In my view, street art and graffiti writing always look nicer on a buffed wall, although I’m sure that some purists would probably disagree with that. In this instance I think it holds true, and Mudra’s graffiti writing is presented beautifully.
Mudra, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2022
Mudra has found a new level recently, and is constantly developing his letters, incorporating characters and looking at new shapes and designs. His work is along the lines of other artists whose letters each have a separate look and feel, the master of which is SkyHigh. I am definitely enjoying observing Mudra’s work develop.
You don’t get to see pieces by SPZero76, outside of festivals or commissions, as often as a few years ago, so stumbling across one was both a rare and joyful occasion. This recent piece was part of a collaborative wall, marking the first anniversary of the death of producer and rapper MF Doom.
SPZero76, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2022
SPZero76’s take on this anniversary was to paint a cartoon-style version of Marvel villain Dr Octopus asking ‘what’s a Doom?’. This is a hilarious piece and perfectly painted, sharp and clean, and just the kind of thing we are so privileged to see in Bristol. It would be great to see more of these casual pieces about the place from SPZero76.
Visiting artists are always welcome in Bristol, and how nice it is to see a calligraffiti artist to add to the talents of Stivs and Todoaciem. There is something appealing about writing beautiful letters in beautiful fonts, with accuracy and attention to detail, and Elroy has done a particularly fine job here.
Elroy, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2022
The letters are nicely proportioned, although I wonder if the ‘r’ and ‘o’ could be a little closer to each other. The addition of a twisted rope and a framed pink background add a crispness to the whole piece. I would love to see more from this sign-writer murallist.
A quick one today – there is a lot going on in the real world – it is not every day that the worst Prime Minister ever resigns, and it felt for a little while late night that he never would.
Zake has been on fire this year, and due to his productivity rate, some of his pieces have been painted over by the time I have got to them. I got to this one in time, at least.
Zake, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2022
This piece is a fairly typical Zake face with all the fabulous touches he brings to the shadows of the face, giving the whole thing depth and a 3D quality. I suspect that this was rather a ‘quick one’ but nicely finished nonetheless.
Anyone who reads these posts regularly will know that I consider Dibz to be one of the best wildstyle writers, in Bristol and indeed in the country. In this outstanding piece in Dean Lane he has combined his talents with the elusive Ulow, who treats us to his talents from time to time.
Ulow and Dibz, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2022
The letters, in a dazzling transition from yellow to dark red, spell out DIBZ. The letters are so clean and crisp, and the fades between shades so seamless, there are few words that can describe the expertise on show. Just to cap it all, the pink highlights at the bottom of some of the letters create the most fantastic 3D effect of reflected light. Just brilliant.
Ulow, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2022
The character, I am guessing it is Wolverine, is by Ulow, and demonstrates his fantastic shading skills that give his pieces a soft, rounded appearance, almost organic. Ulow is definitely an artist whose street art work I’d like to see more of.
I have an unwritten rule about taking pictures of street art, and it that one should always take a picture when you have the opportunity, even if the light is bad, or there are obstructions, because when you return to the spot, for a cleaner shot, it might have been overpainted. These photographs of a recent Stiff piece in Dean Lane have dappled sunlight across them, but they are the only pictures I have, it didn’t last long and wasn’t there when I went back.
Stiff, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2022
I was lucky enough to meet Stiff for the first time just over a week ago, while he was painting with the Bristol Womxn Mural Collective in Cumberland Basin, and he confirmed to me that he enjoys painting monsters and using the colour green. Stiff doesn’t paint very often, so the chances of meeting him are rather slight. This piece, like his others, is creative, fun and monsterish, and painted with a lightness of touch that is without pretension. Another one for the collection of beasts.
Once again, the famous curved wall in Dean Lane gets a makeover by Ceus, who seems to have really taken to Dean Lane for his artwork. It will be interesting to see if he will start to spread his wings (literally-metaphorically-artistically), further afield and starts spreading his talent along the M32 or in the tunnel etc.
Ceus, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2022
You can be sure that when Ceus paints, he will be turning up the dial on his colour selections and creating a piece of beauty. His letters spell out Ceus and feature the pair of wings we see in much of his work. It would be quite interesting to introduce Ceus to Tom Miller and Paul Monsters… what an explosion of colour that would be.
A recent visit to Bristol by Goldie and Posea was enough to draw some of Bristol’s best artists, 3Dom, Dibz and Shade One, together to create a magnificent collaborative wall in Dean Lane, a couple of weeks ago. The end result is something quite magnificent and a wall that will last long in the memory, and might well remain in situ for quite some time, as there will be lots of respect for it.
Shade One, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2022
The left-hand side of the wall is propped up with this wonderful portrait piece from Shade One. I don’t know if I might be imagining it, but recently Shade One’s style has moved from a cartoony style to a more photorealistic style, and he seems to have raised his level considerably.
Shade One, Goldie and 3Dom, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2022
The left side of the wall features three artists, Shade One, Goldie, with the writing (SAKUKO) and 3Dom with the fantasy and rather fantastical landscape of mushrooms and snail thing. I understand that the two pieces of graffiti writing are names of two of Goldie’s children.
3Dom, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2022
The 3Dom snail with a house for a shell is crazy and imaginative, but I have seen him paint this house a few times before, and I wonder if there is some significance to it. The snail is magnificent, and the eyes are beautifully painted – I’m not too sure what it all means though.
Goldie, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2022
The second piece of Goldie Graffiti writing spells out CHANCE, the name of his daughter, and is in a style more reminiscent of his writing in St Werburghs tunnel a few months ago. There is a flag sticking out of the ‘a’ with the word bleu on it – another mystery of the piece.
Dibz and Posea, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2022
The right-hand side of the wall is rounded off with some superb writing from Dibz and a hand with a lighter by Posea. Both of these elements are superbly painted, as you’d expect, and the flame from the lighter acts as a bridge between the two halves of the collaboration.
Posea, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2022
I don’t know much about Posea at all, other than that he comes from Sheffield and judging from his Instagram feed is a hugely talented and productive street artist. This hand holding a lighter is outstanding, but the flame takes it to another level. Since I photographed this piece, I have seen another of his pieces in Bristol which is equally impressive. I hope he can return soon to share the joy again.
I genuinely thought that this wall would become redundant when work began on redeveloping the building about a year ago, a suspicion exacerbated when they put some windows in the wall. My fears may have been unfounded, as the wall appears to be intact and has regular makeovers, many of them quite fantastic, like this PWA collaborative wall from a short while ago.
Face 1st, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2022
The three artists are Face 1st, Chill and Soap, and together they have created an upbeat and rather fun triptych. Face 1st on the left ha painted one of his traditional smiling face characters whose hair is made up of the letters FACE – full of joy.
Chill, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2022
In the middle, Chill has created one of his cartoon-style line drawings with quite a story going on. I don’t know what the story is, but it includes a bird, a rose and a scroll with the artist’s name on it. More mischief and fun.
Soap, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2022
To the right is Soap’s contribution in which he continues the colour selections, backfilling his letters spelling SOAP and featuring (a many of his posts do) the Ice King from Adventure Time – a cartoon series that sadly passed me by. Nice work from this PWA trio.
A little bit of a milestone today for Natural Adventures – this is the 500th post from Dean Lane skate park, and we mark it with a small and slightly weird piece from Sprat. Any fish-based street art will always get my seal of approval, and there is something about the bonkersness of this piece that really tickles me.
Sprat, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2022
This is only the second piece I have posted by Sprat, but I am certain that there will be many more to come. The fish has legs and is running. It is quite a straightforward piece, contained within a black border. I think the impact of the piece that it is an unusual image, out of the ordinary, and therefore eye-catching. The location on a raised section of wall also adds to the quirkiness of it. I’ll be on the lookout for more from Sprat.
Natural adventures 