Mr Draws is one of the most enduring and endearing artists in Bristol. His writing is familiar, albeit unconsciously, to any Bristolian who keeps their eyes open, and has been for several years. This large piece in Cumberland Basin is a cracker, which reminds m a little of a koi carp.
Mr Draws, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2024
This is a very nice piece of writing from Mr Draws, with his typical letter shapes, a nice deep drop shadow and some nice fills. The gold ‘A’ draws the eye, and I have noticed a few pieces lately that have contained a gold letter… perhaps it is a thing. This is a fine piece from a fine artist.
Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2024
One of the nicest surprises of 2023 has been the rise and rise of Mr Crawls, whose bird pieces have become a familiar sight all around the city. More recently, he has teamed up with Mote to produce some great fun pieces that work so well, each painting in their own style, which somehow come together seamlessly.
Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2024
At first, I thought that Mr Crawls might be a bit of a one-trick-pony, but far from it, he has been modifying his characters and switching them up as he goes along. This solo bird has a comical cartoon expression, that Mr Crawls manages to paint so well. I predict another bumper year from this irrepressible artist.
Abbie Laura Smith, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, December 2023
Vigorously waving the banner for paste-ups in Bristol, pretty much single-handedly, is Abbey Laura Smith with her intriguing black and white portraits. Regular readers of Natural Adventures will know that I am an admirer of paste-ups or wheatpastes, and will drone on about how we just don’t see many in the city these days. This niche art form must not be confused with bill posters, which in my view are a plague, driven by the selfish interests of advertising for a product or a cause – they (in my very humble view) are not art in themselves despite being illustrated in most cases by graphic designers or artists, but are tomorrow’s litter, and today’s eyesore. Well we all have opinions, and that is mine, so there!
Abbie Laura Smith, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, December 2023
Wheatpasting is as much about the siting of the piece as the art itself, and Abbie Laura Smith has done a great job in thinking about the placement of this portrait on a utility box in Cumberland Basin. The artwork itself is a clean and crisp line drawing of a pretty lady, with some nice ‘graffiti drips’ at the base. I hope that Abbie’s efforts encourage a revival of this lost art in Bristol.
All in all, 2023 was a very good year for Laic217, with 18 pieces featured in Natural Adventures, some of which I would rate as his best pieces to date. This piece features a skull character wearing a devil mask, I mean why not? I also got lucky that I photographed it on an overcast day, as this wall can be very tricky to capture when the sun is out.
Laic217, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, December 2023
Everything you’d expect to find from a classy Laic217 piece is here… the skull, something of the grotesque and threatening, the devil mask which is suspended by a gold chain, a bucket hat and of course outstanding folds in the fabric of the characters’ clothes. You can see a large gallery of Laic217’s magnificent work here.
Bnie and Unity, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, November 2023
So far this year I have only found one Christmas piece and this collaboration from Bnie and Unity is it. The fabulous duo were painting alongside several other members of the RBF crew during a paint jam in support of the people of Palestine. This piece is absolutely draped in Christmas good cheer.
Bnie, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, November 2023
To the left, Bnie has painted her letters in a festive silver colour with a string of Christmas lights weaving in and out of them. The Palestinian flag features prominently and Father Christmas does what Father Christmas does to the right. I think that Bnie painted him, but equally it might have been Unity.
Unity, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, November 2023
Unity has been visiting Bristol a little more frequently recently and that can only be a good thing as it means we get to see more of her brilliant work. Unity continues the themes and colours that Bnie has adopted, with the only real difference being a splash of gold in the ‘I’ of Unity. Another Palestinian flag indicates firmly that the public mood in Bristol, which this art reflects, is with the innocent people of Palestine, who played no part in the Hamas attack but are paying an unimaginably high price by the Israeli response to it. Let us hope for and demand peace in the region.
Sait Bare, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, September 2023
My train journey to London continues and the service is heaving. Christmas shopping and football matches have swelled the normal Sunday passenger numbers, but somehow I have managed to keep my unreserved seat beyond Chippenham, so I think I am safe. The above might not make much sense if it is not read in sequence from the previous two posts (5703 and 5704).
Sait Bare, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, September 2023
This is the second piece by Sait Bare that I have posted on Natural Adventures, although I think it was painted before the first. I am still acquainting myself with his work, and as he doesn’t appear to paint very regularly, I am still forming my thoughts about his style and execution. This is a fine piece of writing/character combination work, and the border lines and details are very nice and sharp. The letter fills too are really nicely done with some great fades and ‘gaseous’ patterning. The character is quite straightforward with a quirky appearance. All good, and I look forward to seeing more from Sait Bare in the New Year.
Desi, Lupa, Pekoe and Evey, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, November 2023
The Resting Bitch Face (RBF) crew have been seriously busy this year, and giving PWA a good run for their money. In this recent paint jam, the ladies have shown their support for the people of Palestine, by incorporating the colours of the Palestinian flag into the piece. There have been so many protest pieces about the war in Palestine, and as I have mentioned many times before, street art captures the mood of the moment and provides a running social commentary, which I have the privilege of photographing and recording before it disappears under ever-increasing layers of paint. This grouping of four of the artists, Desi, Lupa, Pekoe and Evey was in addition to others from RBF (posts to follow).
Desi, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, November 2023
On the left, Desi ha painted another of her VEIL pieces, and it now feels like an eternity since she last painted DESI – she appears to have well and truly moved on. Her colours are those that are adopted across the whole collaboration, namely chrome and gold, a very striking combination. This is a nice tidy piece from Desi, enhanced with some pink and purple spots and circles around the writing.
Lupa, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, November 2023
Lupa, I guess like all the RBF artists, is painting more often, and I am enjoying seeing more of her work about the place. This is a nice tidy piece incorporating her trademark ‘U’ character – her work certainly lends itself to the saying ‘less is more’, where her big fat letters with simple designs, hit home. A little bit more practice with her white boundary lines would lift the whole thing to another level.
Pekoe, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, November 2023
Pekoe has been turning out some exceptional work this autumn/winter, and this portrait is right out of the top drawer. There are minimal decorations on the face, which is a simple solid gold face with features picked out in black. The lips are painted with the Palestinian flag, and the colours are repeated as peace symbols around the portrait. The highlight of the piece for me is the bunches, studded with gold balls – it just looks brilliant and is a really memorable image.
Evey, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, November 2023
Finally, Evey, whose work has stepped up a level this year, has painted a clean and crisp piece with some fabulous features. Evey has chosen to write all her letters in chrome and to accompany them with some golden touches to bring them to life, including a crown and an exclamation mark, the dot of which has the colours of Palestine. A nice red, white and green RBF rounds off the right-hand end of this impressive wall. Bravo RBF!
Sait Bare, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, October 2023
Another debut on Natural Adventures – there seem to have been dozens of these this year – this time from Sait Bare, and it is quite some introduction. There is an awful lot going on in this busy piece of heavily disguised writing, but have a closer look, and you can start to unpick the piece.
Sait Bare, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, October 2023
The letters spell SAIT, although they are disrupted by two contrasting horizontally placed colour palettes. One scheme is made up of purples blues and reds and the other with chrome and blues with DayGlo green cosmic borders that looks like it has crashed down from above. The overall effect is stunning, if not a little confused. Possibly not one for those not well acquainted with graffiti writing. I’ll be looking out for more from Sait Bare.
I have managed to confuse myself with my pipeline of pieces in preparation for posting. This was meant to be a graffiti writing piece by Smak at Sparke Evans Park, but something has gone wrong with my system, so it is in fact this wonderful writing /character piece by Haka in Cumberland Basin.
Haka, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, October 2023
In this piece, we see Haka returning to Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler for inspiration with this brilliantly recreated witch from their book ‘Room on the Broom’. The writing demonstrates an interesting feature of paint quality. The red fills, there are two have different strengths. The upper red is strong and requires only one coat. The lower red is thinner and unless several coats are applied, the patterns already on the wall will come through. This happens a lot with yellow colours too. There is usually a little guide on the spray can that tells you the strength of the paint. This would explain why some paint cans run out much quicker than others. One solution is to buff the wall first, but Haka rarely does that. Really nice work from Haka.
It is always a huge and genuine pleasure to see work by T-Rex, and to know that she manages to find time to paint occasionally, which is probably very good for her own contentment, and definitely makes me and other admirers of her work happy.
T-Rex, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, October 2023
This piece which appeared about a month after her last one in this spot follows the same format of the letters TREX and the end of the ‘X’ incorporating a dinosaur character. The piece as a whole is very nicely finished, and the colours and fills full of vibrancy and energy. Fun, joy and humour come across very strongly in this piece, and are characteristic of much of T-Rex’s wonderful work.
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