me that he likes to get his finished pieces to resemble as closely as possible his draft, so it is all very much worked out in advance, and he has the skills to execute his plan to the letter. This is an excellent collaboration.

6199. Cumberland Basin

Dirtygypo, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2024

There are basically three kinds of ‘new’ artist in Bristol (or any other city I might suppose); those who are hitting walls for the first time having practiced or expanding beyond their art studios; those who are already established artists who move to Bristol or nearby and start painting; and those established artists who are simply visiting or passing through the city and drop a piece or two, because they can.

It turns out that Dirtygypo has been writing in Bristol for at least a couple of years but has only just appeared on my radar. I guess I will have to rifle through my archives to see if I have earlier photographs of his work. Perhaps he has been hitting some of the more popular spots, or his pieces are lasting longer, whatever the reason, he has become more established recently. His work is exciting, colourful and busy, with irregular letters each filled and decorated differently. I am not sure what the letters spell, but I really rather like the frenetic appearance. Watch this space for more from Dirtygypo.

6186. Cumberland Basin

Noise and Sait Bare, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2024

I have to say that this was not a collaboration that I was expecting, but that is the joy of documenting street and graffiti art in this fine city. Noise has collaborated with several different artists in Bristol, so why not collaborate with Sait Bare? The two artists have gone for a colour coordinated theme that carries through both of their graffiti writing.

Noise has painted the left hand side with his chunky NOISE letters, and Sait Bare has written BARE in his slightly unruly style – together they compliment each other perfectly. I would guess that the character in the middle was probably a combined effort, but without asking them I can’t be certain. This is a very nicely produced collaboration and great surprise.

6183. Cumberland Basin

Jaksta, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2024

We don’t get to see nearly enough of Jaksta’s caricature pieces in Bristol, so this one from a week or two back came as a bit of a welcome surprise. Based in Swindon, Jaksta makes a living from his art commissions, so his street work will be somewhat dictated by how busy he is, and he lives far enough away for his Bristol trips to only be occasional.

This portrait piece is in keeping with a slight shift in his work from caricatures of famous people to interesting and dynamic portrait pieces like this one. The piece is cartoon in style, although I can see a transition, perhaps, away from the humorous to a more serious and photorealistic direction. There is a lot of detail in the piece, which leaps out from the wall as being something rather special. I hope we don’t have to wait too long to see more like this from Jaksta.

6167. Cumberland Basin

Alos, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2024

I don’t think I have posted anything from Alos for rather a long time, so it was nice to encounter this small piece at the end of the long wall at Cumberland Basin. His rather loose anti-style writing appears to have been superimposed on another piece, and it looks like the fills in his letters are from that previous piece.

One could view this technique as lazy, but I prefer to think of it as opportunistic and illustrative of the perennial layering on the walls we know and love. The skill has been in how to make his letters ALOS rise above from the surrounding chaos, and I think he has succeeded.

6158. Cumberland Basin

Abbie Laura Smith, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, May 2024

There are two important elements to a great wheatpaste, which are; the quality of the artwork and the location. Abbie Laura Smith has nailed it on both counts with the Swiss cheese plant cut out portrait pasted onto one of the old bollards alongside the river – an immediate impact piece for those with their eyes open.

The black and white portrait drawing, makes great use of two-tone light and dark and is superimposed onto the leaf, before being cut out. It was so much to find this piece and some of the others she has pasted up in the area, and I hope that it encourages her and others to do more of this kind of stuff.

6157. Cumberland Basin

Mr Tanner, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, May 2024

I have mentioned before on Natural Adventures, how much visiting artists contribute to the spectrum of street and graffiti art that we see in the city, constantly adding to the diversity and culture of the scene. All visiting artists are welcome, and none more so than Mr Tanner, whose one-off unique pieces have brought some imagination and and sparkle to this wall in Cumberland Basin on several occasions.

I am not too sure where Mr Tanner is based, but he does appear to visit Bristol occasionally. The horse in this piece is a reverse silhouette on a black background, within which its skeleton appears, almost X-ray-like. There are two vertical lines of writing that accompany the piece, on the left, something in Japanese, and on the right the letters TOPIA constructed out of bones. Altogether this is an unusual and striking piece.

	scooj on Thursday doors – 5 Febru…
	scooj on Thursday doors – 5 Febru…
	scooj on 7449. Greenbank (180)
	skat on Thursday doors – 5 Febru…
	Dan Antion on Thursday doors – 5 Febru…

	scooj on Thursday doors – 5 Febru…
	scooj on Thursday doors – 5 Febru…
	scooj on 7449. Greenbank (180)
	skat on Thursday doors – 5 Febru…
	Dan Antion on Thursday doors – 5 Febru…

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