Enn Kay or NAK, has been knocking it out of the park lately and massively expanded his portfolio of characters in a very short space of time, adding strength to the maxim ‘practice makes perfect’. This piece was painted during Werm’s birthday paint jam and has quite brilliantly adopted the theme colours of blue and pink.
Enn Kay, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, August 2023
In this piece, Enn Kay has painted a blue cartoon rabbit, looking rather Disney to me, holding a pink spray can, which he has been using to paint the letters NAK. This is a common construct in street art, in which the protagonist has painted a part of the piece in which they exist. This is a beautifully finished piece that sits snugly with the others in this collaboration.
There are artists whose progress is slow and steady and there are others who have accelerated through the levels, hitting many highs along the way, and one of those is DFC1848. Over the last few years, DFC1848 has progressed from toying with ideas to turning out sharp, clean original character pieces that sit comfortably alongside anyone, and this piece is a great example of that.
DFC1848, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, August 2023
The growling wolf was painted during Werm’s birthday celebration paint jam, and was a stand-out piece, dutifully adopting the theme colours of pink and blue. The design itself is really cool, and technically it is a bit of a beast, with loads of cutting in to achieve all those crisp sharp points. A lovely piece from an artist who clearly enjoys his work.
Conrico has been very present on the streets of Bristol lately, which is great news for people like me who appreciate the incredible, ever-changing gallery of free art in the city. His unique ‘painted’ style is unlike anything else around, and has a comforting, organic feel to it.
Conrico, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, August 2023
This piece was painted as part of the birthday celebration paint jam for Werm, and shows a girl sitting on some giant petals (or she is a very small person). The piece has a mysterious ethereal quality to it and conveys a sense of calm. Very nice stuff indeed from Conrico.
I reckon that for every piece by Phour that I include in Natural Adventures, there are probably two or three that remain in my archives. This is unfortunate, because I like his work very much, there is something about the letter form that works very well for me. The strong ‘P’ is a great way to start the word.
Phour, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2023
In this piece, Phour has gone for chrome letters with a black 3D drop shadow and yellow border, simple and effective. To add a bit of interest and lift the letters a little, Phour has added a marble effect and some cracks that mimic a stone surface. The fill bleeds from letter to letter, creating a large slab of writing. A lovely piece well finished.
Cumberland Basin is a bit of a generic area name that I use to describe quite a large space north of the bridge over the River Avon. This particular piece from Mote is on the Eastern edge of the Cumberland Basin area, adjacent to one of the very large warehouses that fringe this part of the river.
Mote, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2023
The large piece is another bird-monster character, this time double-ended and with a fluffy thing in the middle. I am not too sure the middle section works too well, as it interrupts the flow through the creature. Mote might have added it in to fill the space, but more conventional patterns and colours might have done the job. It is clear that the middle section is by Mote, but it looks like it could have been a creative addition by a different artist altogether. Still an immensely enjoyable piece though.
Susannah Peacock, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2023
Susannah Peacock is a Bristol artist and illustrator, who, I understand from our conversations, has designed some very successful greetings cards and is also responsible for ‘decorating’ one of the Bristol Unicorns currently on display in the city. Her work is especially appealing to children, having that picture book illustration style.
Susannah Peacock, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2023
The mermaid mural was painted over two or three days of the Bristol Mural Collective’s paint jam a few weeks back. The work in progress shot demonstrated how much work went into the piece. There is no doubt that the BMC paint jams introduce a whole new aspect to the street art scene and gives studio artists the opportunity to express themselves on large outdoor, public ‘canvasses’.
Susannah Peacock, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2023
We live in a crazy world. Technically speaking there are no legal walls in Bristol, and yet it is one of the most decorated cities in the UK. Everyone who paints walls in Bristol without permission is at risk of being arrested. Although a ‘blind-eye’ approach tends to prevail, it doesn’t mean that enforcement doesn’t happen. It would make so much sense to introduce some curated legal walls for so many talented artists to make use of. Maybe one day…
Although this is his debut piece, Scooj needs no introduction on Natural Adventures. He finally got the courage to paint his first wall during a Bristol Mural Collective paint jam a few weeks ago on a warm and very windy afternoon.
Scooj, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2023
To be brutally honest his work probably doesn’t match up to his ambition, but the abstract piece is certainly a little different from most of the work seen in the city. There might be a very good reason for that. Some bright colours distract a little from the overall untidy finishing, but for a first effort the piece is passable.
Scooj, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2023
Scooj is not an artist, and so it will be vital to practice his spray skills and hand control, and come up with designs he can execute. This piece is a little muddled, and the ‘holes’ cut through the yellow might be perceived as moons. My advice to Scooj would be don’t give up just yet, keep practising and hit a few more walls. Hats off to the Bristol Mural Collective for creating a gateway for new artists to have a go at painting in a fun and safe environment.
The first time I saw this piece from Acer One, I was puzzled by it, because it was a simple black piece of writing, and if I am perfectly honest I was slightly underwhelmed. I was also being incredibly thick, because it was a work in progress, and a few days later he returned to complete it. It turns out that the black was the shadow, and I should have known that. It also provides a little insight into how Acer One layers his work.
Acer One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, May 2023
The writing says ‘it’s all love’, which I think most people could probably rally behind. The letters adopt Acer One’s favoured colour palettes of the moment, showing the light spectrum sequence of colours. Appropriate too, perhaps, as we mark Pride Month, which I am guessing this piece might have been a precursor to.
Acer One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2023
It is always great to see Acer One’s work, and he has made this particular spot his own. I thought I’d include this shot of my dog’s rear end for good measure.
One of the refreshing things about the Bristol Mural Collective paint jams is that most of the pieces created are murals predominantly painted with materials other than spray cans, which brings a whole other dimension to the spectrum of styles and techniques used to paint our walls. This is a moody mother earth piece from Urban Fay.
Urban Fay, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2023
I am always likely to enjoy environmental pieces, and this one hits the spot. A reclining figure melds into the hillside while a red sun sets on the horizon with telegraph poles hugging the crest of the hill. There are some words to the right of the piece which say. “Suffering a sea change, we rearrange into entirely new shapes”. The female figure’s tears join the river that meanders down the contours of her face to the sea.
Urban Fay, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2023
Zooming in, there is detail so small on the figure’s face in the form of tiny little fir trees. This is an unusual piece, which we would be unlikely to see without the great organising skills of Nina Raines and the Bristol Mural Collective.
The Bristol Mural Collective, formerly the Bristol Womxn Mural Collective, is a loose aggregation of artists in Bristol, organised by women and with a focus on creating a safe space for women and others to paint on the streets of Bristol. Through their paint jams, they provide an access point for artists to transfer their studio skills to a street scenario, and also for wannabe street artists to gain confidence with expressing themselves and getting a toe hold in the slightly intimidating scene.
The most recent paint jam was held on the 25/26 June 2023 and took up half the long wall at Cumberland Basin, involving some 9 or 10 artists, one of whom was the lovely Esme Lower.
Esme Lower, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2023
Esme Lower’s highly stylised figures are in a yoga pose and have exaggerated hands and feet, and tiny little heads, a theme/concept that Esme told me she enjoys painting. When I watched her roughly half way through painting this superb mural, I wasn’t quite sure how it would all come together, but she absolutely smashed it in my view. The design is one that I could easily see gracing the front of a greetings card or as a wall poster. There is definitely a Matisse influence in there somewhere.
The paint jam was enjoyable if not a little windy, but with superb views of the Clifton Suspension Bridge and the River Avon, it must be one of the best spots for artists in the city.
Natural adventures 