5955. Cumberland Basin

Marckinetic and Kid Krishna, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, April 2024
Marckinetic and Kid Krishna, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, April 2024

Two things to notice immediately about this wonderful collaboration from Marckinetic and Kid Krishna. The first is the diabolical weather – it feels like it has been raining all winter, and is something of a miracle that artists have been painting in quite the frequency that they have and the second is the bright yellow background drawing attention to the pieces.

Marckinetic, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, April 2024
Marckinetic, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, April 2024

On the left, Marckinetic has painted one of his FFS pieces in his unusual writing style using elongated straight-lined squares and rectangles to form his letters. The letter fill has a clever marbelled effect, and the very deep black drop shadow is filled with an inky night sky with yellow stars and suns. Lovely and original work from Marckinetic

Kid Krishna, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, April 2024
Kid Krishna, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, April 2024

To the right is a rather more densely packed array of shapes and forms making out the letters CRIE. There is loads of colour and activity in the letters, which at times is almost overwhelming, and this is sometimes what you get with his work. Other times he will paint something so simple, he has it all in his armoury. There are lots of FFS tags all over the piece and a little “Four Five Six” to help us along with one of the acronyms for FFS.

5936. Cumberland Basin

Mr Crawls and Mote, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024
Mr Crawls and Mote, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024

One of the great joys of the last six months has been the thriving partnership between Mote and Mr Crawls. Rarely do you get the chance to watch on as two artistic talents arrive at a confluence and thrive as collaborators, while maintaining their individual identities.

Mr Crawls and Mote, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024
Mr Crawls and Mote, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024

This collaboration, on the ‘wet wall’ on the north side of the river underneath Brunel Way features two toothy monsters set on a chrome background (a strong feature of their recent work). On the left, Mr Crawls has a go, and smashes it, at painting a monster, which is a bit of a departure from his birds. The purple-faced monster, in spite of the array of sharp teeth, looks gentle enough. On the right Mote has created a monster, also with sharp teeth, in which the fill patterns give the piece away as one of his. As I have said before, they tend to bounce ideas off one another, and you can see how they have both shared an approach to painting the eyelids. So much fun from these two.

5933. Cumberland Basin

Conrico, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024
Conrico, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024

Conrico has been turning out some sensational pieces lately, and what is interesting about this one is that he posted on his Instagram feed some sketches of the animated Chinese lantern before painting this wall, which goes to show how much thought goes into the pieces that artists paint.

Conrico, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024
Conrico, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024

The letters CONRICO are superimposed on what looks like an afternoon landscape with the lantern on the left and a building on the right. As ever, Conrico’s artwork looks like it is painted with a brush rather than a spray can, and I imagine he paints with lots of short controlled sprays to achieve this effect. There is character writing on the side of the building, hinting at an East Asian scene. Wonderful stylised clouds finish off this fine combination piece from Conrico.

5930. Cumberland Basin

Bean, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024
Bean, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024

I suspect that this is just a little taster of what is to come from Bean later on this year, as he dropped a couple of pieces during what I suspect was an early spring break from his studies. His work is really developing well, and his stylised cartoon characters are each so unique.

Bean, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024
Bean, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024

I like the way that Bean has added a bit of a buffer around his character, allowing it to stand out a little better from the ‘noise’ or artwork that he has overpainted, it certainly makes a significant difference to the outcome. I would love to see some of his work on a fully buffed wall, maybe this summer. This piece is a cracker, and the character feels really animated, with lots of movement in his hair and from the spray can.

5928. Cumberland Basin

Laic217, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024
Laic217, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024

Once again, Laic217 seems to be pushing the envelope with his work, most recently with this unusual piece in the little tunnel at Cumberland Basin. Although the fingers of thee character are a little bony, there isn’t a skull or skeleton in sight.

Laic217, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024
Laic217, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024

The way that this piece has been painted, it almost loos like oils on a canvass, slapped on in layers. Laic217 has worked cleverly to achieve depth in perspective, but also depth in textures through his use of dark and shade. I don’t know what the arrow represents, but it looks great. It is a nice touch to with the letters LAIC tattooed onto the fingers. Classy stuff.

5916. Cumberland Basin

Mind 49, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024
Mind 49, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024

It seems that as soon as I post a piece by Mind 49, I get to photograph another one, such is the rate at which he is painting at the moment. His portrait pieces always have a sense of mystery about them, with the faces often being partially obscured. He leaves much to the imagination, which is clever stuff really, and which reminds me a little of Caro Pepe’s approach to her art.

Mind 49, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024
Mind 49, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024

This is a writing/portrait combination which is really striking in its orange and red colouring. I am not sure that the portrait is of anyone specific, and in his Instagram feed Mind 49 says that this was ‘experimenting’. Well it seems to have been a successful experiment from what I can see. More to come soon.

5913. Cumberland Basin

Andy Council and Acer One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024
Andy Council and Acer One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024

Andy Council and Acer One are having a productive 2024, which is so good to see, and this is one of several collaborations that they have painted recently. This one is a bit of a play on words, altering the well known cliché ‘one love’ to ‘one dove’ and illustrating it accordingly.

Andy Council, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024
Andy Council, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024

The dove (rock pigeon), rather hidden behind a bush, is beautifully painted by Andy Council, and has beautifully captured the colouring of the bird, and represented the iridescence of the collar with greens, reds, oranges and yellows. The typical style that Andy Council uses includes the ‘stitching together’ of component parts with threaded lines. Great pink feet.

Acer One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024
Acer One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024

The writing is by Acer One, and deliberately or otherwise reflects the raining above the piece, with the vertical lines dominating. The stylised letters are beautifully picked out with the use of a dark shadow dropped behind them, giving them a bit of a lift. This is another wonderful collaboration and continuation of this purple patch the artists seem to be enjoying.

5906. Cumberland Basin

Marckinetic and Kid Krishna, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024
Marckinetic and Kid Krishna, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024

Marckinetic and Kid Krishna have been having a rather productive spring following what might be described as a reasonably lean winter. This collaborative pair of pieces, sharing a background and elements of a colour palette, is on the long wall at Cumberland Basin.

Marckinetic, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024
Marckinetic, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024

To the left Marckinetic has written the letters FFS, which would be difficult to know if you didn’t already know, if you know what I mean. His trademark galactic space cloud kind of fill is incorporated in the letters and the semicircle, to great effect. He has also painted a very nice black shadow, in the same mode as often used by Acer One. This is a creative and, as ever, interesting piece.

Kid Krishna, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024
Kid Krishna, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024

Kid Krishna, who has recently changed his Instagram account to @name_dropin, has been smashing it of late, and here he is again with one of his CRIE pieces so full of colour and interest in a fairly abstract presentation. I particularly like the ‘canyon’ at the bottom of the piece. I have so many unpublished pieces by Kid Krishna in my archive, and I am trying to figure out how I can post them all. A very nice collaborative wall.

5892. Cumberland Basin

Mote and Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024
Mote and Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024

It looks like the dynamic duo, Mr Crawls and Mote, are going to keep us entertained for some time to come, as their collaborations keep popping up all around the city, and as they paint more often together, they appear to be bouncing ideas off one another to bring about some convergent evolution of styles.

Mote, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024
Mote, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024

In these two utility box pieces, the artists have retreated a little back to their original identities, and the discrete nature of the boxes lend themselves to this separation. Mote has painted one of his friendly monster faces on a chrome background (the pair’s background of choice it seems) in his favoured pastel shades. Boldness juxtaposed with modesty – a good look.

Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024
Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024

On the adjacent utility box, Mr Crawls has seized the opportunity to paint one of his birds, I think this one is an eagle wearing a bucket/pork pie hat. Both pieces have omitted pupils in the eyes, leaving the characters with a bit of a ghostly or ambiguous expression, a deliberate move to leave the viewer a little unsettled perhaps? Great stuff from this pair.

5890. Cumberland Basin

Andy Council and Acer One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024
Andy Council and Acer One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024

You can definitely tell that spring is in the air when Acer One and Andy Council start teaming up with their wonderful collaborations, and this is one of a couple of recent walls they have painted in the Cumberland Basin area. Their contrasting styles are blended together perfectly in this piece, which really is an outstanding work.

Andy Council and Acer One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024
Andy Council and Acer One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024

Andy Council’s dragon, stitched together out of hundreds of detailed component parts, is on its own quite stunning, but when combined with Acer One’s geometric 3D cube and double impossible triangles, is utterly magnificent. This piece is a triumph, even by the high standards of the two artists, and has been painted in a spot that is likely to remain undisturbed for a while, so if you live in Bristol it is well worth a visit.