Face – Page 3 – Natural adventures

6633. M32 roundabout J3 (647)

Zake, M32 roundabout, Bristol, December 2024

This cartoon portrait piece by Zake embraces the spirit of Christmas in the subtlest way, with a tiny little Father Christmas hat jauntily perched on the character’s head. It was painted as the central part of a PWA Christmas celebration triptych, sandwiched between Face 1st and Soap.

As ever, Zake has achieved an incredible 3D effect in this piece using his well-practised skill of using light and shade, and in this example, using different colours to achieve these contrasts. As a result, the face pops out from the wall in an incredible way. I am really pleased that the PWA crew took the time to spread a little joy this Christmas.

6488. M32 Cycle path (277)

Morag, Frome Side, Bristol, October 2024

It is a really long time since I last saw anything new from Moran, so I was very pleased to find this small column piece under the M32. When artists go quiet for months on end, I start to wonder what has happened, have they moved away, started a family, become really busy at work or simply lost their mojo? Sometimes I get to find out, but mostly it remains a mystery.

Morag is known for painting faces with a distinctive continuous line that makes up the features, and bold solid fills. The addition of the word ‘twisted’ adds interest and intrigue. This is a nice return to the streets, and I hope to see more before too long, it has been a long wait.

6469. St Werburghs tunnel (454)

Face 1st and Zake, St Werburghs, Bristol, October 2024

I have an early start tomorrow to catch the right tide, and so am writing this post late last night, after a long day… forgive any incoherence. This is a wonderful collaboration from Face 1st and Zake in the tunnel, which I think was augmented by Chill, but his piece wasn’t there when I photographed the collaboration.

Face 1st, St Werburghs, Bristol, October 2024

The piece on the left is a happy girl laughing face by Face 1st, a classic from the artist. I learned a short while ago that he has moved to Herefordshire, so I expect we won’t be seeing quite so much of his work in the city as we have been used to , but he reassured me that he is not all that far away and will of course visit. He seemed to be very happy with his move, which is a good thing.

Zake, St Werburghs, Bristol, October 2024

To the right is a fabulous and rather sinister character by Zake, painted in his inimitable style. The light blue shading of the lower surfaces of the face are inspirational, creating an amazing light effect. The pointy nose and large canines point to an evil persona, or at least that is how it comes across. Some great fun from the PWA pair.

6435. Dean Lane skate park (766)

Zake and Werm, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2024

I wrote in a post recently that Zake appears to be at his happiest when he is collaborating with others, and here he is teaming up with Werm to create this integrated collaborative piece in the Deaner. Worm’s symmetrical writing has been somewhat disrupted by a mouthwatering (literally) cartoon portrait piece by Zake.

The colours are all a bit muted because I took the photograph in the late afternoon, and the wall was in the shade. Sometimes collaborations like this don’t work too well, because the elements don’t integrate very well, but in this instance I think the pair have done really well here and the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Nice work.

6357. Dean Lane skate park (748)

Katie Fishlock, Dean Lane, Bristol, August 2024

Katie Fishlock produces small, bold and really impactful pieces, and although she doesn’t create street art work all that often, you certainly know when she has produced a new piece – you generally can’t miss them.

This bright piece is on one of the ramps at Dean Lane skate park, a spot she has favoured before. The piece is more of a statement stamp than anything else. It says ‘Thirsty’ and there is a drop of water landing between bright red lips of a horizontal face profile. Impactful and mildly sensual. Great work from Katie Fishlock.

6265. Purdown (65)

I met Hardie while he was painting at Upfest, and what a friendly fellow he is. Although I think I have only ever posted one or two of his pieces on Natural Adventures, he seemed to know who I was and was familiar with my blog, which was most encouraging.

The Bristol-based artist doesn’t tend to paint the streets all that often the odd shutter or wall here or there but rarely in the popular hotspots, so it was a super surprise to find two of his pieces side by side in the wartime gun emplacement. His characteristic character portraits are made up of a patchwork of crosshatches, creating a really interesting effect. As you can see from these two pieces, Hardie uses a stencil to create his faces, and it also demonstrates how using different colours can create a different look from essentially the same template. What a pleasure to come across these rarities.

6245. Cumberland Basin

Unknown artist, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2024

It is rare for me to post pieces by unknown artists, although it is something I should do more often, because there are many unattributed beauties in my archives that are waiting to be shared. I guess that sometimes artists are experimenting with painting walls and perhaps a little wary or lacking in confidence to leave a signature behind.

I love this portrait piece and have felt compelled to post it. All the elements are there and the proportions pretty good. The lines for the neck and collar bones, look very studied to me and I would guess that the artist is probably studying or has studied art. The hair curl is reminiscent of Inkie’s work, which is a compliment of high order. I would love to see more from this anonymous artist and will be keeping an eye out.

6094. Frome Side (35)

Hurrah, for Bloem. Her drive and creativity are something to admire, and as she progresses her confidence seems to grow. I had been aware of this portrait piece under the M32 for a while and hoping that it would still be there by the time I got round to visiting the spot, which I can only do without the dog.

The stylised portrait piece sees Bloem significantly extending her boundaries, and while there are many things to improve on, this one reminds me of some of the early work of Hazard, Pekoe and Rhozi (Rozalita), which is encouraging to say the least. The portrait is unusual and rather compelling, and is bookended with a rather nice design on the left and her name on the right. As I have said many times before, I really like her work, and feel excited each time I come across a new one.

6000. Cumberland Basin

Zake, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, April 2024

It feels quite satisfying to reach another landmark on Natural Adventures. This is the 6,000th post featuring graffiti/street art, and that is a lot of art and a lot of words too. The first piece I wrote about was on 16 July 2015 on Park Street by an unknown artist, and was a temporary installation rather than a painted wall, little did I know then that I would still be posting street art nine years later. Today’s landmark piece comes courtesy of Zake.

The face piece is unmistakably by Zake, and although I don’t think it is one of his best pieces in terms of artwork, it is nonetheless striking and demands more than a cursory glance. A face appears to be emerging from a mask which is split down the middle, but the proportions of the mask don’t quite work for me. As ever, the skill with using light and shadow to create depth and texture is Zake’s forte, and the central brown face in particular is wonderfully crafted. Onward to the next 6,000!

5958. Dean Lane skate park (708)

Awkward tends to drop his pieces in twos and threes, which is something he can easily do because his mega-tag characters are generally quite small. On this occasion he painted one on the door at the bottom right-hand end of Dean Lane and the other on the wall of the swimming pool, about 50 meters apart.

This door is a candidate for the One Wall, Many Faces series of posts which I will get on to when I have a bit of spare time (thumbs diary, that’ll be 2029 then). Awkward has created a vision in yellow, with vibrant blue eyes and speech bubble set on a gorgeous black and red background. The characters he paints are a little bit on the eccentric, some might say, weird side, but they are distinctive and compelling.

The character on the swimming pool wall uses the same three colours which are rotated, so the face is blue, the eyes and background yellow and the speech bubbles red. The writing in the speech bubbles is usually a signature, AWK WARD split over two lines, and in this piece he has included a year date ’24’. It is always a great bonus to find his work.

	bushboy on Thursday doors – 19 Febr…
	skat on Mozart balls
	Suzette Benjamin on Thursday doors – 19 Febr…
	Dan Antion on Thursday doors – 19 Febr…
	Sheree on Thursday doors – 19 Febr…

	bushboy on Thursday doors – 19 Febr…
	skat on Mozart balls
	Suzette Benjamin on Thursday doors – 19 Febr…
	Dan Antion on Thursday doors – 19 Febr…
	Sheree on Thursday doors – 19 Febr…

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