This piece fills me with inspiration and belief, and there is a very good reason for that, it was painted by a street art hunter just like me, and better still, I caught him at it. Some readers will know that I am trying to learn the great art of spray painting and have aspirations to paint a wall or two when I am ready. It is great for me to know that it can be done and this piece by DFC1848 proves it.
DFC1848, M32 cycle path, Bristol, June 2019
I have met DFC1848 several times either at Upfest or just wandering arount the street art hotspots in Bristol. We always stop for a chat, but the chat we had when he was painting this lasted a little longer than usual. I am full of admiration for the fact that he has just got on with it and it fills me with courage and purpose for getting my act together.
DFC1848, M32 cycle path, Bristol, June 2019
I don’t know what his character is called, but it is a rather splendid cartoon-style bear thing. I rather like the ‘f’ too and wonder if it has anything to do with the f in DFC. I might try and copy this on my boards in the garden and see if I can replicate it. Great work from a man with a fantastic beard.
Doors 75 – A walk along the River Avon cycle path.
Last Sunday was Father’s Day, and I took the opportunity to be a little self-indulgent and go off on a street art hunt to parts of Bristol city I haven’t been to before. I think that wandering around aimlessly, whether in an urban or rural setting is one of my favourite things. No plan, no map, no directions, just looking around and exploring keeping my eyes open and spotting things that might interest me.
This type of exploring is best done alone, because it involves a lot of side tracks and doubling back which could prove tiresome for any companions.
I decided to drop down onto a cycle path which runs alongside the River Avon (literally river river… Avon is derived from a word abon which means river or Afon in Welsh). The cycle path is sandwiched between the river and the backs of buildings on an industrial estate. On the opposite bank is the Paintworks, which is a reconstructed industrial estate full of rather fancy industrial/business units. The cycle path side is definitely the less salubrious of the banks.
I found a fair amount of graffiti, most of it just tagging, and an awful lot of industrial unit fire escape doors, none of which looked like they had been used in years. I share those doors with you now. I don’t expect a lot of love for these doors, but they are doors, I saw them and feel it is only fair to post them.
Rather bright yellow door, River Avon cycle path, Bristol, June 2019Warehouse rear door, River Avon cycle path, Bristol, June 2019Charmingly decorated fire exit door to a warehouse, River Avon cycle path, Bristol, June 2019Door painted by Sirens, River Avon cycle path, Bristol, June 2019Overgrown fire exit door, River Avon cycle path, Bristol, June 2019
there was a bit of a contrast with the opposite bank, which had rather a wide margin of brackish plants spreading down onto the mud (the tide was out), and hosted a fair amount of wildlife including these Canada geese.
On the other side of the River Canada Geese graze in the thick estuarine mud, River Avon cycle path, Bristol, June 2019
So that is another week of doors gone by, maybe soon I’ll find some rather more attractive doors to post, but don’t bank on it.
If you’d like to see more doors take a good look at the Norm 2.0 blog – the originator  of Thursday Doors where there are links to yet more doors in the comments section at the end.
Ok, so another debut on Natural Adventures, this time a piece by Bnie. I have been aware of her work for quite a while and have several of her pieces in my archive (I’ll have to dig them out now, having broken the ice), but have just never posted any of them until now.
Bnie, M32 cycle path, Bristol, June 2019
I believe she might have a Welsh connection, as I have seen her work alongside Smak before and also when Welsh crews come over to paint in Bristol her work is sometimes among them. She has a lovely touch and style to her work and this piece is beautifully filled. I wish I could do what these guys do, it just looks so good. I look forward to sharing more of her pieces and trying to find out a little bit more about her.
Another tremendous piece of writing from Smak along the M32 cycle path from a few weeks back. In some of his more recent pieces I have noticed that he is going for this style of blocking out letters in different ways, along similar lines to SkyHigh, and here, the M and A in particular are outstanding.
Smak, M32 cycle path, Bristol, May 2019
All the letters are blended and yet individual, clever work, but for me the jewel in the crown is the box around the A and circle around the M which make this piece extra special. I had difficulty photographing this piece, because it was very bright every time I visited, and the way the light falls in this alleyway makes photography really tricky. Yet another outstanding work from Smak.
I have only met Ugar once and I remember him being a quiet and affable fellow. His work seems to crop up in all the main spots around Bristol, but this is the first piece I have seen along the M32 cycle path. Until recently, this spot became a bit of a ‘dead’ area because a tract of the path had been fenced off for development work. Since it re-opened about a month ago, turnover here has increased dramatically.
Ugar, M32 cycle path, Bristol, May 2019
Ugar, in my view, has an extraordinary talent for filling his letters. His writing tends to be fairly organic and un-uniform, which makes it identifiable, but it is his unique variety of fills that scream out a Ugar piece. Always good and always interesting.
The street art posts I bring you here on Natural Adventures are only a fraction of the total that appear on the streets of Bristol every day. My archives swell under the sheer volume of photographs and our computer barely functions due, in part, to disc space issues (time for a new one?). This means that I have to be reasonably selective about what I post, and this piece on my first trawl was marginal, because I have so many Soap pieces.
Soap, M32 cycle path, Bristol, May 2019
On a further inspection though it made the cut. I think that it is a wonderful piece, but the colours somehow send the whole thing into the background and if you weren’t on the ball you could easily miss this piece and walk straight on by. A lovely crown and halo, and ‘hair made of Soap tags. Glad I pulled this one out of the folder and posted it.
Rezwonk is another Bristol artist who has been rather busy on the streets lately, bombing here and there, tagging this and that and creating these rather decorative ‘designer’ burners, either in collaborations or as in this case, solo.
Rezwonk, M32 cycle path, Bristol, April 2019
Rezwonk has perfected the art of straight line stripes, which I think he does freehand. I like his work, and I have been posting it for about a year or so now. I’m not entirely sure how much street work he was doing before that, but it is difficult to go to any spot in Bristol now that doesn’t have a little signature from this artist.
